Next fall, the students of Hamilton Heights Elementary School in Harlem, New York are required to learn a second language.  

Twenty-two percent of its students speak English as a second language. Learning another language is not new to them. Optional languages taught at the school are Spanish and Mandarin.

But the mandatory language to be taught is Arabic.

Spanish would make sense.  French is an official language in diplomacy.   But Arabic?  Mandatory?

The instruction is funded by the Qatar Foundation headquartered in the nation of Qatar. 

This smacks of the Ground Zero mosque. This very controversial Islamic facility will be built just two blocks from the World Trade Center.

Arabic was the language and Islam the faith of all nineteen 9/11 hijackers. The mandatory Arabic instruction and Ground Zero mosque in the heart of New York are like dancing on the graves of your victims.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is naive.

This is not opposition to learning a second language. Three of my children speak a second language - two fluently. 

I'll believe there are good intentions behind this when Islamic countries in the Arab world allow a church or synagogue to be built in their capital cities.

That New York City officials are complicit in this is shameful.