Michigan Private School Linked To Iran And Hezbollah Propaganda, Report Says

According to a new report from the well-known organization, Clarion Project — which describes itself as “a non-profit organization that educates the public about the dangers of radical Islam” and upon whose advisory board frequent Fox News contributor and Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, sits — a private Islamic school in Dearborn, Michigan has unusually close ties with supporters of the fanatical Iranian regime and its Lebanon-based proxy terrorist group, Hezbollah.

Per Clarion Project:

Clarion Project has discovered that a private Islamic school in Dearborn, Michigan is linked to diehard supporters of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. The school teaches students from kindergarten through 9th grade.

Great Revelations Academy was founded in 2015 by open supporters of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah. By their own admission, the school’s founders are dedicated to spreading his message.

Fadlallah was a supporter of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and is considered to be a key inspirer of Hezbollah. Some go so far as to describe him as the terrorist group’s “spiritual leader.”

Fadlallah supported the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. Marines (who were serving as peacekeepers) as well as 58 French troops and six civilians.

In 2005, he reiterated his support for suicide bombings against Israel. When he died in Lebanon in 2010, Hezbollah called for three days of mourning. Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei sent his condolences.

Jewish Press describes Great Revelations Academy as a “24-classroom school … equipped with a prayer hall, science and computer labs, gym, cafeteria, kitchen, nurse’s office, a playground, and a hall for community events.”

Clarion Project’s report is based, in part, on a 2017 interview that school officials conducted with The Arab-American News (The AANews):

Fouad Baydoun, one of the institution’s founders, told The AANews that the committee decided to establish the academy to teach Arab American children Arabic and the insights of the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, the founder of the humanitarian organization.

Principal Sheila Bazzi-Charara added that “[the school] follows the same philosophy, mission and vision of Sayed Fadlallah.”

Jewish Press reports on the extent to which Fadlallah was tied to the Iranian regime’s maniacal founding ideology: “When Fadlallah died in Lebanon in 2010, Hezbollah declared three days of mourning; Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sent his condolences as well.”

Close ties between Islamist regimes and U.S. education institutions are hardly new. As The Daily Wire noted in February, the Muslim Brotherhood-cozy government of Qatar — perhaps Iran’s leading Sunni ally — is infamously active in its funding of U.S. higher education initiatives:

Qatari influence in the United States is routine and hardly abnormal. As The Daily Caller reported in December, Department of Education data show that the Qatari government has given a whopping $1 billion to American universities since 2011. According to that same Department of Education data, this represents the most money given by a foreign nation to American universities over the period 2011-2016 — ahead of substantially larger countries such as the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, China, and Canada. The top American university recipient of Qatari government donations has been Georgetown University; accordingly, the Middle East Forum has described Georgetown University’s Middle East studies faculty as “the most intolerant, ideological, anti-Israel, and pro-Islamist in the United States.”