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CAIR Bulletin – August 27, 2007
Critic of NY Arabic school accused of anti-Semitism
NEW YORK, NY, August 27, 2007 - The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today called on a group opposed to an Arabic language public school in New York to purge its ranks of racists and extremists after revelations of a key leader's apparent anti-Semitic views.
The Jewish Week newspaper reports that David Yerushalmi, an advisory board member and counsel of the "Stop the Madrassa" group, has condemned democracy in the United States and, "in comments that evoke classical anti-Semitic stereotypes, says he finds truth in the view that Jews 'destroy their host nations like a fatal parasite.'"
"Stop the Madrassa" is fighting to keep the Khalil Gibran International Academy from opening September 4.
In June, CAIR called on the producers of a PBS-sponsored documentary on "moderate Muslims" to repudiate their alleged ties to another group headed by Yerushalmi that advocates imposing prison terms for "adherence to Islam" and that questions whether women and African-Americans should be allowed to vote.
Yerushalmi, the president and founder of the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), published an online article in which he claims to be the attorney for Frank Gaffney, Alex Alexiev and Martyn Burke, the producers of the controversial PBS documentary "Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center" currently airing on more than 20 PBS stations nationwide.
In a March 2, 2006, article for The American Spectator, Yerushalmi wrote: "Muslim civilization is at war with Judeo-Christian civilization. . .The Muslim peoples, those committed to Islam as we know it today, are our enemies."
"Those who advocate racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, or anti-Semitic views can have no beneficial role in reasoned public debate on issues of importance to our society," said CAIR-NY Civil Rights Coordinator Aliya Latif.
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