We’ve reported on “sharia chic” before, but this story takes it to a new level. It looks like we have a full blown madrassah in New York City, and they have their own fire-em-up t-shirts on sale:

August 6, 2007 — Activists with ties to the principal of the city’s controversial new Arabic-themed school are hawking T- shirts that glorify Palestinian terror, The Post has learned.

The inflammatory tees boldly declare “Intifada NYC” – apparently a call for a Gaza-style uprising in the Big Apple.

The organization selling the shirts, Arab Women Active in Art and Media, shares office space on Brooklyn’s Third Avenue with the Saba Association of American Yemenis.

Dhabah “Debbie” Almontaser, principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy – which is scheduled to open in Brooklyn next month – is a board member and spokeswoman for Saba.

Read the article — Almontaser shrugs off any connection to “uprising” in a way that’s every bit as convincing as when we hear some jihadist shrug off “jihad” as a purely inner struggle.

Once you’ve read the article, head over to JammieWearingFool to look in on an association that Almontaser can’t just shrug off.

Linda Sarsour is the director of the Arab American Association of New York. In 2005 she organised the Arab American Heritage festival together with her friend Dhabah aka Debbie Almontaser, the principal designate of The Khalil Gibran International Academy. In a 2004 article Sarsour revealed that Arab men pictured in an Arab newspaper recruiting suicide bombers for martyrdom were relatives and friends – one of them was her brother in law who is serving a 12 year sentence for his involvement with Hamas. Sarsour’s husband is facing deportation and she was “questioned by US authorities”. One reason could be that her husband together with his brother and Sarsour’s cousin, may have been involved in Hamas activities as well.

When people associated with Hamas use the word “intifida,” it means intifada — “uprising.”

Update (AP): Will the madrassa be offering a penmanship class?

Update (bp): Surprise, surprise — the school’s principal thinks terrorism is a reaction to US foreign policy, which is raaaacist:

Some of the contention about the Academy surrounds Almontaser’s past political comments such as, “Fundamentalist Muslims were blamed for the terror attacks … I have realized that our foreign policy is racist; in the ‘war against terror’ people of color are the target.”

She has also said, “terrorist attacks have been triggered by the way the USA breaks its promises with countries across the world, especially in the Middle East, and the fact that it has not been a fair mediator with its foreign policy.”

Almontaser was also given an award by the controversial Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and others in Congress have accused of having ties to terrorism.