Critics of Alexandri Islamic School are demanding an investigation of its curriculum. This is the school where Abu Ali, the 1999 validictorian, went before he was arrested for plotting to assassinate President Bush.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, has asked the Justice Department to investigate the school, saying that Abu Ali is not the only former academy student to engage in questionable activities.

A federal indictment in Chicago last year named a former treasurer of the school, Ismael Selim Elbarasse, as a high-ranking official within the militant group Hamas, though Mr. Elbarasse is not charged with a crime. Mohamed Osman Idris, an academy graduate, pleaded guilty in 2002 to lying on a passport application, following an investigation into whether he was supporting Hamas. The Justice Department told Mr. Schumer it could not comment on whether the academy itself was under investigation.

While these may be isolated incidences, a federal investigation of a Saudi funded school would help ease tensions in the area and accross the country. There is a belief that many Americans share, including myself, that Saudi Arabia is exporting Wahabism through state-funded schools. We’ve seen this in countries throughout the Middle East and perhaps in the United States.

Wahabism is of course the basis behind radical Islam and the ideology in which the United States is fighting against today.