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A very grim report card for Muslim schools management

Over the past six years, hand-wringing bureaucrats, politicians and a media scared of the label “Islamophobic” have allowed the parasite of institutional corruption to slowly take over its host.

It’s a state of affairs that in two months could prompt chaos: a major high school forced to shut, with the education of its 2400 students thrown into turmoil.

Muslim schools are big business and they are booming. Islamic colleges are the fastest growing schools, with enrolments increasing at a clip nine times faster than their mainstream counterparts. Between 2009 and 2014, Muslim students surged from 15,503 at 32 schools to 28,267 attending 39 schools — an increase of 82 per cent. In contrast, enrolments at all schools grew by just 6 per cent over the same period, to 3.7 million.

There are six schools controlled by Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. They received $42 million from taxpayers in 2013, plus $21.5m for new buildings and other capital works between 2009 and 2013. In 2014 and 2015 this will be at least $45m.

The largest is Malek Fahd Islamic School based in Greenacre in Sydney’s southwest, with 2400 students across three campuses.

The school was due to receive $20m in commonwealth funding this year. But it won’t. Federal education minister Simon Birmingham has ordered funding cut off in April following an audit report from Deloitte, which found serious issues of financial management and governance of all AFIC schools.

Two weeks ago the minister said the excuses from Malek Fahd simply weren’t good enough. Last week the board was forced to resign and the school is in limbo.

Despite the school reassuring parents this week that it has enough funds to remain open, senior education department figures tell The Australian that, without commonwealth funding, Malek Fahd cannot last much longer than a week. As to what happens to its pupils, at this stage nobody can say.

Professional educator Rafaat El-Hajje was principal at Malek Fahd. The nuclear physics PhD lasted six months before he quit in disgust.

“These people have no idea about what governance was or any idea about professional education,” El-Hajje says. “There were about three people who ran the show, and now they’re all fighting among themselves again. But it’s the kids who miss out, it’s the parents and the teachers.”

When he resigned in February 2013 El-Hajje wrote to NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli begging that he freeze its funding until the board was replaced. El-Hajje is highly critical of both state and federal governments: they took too long to act, they didn’t ensure the board was replaced after numerous warnings.

“The government just never pulled the cord on them. They were supposed to pay $9m back and they didn’t. I brought it to their attention, a Queensland principal brought it to their attention. They just didn’t act.”

In its defence the NSW education department says it is monitoring the situation.

El-Hajje blames political and bureaucratic intransigence for failing to act on the corruption that The Australian has documented for six years. “The minister said it wasn’t his problem, the NSW education department said it was board of studies problem, the commonwealth department said it was someone else’s problem. It just got shuffled around. Maybe if they had acted sooner the school wouldn’t be in this position.”

El-Hajje is sceptical of the intentions of some at the school, who might see a closure as a get out of jail free card. “There will be people who think that if the school closes there will be no more investigations into where the money went so maybe they don’t mind.”

The six AFIC schools have 5481 students, a 53 per cent rise in five years. Usually, these schools receive the highest possible funding from governments as they are populated by students from poorer and non-English speaking backgrounds.

Back in 2011 The Australian reported that the AFIC had siphoned off $5.2m worth of funds from the Malek Fahd Islamic School in Sydney.

The day after the report a media release was put out by then AFIC president Ikebal Patel decrying its inaccuracies. It also implied it was driven by an anti-Muslim agenda and demanded an apology and retraction (neither was ever given).

All six AFIC schools have been subjects of media reports and government funding freezes in the past few years. At one point the NSW government even demanded it repay $9m of state funds; a directive the school promptly ignored and challenged in court. Now, it is even contemplating a legal challenge to the withdrawal of the $20m.

Parents like Fazel Qayum and children like his two daughters, both enrolled at Malek Fahd, are paying the price for the behaviour of the school board and the inaction of education authorities. Qayum, a Stanhope Garden local, drives his daughters, Sabah and Sana Qayum, in Years 11 and 4, to MFIS two hours each way because of its “academic reputation”.

“It’s not the children’s fault. The people who misused funds, they’re the ones who should be held responsible. The school belongs to the kids, not the principal,” he says.

“I want the school to run. We live in a society of law and order ... the board should be taken to court. (But) the children should not pay”

His daughter, Sabah Qayum, is in Year 11. “All the students are devastated. I’m in my second last year, the HSC is just (around) the corner)”

To add to the stress of her Higher School Certificate exams is the likelihood she’ll have to find a new school. “Everyone’s worried about not being accepted (into schools)”.

The Australian has obtained the Deloitte report to the government which paints a disturbing picture of what was taking place at Malek Fahd.

Under Australian law, schools must not operate for profit to be considered viable for commonwealth funding.

The Deloitte report confirmed previous reports in The Australian that millions of dollars was siphoned out of the school into AFIC via unexplained “project management” and “accounting and salary services” — seemingly for services that never existed.

There was also evidence of millions in inflated rent for the school land paid to AFIC.

The government’s findings following the Deloitte report were a clear indictment of AFIC and the school board, who were often one and the same.

“Money has not been applied for the purposes of the school or for the function of the authority (Malek Fahd Islamic School Limited), and money has also been distributed (whether directly or indirectly) to an owner of the authority, or any other person,” department of education official Michael Crowther wrote.

“I also consider that the quality of the policies and practices in place for MFISL are inconsistent with the basic requirement for MFISL to be not-for-profit.”

The audit found that over $500,000 was paid by the school to a company Casifarm Pty Ltd, run by school board member and one-time AFIC spokesman Amjad Mehboob. Services it provided could not be clearly identified.

Last year Mehbood and former “business manager” Agim Garana were sacked from the school amid the commonwealth probe in an attempt by AFIC president and school board chairman Hafez Kassem to demonstrate he was cleaning up the school.

In an almost humorous twist, Mehboob appeared on ABC television the same day the funding cut was announced demanding Hafez Kassem step down, seemingly oblivious that his own behaviour included in the Deloitte report that led in part to the commonwealth decision.

Look around the country and the story at other AFIC run schools is no better. Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Perth and Melbourne are beset by governance problems.

The federal minister has recommended the tens of millions in annual commonwealth funding to all other schools be cut if they can’t show cause to be kept open.

At the Islamic College of Brisbane, the audit report found that millions of dollars in loans between AFIC and the school were unaccounted for. The Brisbane school is subject to a Queensland state department and police investigation.

Deloitte found numerous governance failings at the Canberra school, evidence of millions of dollars in unaccounted for loans to AFIC and found the school was barely financially viable.

The Melbourne school is accused of hardline religious teaching and allegedly threatened to send home children who missed morning prayer and Koran recital. Following the audit the commonwealth found the school was not operating as a non-for-profit.

The Islamic College of South Australia is beset with problems, including allegations of inappropriate payments to AFIC. The government found the school failed the “fit and proper person” test as well as the not-for-profit requirements.

Someone who knows all about the nature of the brutal infighting at AFIC is its former president, lawyer Haset Sali. Sali was a founding AFIC president 40 years ago and served as a legal adviser to the Muslim body before the current cabal kicked him out in 2006.

Sali describes the culture at AFIC as “toxic” and AFIC-managed Muslim schools as “tragic”. “These people have exploited the situation to their own advantage while taking advantage of the mainly poorer people who tried to get their children what used to be a good education.”

He says the boards should be sacked, professional administrators appointed and reforms made to mirror more professional independent networks like the Catholic school system.

The qualifications for running a Muslim school are woefully low. Pretty much anyone with a property and desire to set shop can make millions. “Muslim schools do not have that centralisation or professionalism. AFIC schools could contribute but they need to be run properly,” Sali says.

Sali has greater concerns: the way the toxin of corruption can leave a void of ethical Muslim leaders, which can lead young people towards Islamic extremism. “These people have just been taking, giving nothing back and couldn’t care less that we’ve ended up with an Islamic subculture,” Sali says.

“Unfortunately a lot young people don’t know where else to look for guidance, which leads to the rise of unqualified imams and the attraction of groups like IS.”

But come April, the pressing concern will be the education of 2400 students. While the AFIC schools are in the spotlight, at least four other non-AFIC Muslim schools have had their funding frozen in recent years by the NSW department over financial mismanagement, only to have the tap turned on soon after.

El-Hajje takes a dim view of the bulk of the Muslim schools that Malek Fahd students could be forced to go to. “I don’t trust any of these other Muslim schools. They’re intent on empire building and making money.”

Additional reporting: Jennine Khalik

AFIC SCHOOLS UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT

NSW

MALEK FAHD ISLAMIC SCHOOL, SYDNEY

‘Knowledge is light, work is worship’

Established 1989

K-Year 12

Faces closure. The largest Muslim school (2400 students across four campuses) will have $20 million commonwealth funding cease in April after federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham found the school failed to address “significant concerns” relating to financial management and governance. Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Hafez Kassem was chairman of the board.

QUEENSLAND

ISLAMIC COLLEGE OF BRISBANE

‘Seek knowledge — hard work is key to success’

Established 1995

Prep-Year 12

At the centre of police and Queensland Education Department investigations into millions in loans between AFIC and the school. The school of about 500 students is on notice that commonwealth funding will be cut off and it will be forced to close unless it demonstrates governance reform and addresses financial management failings. Kassem was chairman of the school. Deloitte report found money “has not been applied” for school purposes and had been distributed to AFIC.

ACTISLAMIC SCHOOL OF CANBERRA

‘In knowledge lies strength’

Established 2005

Foundation-Year 7

The primary school faces a commonwealth funding freeze that likely will force its closure if it cannot show cause to continue. Deloitte report found numerous governance failings and evidence of millions in unaccounted-for loans to AFIC. It found the school was barely financially viable.

VICTORIA

ISLAMIC COLLEGE OF MELBOURNE

‘Faith, knowledge, success’

Established 2011

Prep-Year 10

The Melbourne school will have its funding cut off unless it can show cause to continue. Accused of hardline religious teaching and allegedly threatening to send home children who missed morning prayer and Koran recital. The commonwealth found the school was not operating as a non-for-profit.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

ISLAMIC COLLEGE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

‘Foster the holistic development of every learner and to promote highest Islamic ethos, values and morals with academic excellence’

Established 1998

K-Year 12

Beset with problems and widespread complaints about former chairman Farouk Khan’s behaviour, including allegations of inappropriate payments to AFIC. The government found the school failed the “fit and proper person” test and not-for-profit requirements. Faces having its commonwealth funding cut off.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

LANGFORD ISLAMIC COLLEGE

‘Knowledge, faith & discipline’

Established 2004

K-Year 12

Audit found the Perth school failed commonwealth funding requirements on several fronts. Accused of hardline teaching and forcing a Year 1 girl to wear a headscarf. Faces having its funding cut off.

Picture: Fazel Qayum with daughters Sana, left, and Sabah outside Malek Fahd school. Picture: Britta Campion.

"Death of eight-year-old Yemeni bride causes anger"

Yemeni activists have called for action after an eight-year-old child bride died of genital tears and internal bleeding on the first night of her arranged marriage.

The groom was five times her age, Kuwaiti daily Al Watan reported on Sunday.

The death occurred in the tribal area of Hardh in north-western Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia.

Kuwaiti bloggers are now calling for the girl's family and groom to be punished, Gulf News reports.

Blogger Angry Man posted that the groom was "an animal who deserved to be punished severely for his crime".

Another blogger, Sad, posted that the marriage shouldn't have occurred, "even if some tribes believe that it is a good custom".

Activists hope the case would be used to help put an end to the practice of marrying very young girls.

In 2008, a Yemeni eight-year-old bride had her marriage annulled by a court after running away from her husband and filing for divorce.

But in 2009, a Yemeni law that set the minimum age of a bride at 17 was repealed as lawmakers deemed it un-Islamic.

In 2010, a 12-year-old died three days after her marriage from internal bleeding, and a 13-year-old died during labour.

A video released in July by human rights organisation Middle East Research Institute shows an escaped 11-year-old bride-to-be who spoke out after her family was forcing her into an arranged marriage.  Source : http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2013/09/09/11/08/death-of-eight-year-old-bride-in-yemen

"Thighing of female children in Islam"

There is an evil practice among the Arabs called “Mufakhazat Alzigaar”, loosely translated as the thighing of children. There is no proper English translation for this practice, simply because it is not a Western norm. Thigh is the part in humans between the hip and the knee. The nearest evil practice to thighing in English would probably be child-molesting.  However, thighing is infinitely more evil than child-molesting. It is done by an adult man to a female child, with the sanction of religion.  Now let us see how it is practiced on a female child and who began that evil practice. According to an official Fatwa issued in Saudi Arabia the prophet Muhammad began to practice thighing on his child-bride, A’isha when she was six years old until she reached nine years (Fatwa No.31409).  The hadith which we quoted earlier mentioned that the prophet Muhammad started having real sex with A’isha ONLY when she reached the age of nine. Therefore, Muslim scholars collectively agree, by virtue of divine example, a child becomes an adult, available for sexual intercourse as soon as she reaches the age of nine. Likewise, the Shari’a allows any faithful to marry a six-year-old child.

According to the fatwa, the prophet Muhammad could not have sex with his fiancée, A’isha when she was six due to her small size and age. However, the fatwa said that at age six, he would put his penis between her thighs and rub it gently because he did not want to harm her.  Imagine a man of fifty-one removing the clothes of a sex year old girl and slipping his erect penis between her thighs, rubbing until he ejaculated on her thighs. To this day, this is considered a benevolent act and is all about the adult “not wanting to harm her.”  How much more harm can a grown up man inflect do to a female child than showing her his penis and stripping her clothes and rubbing his male organ between her thighs? Of course, the twisted mind who would do such an evil to a female child would not hesitate to ejaculate on her body. Moreover, if the person was such a sexually pervert pedophile he would not stop at ejaculating on her thighs, but he would probably go ahead and rape the child before she become an adult and is exactly what Muhammad had done to A’isha.  Let us see what the fatwa said about the prophet Muhammad and his child-bride, A’isha...

Thighing of children is practiced in many Arab and Muslim countries, notably in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and Gulf countries. Those countries are notoriously known for that evil practice.  It is very common to see a man of seventy or eighty years of age marrying a child of eight or ten.  Recently an eighty-year-old Saudi man married a ten-year-old girl. On the wedding night, the child’s privates hemorrhaged so badly until they had to take her to the hospital.  Another recent case was of a Yemeni man who raped his child-bride until she died. Those were just a handful of the thousands of rapes that take place each year under the pretense of marriage.

"A fate worse than death! (excerpt on child slavery and camel racing)."

Then, what about the jockeys?

The little kids, who are used as jockeys are strapped into their saddles to keep them from slipping off the charging camels. Sometimes Velcro or adhesive tapes are used as an alternative (Voice of America, 2005). One of the ‘advantages’ of using child jockeys is that their terrified painful cries make the camels run even faster.  Accidents are very frequent when the camels approach speeds of up to 40 kilometers an hour. Every now and then the kids fall off the camels and the camels run over their bodies. No wonder every second or third child is seen with a broken arm or broken leg (ABWT, 2004). It is a living hell for the children. These tiny slaves, working and dying for the pleasures of rich Arab Sheikhs are sometimes as young as two (Wikipedia, 2006).  They face a fate which is worse than death. 

"Charity ruse is funding terror of Islamic State"

Halal tastes better ingredient pain and suffering 86968ISLAMIC State supporters are siphoning money from charities and using not-for-profit organisations as a guise to transfer funds from Australia to finance terrorism.

The revelations are another low for the barbaric butchers, who have slaughtered thousands of innocents across Syria and Iraq.

The Daily Telegraph understands there have been instances where bogus organisations purporting to be raising money for aid in the Middle East have been set up.

Government agencies are monitoring the foreign transactions of charity organisations, and are watching charities that have been infiltrated by terror supporters.

Some charities might innocently be sending money to bogus operations overseas.

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre raised the concerns in the Australian Terrorism Financing report.

“Some Australian based charities and NPOs (non-profit organisations) have been exploited by terrorist groups to raise money,” the report says. “The risks associated with the misuse of charities and NPOs are high as these organisations offer the capacity for groups to raise relatively large amounts of money over time.’’

"What is Halal slaughter in Australia?"

"Halal describes what is lawful for Muslims to eat. Halal food laws are based on interpretation of the Quran, the Muslim scripture, and set out the range of beverages and foods (including meat) that are acceptable for Muslims to eat. The procedures for Halal slaughter can vary from place to place because of the differing interpretations of the Quran: this article describes Halal slaughter in Australia". 

(Click here to view the difference between Australian standards and Halal slaughter - make sure you have the noise turned on so you can hear the baby lambs crying and screaming as they have their throat slit and are strung up by one hoof for flaying - whilst they're alive. All other lambs are present when this is happening). ** Alecomm note.

"The main concern with halal slaughter is whether or not pre-slaughter stunning is used. In Australia, the national standard for meat production requires that all animals must be effectively stunned (unconscious) prior to slaughter. The vast majority of halal slaughter in Australia complies with this standard, that is, all animals are stunned prior to slaughter. The only difference is that a reversible stunning method is used, while conventional humane slaughter may use an irreversible stunning method. The time to regain consciousness following a reversible stun may vary depending on the intensity of the stun. At Australian abattoirs, the aim is to ensure that reversible stunning is done in a way that depth of unconsciousness is sufficient to allow for the animal to bleed out and die before there is a chance of regaining consciousness.

"Islamic school pays millions in fraudulent services to AFIC & not charged"

AUSTRALIA'S biggest Islamic school has been ordered to pay back $9 million in public funds to the NSW government after it found millions in taxpayers' money had been diverted to the country's peak Muslim body. Malek Fahd, which has more than 2000 students at its Greenacre campus in Sydney's southwest, receives almost 75 per cent of its funds from state and commonwealth governments.

"Can buying food contribute to terrorism?"

In October 2010, news broke about how the Campbell’s Soup company received an Islamic (halal) certification for some of its product line, and many were outraged. There was a legitimate concern – not with the fact that Campbell’s received the certification, but with what organisation the certification came from, that being the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a group co-founded by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Sami al-Arian. In 2007 and 2008, ISNA was named by the U.S. Justice Department as a co-conspirator for two federal trials dealing with the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas. The defendants of the trials were the leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and HLF itself. In the end, each was found guilty of all charges.

"Woman died after Muslim nurse refused to help as he was praying "

Woman died after Muslim nurse refused to help as he was praying.  Photo: ALAMYAn elderly woman was left on the floor at a care home for up to ten minutes because a nurse was praying, an inquest heard.

 

 

 

 

 

Alzheimer's sufferer Dorothy Griffiths, 87, was found sitting down after staff heard a bang and a carer went to the office for help to lift her.

But agency nurse Abdul Bhutto, who was in charge, said they would have to wait.

Carer Zoe Shaw told the Sheffield hearing: "It took between five and ten minutes because he was praying upstairs in the office on his prayer mat. A staff member told me we had to wait for him to finish."

An ambulance was not called for nearly four hours after Mrs Griffiths fell from bed and cut her head and suffered a gash to her hip at the privately-run Valley Park Nursing Home in Wombwell, near Barnsley.

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