A Field Trip for High School Students That Should Worry You

Conestoga High School Da'wa Field Trip - Visit Planned To Saudi Dominated, Terror Tied Foundation for Islamic Education

A report from PipeLineNews.org - On November 8, 2007 Conestoga High School students are scheduled to participate in a "mosque visit" to the Foundation for Islamic Education in Villanova, PA. [source, CAIR-PA Offers Ten-part Course on Islam]

The visit is being arranged by the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Saudi funded front group for Hamas. CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the ongoing Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding prosecution, "Federal prosecutors have named three prominent Islamic organizations in America as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to support a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas. Prosecutors applied the label of "unindicted co-conspirator" to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust in connection with a trial planned in Texas next month for five officials of a defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development." [source http://www.nysun.com/article/55778]

The FIE was created by and is managed by the Saudis.
"Organizational Structure, The Foundation for Islamic Education is a private institute owned and managed by its own Board of Trustees in Saudi Arabia." [source, FIE website, page since removed]

FIE functions as a satellite campus of the Al-Azhar University, located in Cairo, Egypt.
"The FIE is in correlation with The American Open University, a satellite campus accredited through Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt." [source FIE website, page since removed]

Al-Azhar is the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is also the alma mater of Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin-Laden's mentor.

FIE's incorporation documents filed with the State of Pennsylvania list the following officers:

Mahmoud Abdullah Taiba, president, Abdullah I. Al-Hobayb, treasurer. [source https://www.corporations.state.pa.us/corp/soskb/Corp.asp?1083508 - Pennsylvania's incorporation filing for FIE]

FIE's directors are Saudis.

"The President of the Board is His Excellency Mahmoud Abdullah Taiba, a member of Majlis Ash-Shura and former Secretary General of Ministry of Energy and Electricity in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia." [source FIE website, page since removed]
Taiba's presence on the Majlis Ash-Shura indicated he is intimately involved in promoting Wahhabism, the fundamentalist Sunni sect which dominates Saudi religious life.

FIE's treasurer is Abdullah I. Al-Hobayb
Al-Hobayb Group has many subsidiaries in various fields. One subsidiary, ABB Contracting Co. Ltd., was established for contracting in the electrical works field, power generation and allied activities on a turnkey basis...ABB Contracting has branches in Dammam, Jeddah, and Al-Khobar and its head office in Riyadh....Eng. Abdullah I. Al-Hobayb, President, P.O. Box 556, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia, Tel: 966-1-479-0100 [source, U.S. Saudi Arabian Business Council website, page since removed]
As noted in previous PipeLineNews articles [Muslim Youth Jihad Camp Returns To Pennsylvania, Complete With Al-Qaeda Linked Cleric, http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=jihadcamp7606.htm] in the past the FIE has hosted youth camps [self-described before 9/11 as "jihad camps"] which included a pro-terrorist speaker, Riyadh Ul Haq

"In the first excerpt, he appears to be extolling the virtues of martyrdom [shahadah]...anyone who supports Muslims who engage in jihad, their blood is made halal [blessed] In a few of the clips there is no mistaking Riyadh ul-Haq's admiration for the Taliban and his disdain for homosexuals...ul-Haq's most questionable comments are reserved for Jews. He seems to repeat conspiracy theories found in the imaginary "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" In another quote, he prays that Allah to expose the Jews for what they truly are and give all Muslims the understanding and the sense to see through their propaganda, their lies, and deceit and to view them as they really are and thus treat them accordingly..." [source, Islamica magazine http://www.islamicamagazine.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=244]

Speakers at other events included:
New Jersey Imam Mazen Mokhtar, who was under investigation for running a mirror website for al-Qaeda. Siraj Wahhaj an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombings and board member of Saudi funded pressure group CAIR. Jamal Badawi who recently justified suicide bombings on the Islamonline forum. Faisal Hamouda, a 'volunteer' for the Islamic Relief 'charity' whose Gaza coordinator was just arrested in Israel on charges of funding Hamas.

Though the discredited CAIR organized this mosque visit, claiming it was designed merely to "provide an insight to Pennsylvania students about their neighbors' faith traditions," this is clearly Islamic da'wa, an effort to convert students to Islam. This event is extremely troubling from a number of perspectives; FIE has direct and fundamental ties to the Saudi Wahhabist religious establishment, the most extreme form of Islam, from which bin-Laden emerged. FIE has a long history of hosting radical Muslim speakers, even calling its events "jihad camps" pre September 11. CAIR's deep involvement itself is in itself highly problematic.

CAIR's tainting influence looms menacingly over this event which was designed as a not very thinly disguised effort to recruit students into the Islamic faith. As such, this "mosque visit" is completely inappropriate in any public school setting and should therefore not go forward.