Philly Funds Sharia | Frontpage Mag

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Local and state outlets reported it—and even quietly celebrated it. But no one asked the hard questions. No one challenged the ideology, the curriculum, or the dangerous precedent. That didn’t happen until Liberty Sentinel and journalist Alex Newman blew the lid off what this really was: a taxpayer-funded expansion of Sharia under the banner of “diversity.”

In March 2025, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania awarded $5 million in taxpayer money to Al-Aqsa Islamic Academy—a Philadelphia-based Islamic school currently serving about 300 students. With this grant, the school now plans to expand to 3,000. It is the largest Muslim-specific education grant in Pennsylvania’s history—and likely one of the largest in the United States.

Governor Josh Shapiro made the announcement during a Ramadan iftar dinner, cloaking the moment in the usual buzzwords: “diversity,” “inclusion,” and “fighting hate.” He called it bridge-building. But what he built was a bridge to ideological conquest—not cultural unity.

Governor Shapiro didn’t just make the announcement. He used it to signal virtue with a now-familiar script:

“We are building bridges… promoting inclusion… and standing up to hate.”
— Gov. Josh Shapiro, Ramadan 2025

No, Governor. You’re funding religious indoctrination—an ideology rooted in supremacism and submission, not pluralism.

The $5 million came from Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP)—a fund that’s supposed to support infrastructure, economic growth, and public benefit projects. Roads. Housing. Public safety.

Instead, it’s being used to triple the size of a religious school with a documented ideological agenda.

This isn’t economic development. It’s state-funded ideological expansion.

And let’s be honest: if a Christian or Jewish academy had just received $5 million in public funds to expand religious education, we’d see lawsuits before the check cleared. In Oklahoma, a Catholic-backed charter school—St. Isidore of Seville—was blocked by the state Supreme Court after the Attorney General sued, arguing it violated the separation of church and state. That school wasn’t even operational yet. The case is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. And in Maine, when the Supreme Court ruled in Carson v. Makin (2022) that religious schools must be included in the state’s tuition assistance program, the backlash was instant: legal challenges, public protests, and nationwide editorial outrage.

But when it’s Islam?

Silence. Subsidy. Applause.

Meanwhile, small Christian and Catholic schools across Pennsylvania are shutting their doors. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has closed over two dozen elementary schools since 2012 due to declining enrollment and rising operational costs. In 2023 alone, schools like Holy Trinity in Morrisville and Our Lady of the Rosary in Coatesville were shut down. Many rural and suburban Christian academies are quietly folding for one reason: they can’t afford to stay open.

But the Commonwealth just found $5 million for a school that teaches Islamic law.

This isn’t neutrality. It’s favoritism—granted only to the one ideology that punishes coexistence.

Al-Aqsa Islamic Society isn’t just a neighborhood school. It’s a religious institution with a documented track record—and an ideological agenda.

• In 2003, the mosque was reportedly investigated by the FBI for suspected foreign influence and ties to jihadi networks. No charges were filed, but the scrutiny raised serious red flags.
• In 2009, it hosted Imam Abdelhaleem Ashqar, who was later convicted in the United States for criminal contempt and obstruction of justice after refusing to testify in a Hamas funding investigation.
• The organization has distributed materials described as antisemitic and aligned with global jihadist messaging, according to watchdog groups and community reports.
• Over the years, Al-Aqsa has also been associated with controversial speakers, foreign-backed imams, and publications promoting Islamic supremacy, many of which advocate for Sharia governance over Western legal systems.

Its curriculum includes:

• Quranic memorization – Not simply for spiritual devotion, but for embedding the belief that the Quran is the ultimate and unchallengeable legal and political authority. This isn’t about religious inspiration—it’s about internalizing a text that commands jihad (Quran 9:5, 8:39), institutionalized gender inequality (4:34), and non-Muslim subjugation through laws like jizya (Quran 9:29). This isn’t about devotion—it’s about indoctrination. Memorization is the first step toward ideological programming.
• Arabic language instruction – Teaching Arabic here isn’t about enrichment—it’s about binding students to unfiltered doctrine, bypassing American values for Islamic supremacy. In Sharia-based systems, Arabic is prioritized because the Quran is only fully authoritative in its original language. Islamic jurisprudence, hadith, and every core doctrinal source are in Arabic. This isn’t cultural education—it’s ideological transmission.
• Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) – Fiqh is not academic—it’s a blueprint for governance. It is taught not as religious theory, but as divine legislation meant to supplant secular law wherever possible. This legal code of Sharia mandates more than rituals—it codifies hudud punishments like stoning and amputation, apostasy laws, blasphemy rulings, rules of jihad, and even sexual slavery (“what your right hand possesses,” Quran 4:24). It mandates the subjugation of women and non-Muslims—not as historical reference, but as divine law.
• “The male owner of a female slave who has not reached puberty is permitted to have intercourse with her.”
  — Reliance of the Traveller, m3.13 (This isn’t debated—it’s codified in the manual of Sharia law used in Sunni institutions across the globe.)

• A stated goal to “instill Islamic values” and raise the next generation of “Muslim leaders” – This isn’t about leadership in a pluralistic society. These “values” include loyalty to the ummah over the nation, the superiority of Islamic law, and a duty to spread and defend Islam through da’wah or jihad. Producing “leaders” in this context means shaping activists and enforcers for a future Sharia-based parallel society.

This isn’t about welcoming Muslims into American civic life. It’s about constructing a parallel legal and cultural system—governed by Sharia, funded by taxpayers, shielded from scrutiny, and operating beyond the reach of American norms.

The timing of the announcement was no accident. Governor Shapiro made it during Ramadan—a month Westerners are told is about prayer, fasting, and charity.

But in Islamic history, Ramadan is far more than a spiritual observance. It’s a month of conquest, of military victories, and of foundational Islamic expansion through warfare. And that’s not incidental—it’s doctrinal.

“We have made you mighty through your religion; if you fight, you will conquer.”
— Reliance of the Traveller, o9.0 (on jihad)

“Fighting has been enjoined upon you, though it is hateful to you.”
— Quran 2:216

“I have been commanded to fight the people until they testify that there is no god but Allah.”
— Sahih Bukhari 1:2:24

“The Messenger of Allah set out for battle in Ramadan.”
— Sahih Bukhari 3:31:118

• The Battle of Badr in 624 AD, Islam’s first major military victory and a turning point for Muhammad’s rise to power, was fought during Ramadan.
• The Conquest of Mecca, when Muhammad’s forces overtook the Quraysh stronghold, also occurred during Ramadan.
• The Andalusian campaigns, Ottoman offensives, and even post-colonial Islamic movements have launched military actions during Ramadan to mirror that pattern of divine victory.

And to this day, the pattern continues:

• In Burkina Faso, on May 12, 2025, over 100 people were killed by al-Qaeda–linked JNIM during the final days of Ramadan in attacks on military bases.
• On March 21, 2025, Islamic State militants attacked a mosque in Niger during evening Ramadan prayers, killing 44 worshipers.
• In Pakistan, Ramadan 2025 saw over 80 militant attacks, making it the deadliest Ramadan in over a decade, with dozens of security personnel killed by jihadist groups.

These aren’t outliers. These are patterns—spanning centuries and continents. Ramadan is not just sacred in Islam. It is strategically weaponized.

So when Governor Shapiro chose this sacred and symbolic month to announce the largest Islamic grant in Pennsylvania history, it wasn’t a coincidence. It was a message.

Not just a photo-op. A signal.

We see you. We fund you. We stand with you.

And here’s where the contradiction becomes unbearable: Governor Josh Shapiro is a Jewish Democrat. Yet he is personally funding an institution that promotes a belief system with openly genocidal views toward Jews.

“The Hour will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews… even the stones and trees will say: ‘O Muslim, there is a Jew behind me—come and kill him.’”
— Sahih Muslim 6985

This isn’t some fringe interpretation. This hadith is taught in Gaza, in Pakistan, in European Islamic schools—and it has appeared in textbooks and sermons tied to mosques like Al-Aqsa.

And the hostility doesn’t end there.

“You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers to be the Jews and the polytheists.”
— Quran 5:82

“Allah turned them into apes and pigs.”
— Quran 5:60 (referring to Jews who disobeyed)

“The Jews spread corruption wherever they go.”
— Taught in numerous tafsir commentaries, including Tafsir al-Jalalayn and Ibn Kathir.

“The caliph makes war upon Jews and Christians… until they become Muslim or pay the jizya.”
— Reliance of the Traveller, o9.8

“It is not permissible to befriend or ally with Jews and Christians.”
— Reliance of the Traveller, w4.1

These are not historical relics. They are living doctrines—still taught, still believed, still funded with your tax dollars.

So the question must be asked:

Is Governor Shapiro willfully blind to this doctrine, or is he politically calculating?

Because in a state with a rapidly growing Muslim population, maybe this isn’t about virtue-signaling at all. Maybe it’s about vote-buying.

Either way, the price isn’t just hypocrisy. The cost is your freedom—and your future.

The Constitution is being buried under the weight of polite betrayal.

So ask yourself:

Is this still your country?

Here’s the good news: We the People still have the power to stop this conquest.

This isn’t over. Not by a long shot. But it won’t fix itself. It takes action. Relentless, local, legal, political action.

• Demand transparency. Where is the Redevelopment money really going?
• File FOIA requests. Don’t assume—verify. Expose the paper trail.
• Pressure your representatives. Get them on the record: Do they support public funding for Sharia-based indoctrination?
• Show up—locally. School boards. Council meetings. Make it uncomfortable for anyone funding this under your nose.
• Fight for equal treatment. No religion should receive public money. If one does, the door must swing both ways—or slam shut entirely.

This isn’t paranoia. It’s a blueprint already in motion.

You’re not watching the Islamization of Pennsylvania. You’re underwriting it.

And the first check wasn’t signed in some bureaucratic boardroom.

It was signed at dinner—under lanterns, with dates, and a lie.