Debbie Schlussel Stands Up for Persecuted Christian Teachers – in America

by Jamie Glazov

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Debbie Schlussel, a conservative political commentator, radio talk show host, columnist, and attorney. Visit her website at debbieschlussel.com.

FP: Debbie Schlussel, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

You have recently launched a federal lawsuit against Imad Fadlallah, a Muslim individual who was, until July, the principal of Dearborn’s Fordson High School.

Tell us what the lawsuit is about.

Schlussel: Two teachers at Dearborn’s Fordson High School, Bryan Purcell and Georgene Stergalas, were repeatedly harassed by the then-Muslim principal Imad Fadlallah. (He has since been replaced by another Muslim principal.) As we’ve noted in the press release announcing the lawsuit, it was clear that the harassment was brought because these teachers are Christians and not Muslims and because the principal wanted to replace Christian teachers with teachers who are Muslims, Arabs, or Arab Muslims.

Fadlallah has used this tax-funded public school to push Islamic extremism, including giving students the day off and extra credit to campaign against Christian candidates on Election Day and temporarily canceling the prom because it is unIslamic. The school football team also illegally engages in organized Islamic prayer before football games. As we noted in the lawsuit, Fadlallah, who is a cousin of recently-deceased Hezbollah spiritual leader Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, made sure that the teachers were repeatedly scheduled for two classes at the same time at opposite ends of the school, and he recruited Muslim students to harass and report on the teachers, as well as deliberately assigning them the worst students—troublemakers—repeatedly encouraging them to harass these two teachers.

The teachers are both award-winning teachers, but as part of Mr. Fadlallah’s harassment of them, he and other school personnel under his domain gave the teachers negative reviews and reports in their records. Mr. Purcell also has Type I Diabetes and, as part of the harassment against him, he was repeatedly told he could not take time out to give himself necessary shots and the school deliberately scheduled classes when he was medically required to eat and take shots.

FP: What is the larger significance of this lawsuit? For instance, if you win, it will be a victory not only for this suit in and of itself, and the same goes for if you are not successful. Tell us about the larger issues that are at stake.

Schlussel: As we’ve noted in the press release, this is a tax-funded public high school in which Islam is heavily pushed, in blatant violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution and in which religious discrimination against non-Muslims is egregious. Specifically as it relates to the lawsuit, I cannot comment beyond what we’ve said in the lawsuit and in the press release announcing it (and any further filings as the case goes forward). However, in general, as I’ve repeatedly noted on my own site, DebbieSchlussel.com, regarding Islamic takeovers of American institutions, there are always—in every fight regarding American society and the direction of tax-funded, public institutions (and private ones)–greater implications beyond just a single school or a region of the country because, as we see more and more cities, neighborhoods, and school districts take in increasingly greater numbers of Islamic immigrants and Muslim adherents born here—but who refuse to absorb into American culture and instead impose their views and religious requirements on others—America can either sit back and take it and lose our country as we know it. Or we can reclaim Western culture and require that tax-funded institutions adhere to the same Separation of Mosque and State as we require for Church and State and Synagogue and State. The long-term survival of the West and Western culture depends on insisting on the latter. I broke the story on my site of the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s use of over $100,000 in public money to install Islamic footbaths, and I’ve broken other stories about the Constitutional violations imposed by Muslims in America, violations that we’ve accepted and done nothing about. We must fight back. I will be announcing future lawsuits regarding this, very soon.

FP: We support and praise you here at Frontpage for launching this lawsuit, Ms. Schlussel. What can our readers who want to help do?

Schlussel: Because this case is a contingency fee case, I am mostly pursuing it on behalf of my clients for free, until and unless we prevail. I have put many hours into it and continue to do so, all pretty much for free. It is very costly to pursue and we would appreciate all support and help, no matter how small, to help defray the costs of pursuing this litigation. All contributions can be made via Paypal to writedebbie@gmail.com. I appreciate that FrontPageMag has given us this opportunity.

FP: Debbie Schlussel, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview and thank you for being such a courageous freedom fighter and for supporting those in our own society who are being persecuted by the forces of Islamic jihad – with no one else to defend them.

Jamie Glazov is Frontpage Magazine's editor. He holds a Ph.D. in History with a specialty in Russian, U.S. and Canadian foreign policy. He is the author of Canadian Policy Toward Khrushchev’s Soviet Union and is the co-editor (with David Horowitz) of The Hate America Left. He edited and wrote the introduction to David Horowitz’s Left Illusions. His new book is United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror. Email him at jamieglazov11@gmail.com.

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.