January 11, 2000 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has written to California State Superintendent of Education, Delaine Eastin, urging the state to suspend funding and investigate the activities of GateWay Academy charter schools because of alleged links to extreme terrorist organizations and unconstitutional religious indoctrination of its students.

The ADL letter cites public reports which show Gateway's school superintendent is an officer of Muslims of the Americas (MOA), a virulently anti-Semitic, homophobic, Islamic extremist group. Available evidence suggests that MOA serves as a corporate front for Al-Fuqra (170 Kb .pdf format), whose members have committed multiple firebombings and murders around the country.

In addition to the link to terrorist organizations, the ADL expressed its concern over reports that state financed Gateway schools are illegally promoting religion in the schools. According to reports, students study Islam and pray in class with the teachers. Federal and state law does not allow government funds to be used for public religious proselytizing.

The ADL has been reporting on the violent activities of Al-Fuqra and Muslims of the Americas since the early 1990's. The organizations have recently garnered attention because of the arrest of one of its members in Fresno who is accused of murdering a sheriff's deputy.

"California taxpayers should not be forced to support an organization which excludes, defames or attacks others," claimed ADL Regional Director Jonathan Bernstein.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.