Muslim School Closes Lack of Money Cited; Parents Scrambling

posted on: Oct 3, 2009

The director of a Muslim school in Detroit that suddenly shut down this week said mounting bills forced him to close.

The shuttering of the Amer­ican Muslim Academy on Wednesday forced parents to scramble to find alternate schools for their students. Some are seeking to enroll in Dearborn Public Schools, a district spokesman said. Oth­ers may be exploring charter or Islamic schools elsewhere.

The school had 170 stu­dents, many of them the chil­dren of Lebanese-American Shi’ite Muslims who wanted their children to be educated in an Islamic environment. It opened in 2006, but “for now, it’s closed unless someone can donate $500,000 or $600,000 to pay the balance,” the school’s director, Mahmoud Hazime, said Friday.

Hazime said that “when you run out of money, what else can you do?” He said there is no truth to claims he has fled the country and made off with school funds.

“I’m here. … I’m following the law,” Hazime of Dearborn Heights said Friday by tele­phone.

Last year, the school had 225 students, said teacher Zei­nab Moussa. An unexpected drop this year to 170 students led to a fund shortage, school officials said. Hazime also said parents were not paying full tuition, $5,000 a year, on time. Some parents are asking for their tuition money back, offi­cials said. Hazime said he is considering meeting with par­ents who are owed money “to free my conscience” but claims he isn’t legally liable.

The school’s principal, Mi­chele Jarrait, said she was heartbroken over the school’s closing and denied that any of­ficials made off with money. She said she had not been paid in several months because of a lack of money.