Back in October Ms Almonstaser, gave a speech that blamed Stop the Madrassa for everything from lying to cause her to lose her job, to stalking her:
Leading the attack was the “Stop the Madrassa Coalition” run by Daniel Pipes [he doesn't] who has made his career fostering hatred of Arabs and Muslims. The coalition conducted a smear campaign [definition of smear campaign is telling the truth] against me and the school that was ferocious. Members of the coalition stalked me wherever I went and verbally assaulted me with vicious anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments. They suggested that, as an observant Muslim, I was disqualified from leading KGIA, even though the school is rigorously secular, and its namesake, Khalil Gibran, was a Lebanese Christian. To stir up anti-Arab prejudice, they constantly referred to me by my Arabic name, a name that I do not use professionally. They even created and circulated a YouTube clip depicting me as a radical Islamist.
Members of the coalition stalked me wherever I went and verbally assaulted me with vicious anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments. They suggested that, as an observant Muslim, I was disqualified from leading KGIA, even though the school is rigorously secular, and its namesake, Khalil Gibran, was a Lebanese Christian. To stir up anti-Arab prejudice, they constantly referred to me by my Arabic name, a name that I do not use professionally. They even created and circulated a YouTube clip depicting me as a radical Islamist [she is].
More about the lawsuit below:
Former Arabic School Principal Faces Defamation Suitin April. (Diane Bondareff/Associated Press)Updated, May 17 | Three opponents of a Brooklyn public school that teaches Arabic filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the school’s founding principal, Debbie Almontaser, claiming that she had defamed them by saying that they stalked her.
The plaintiffs, Sara Springer, Irene Alter and Pamela Hall, are members of the Stop the Madrassa Coalition, a group that has protested the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which opened in Boerum Hill last fall. The women, who filed the lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, are seeking punitive damages.
Ms. Almontaser stepped down as the school’s principal in a firestorm of controversy in August after an article in The New York Post stated that she had “downplayed the significance” of T-shirts bearing the slogan “Intifada NYC.” Ms. Almontaser said that The Post had distorted her words and that she had been forced to resign by the mayor’s office.
The lawsuit against Ms. Almontaser refers to, among other things, a statement she made on the steps of City Hall on Oct. 16 in which she said, “Members of the coalition stalked me wherever I went and verbally assaulted me with vicious anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments.” The suit cites a nearly identical statement in a complaint filed last fall in federal court by Ms. Almontaser against the mayor’s office and the Department of Education.Ms. Almontaser said she could not comment on the lawsuit, and her lawyer was unavailable.
Ms. Alter denied this.
“It’s a criminal offense to accuse someone of stalking,” she said. “The reality is we’ve never done that. So we are quite upset.”
On Saturday morning, Ms. Alter clarified her comment, saying that the act of stalking, not the accusation, is a criminal offense.
1 comment:
Darn! I was at the rally for an hour and a half. I have spoken with Pamela Hall on the phone and even met her once and did not recognize her. Had I met you there I'm sure I'd have enjoyed speaking with you as well.
Anyhow, I commend her work and thank you for publicizing it. I'm not sure that she'll win. But do you think the idea is more to force disclosure?
www.culturism.us
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