Blocked from Texas vouchers, this private Islamic school wants a chance to prove its pro-America values

HOUSTON — Iman Academy, an Islamic private school on the southwest side of town, opened 30 years ago with three core values: Love America. Respect self, family and American institutions. Be a positive, contributing American citizen.

School leaders want students, almost all of whom are Muslim, to graduate with the understanding that they are essential to America — that being a good citizen has more to do with what they contribute and how they treat others than their religion.

“We are all Americans at the end of the day,” said Manha Navaid, an 18-year-old senior who is secretary of the student council. “Apart from religion, politics or whatever, we all want the best for this country.”

Iman Academy exceeds basic requirements for schools that want to participate in Texas’ voucher program, which allows families to use public funds to pay for private school or home-schooling costs. The school is accredited by a state-recognized entity and has operated well beyond the two-year minimum.

In addition, the school uses the same lessons and standardized tests as public schools. Teachers in core subjects are experienced and certified.

But despite requesting state approval to accept vouchers, Iman Academy remains one of roughly two dozen Islamic schools that Texas leaders have blocked from entering the program over unsubstantiated claims that they may be associated with foreign terrorist organizations and adversaries.

Anti-Islamic rhetoric played a central role in several of this year’s Republican primary races, with some candidates portraying the religion as violent, undemocratic and a threat to American values.

Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock — Texas’ chief financial officer who manages school vouchers — declined to accept any Islamic private schools into the program, prompting two lawsuits from schools and Muslim families protesting the exclusion as religious discrimination. A federal judge recently ordered the comptroller to give the suing schools a chance to register, and last week Hancock accepted four Islamic campuses into the program.

“I think groups that are being excluded must make it politically pricey for the comptroller, the attorney general and the governor,” said Imran Ghani, executive director of CAIR-Houston, a Muslim civil rights organization.

But Iman Academy made a conscious decision not to sue, focusing instead on its stated mission to develop responsible young patriots while waiting for an opportunity to prove the school is worthy of accepting voucher students.

They hope state leaders judge them by their work, not by hostile stereotypes about their religion.

“In each family, in each religion, maybe there are some extremists. But why do you choose only the Muslims? That is not fair,” said Ahmed Zaqoot, the school president. “We call for being fair and just. That’s important, because this is an American value.”

Founded in 1996, Iman Academy focuses on providing a safe and nurturing educational environment for Muslim families in Houston, home to the largest Muslim population in Texas. The school has about 1,500 students enrolled across two campuses, providing child care and educating grades 1-12. Tuition costs around $8,000 per year.

Days begin with morning assembly, where school leaders remind students of their mission and vision. The rest of the day includes classes, lunch, prayer and extracurriculars. With exceptions for dresses, elementary and middle school students wear green shirts and khaki pants, while high-schoolers wear black. Friday is pizza day.

In an assembly room on the southwest campus, the Pledge of Allegiance shines brightly on a projector screen. The wall of fame a few steps away displays framed portraits of distinguished alumni, including a Texas A&M Corps of Cadets member, a full-ride scholarship recipient at UT-Austin, and a Harvard scholar. Upstairs, black lettering on a wall reminds passersby that education is the most powerful weapon they have to change the world.

In classes during a recent school day, middle school math students learn fractions and ratios, while high-schoolers down the hall work on inverse variation. A middle school science student who answered three consecutive questions wrong on his laptop tells his teacher about it, and she encourages him to learn from his mistakes. Elementary reading students, led by two teachers, work diligently to answer questions, including, “How are the lady’s jewels similar to stars?”

“You feel comfortable, safe, and I enjoy them,” Ruqaiya Bilal, a math teacher in her 11th year at Iman Academy, said of the school’s atmosphere and her students. “The parents are very cooperative, and everyone understands each other. It’s not like you feel like you are at some job.”

School leaders insist Iman Academy does not need school vouchers to survive. The opportunity could help Muslim families who cannot afford private school, they say, but parents have reliably paid their students’ tuition for decades. “It’s not bothering them,” said Zaqoot, the school president.

Instead, Iman Academy leaders want to join the voucher program because they see participation as validation that they are part of the American education system. Suing to force acceptance, Zaqoot said, could hurt their chances to build long-term relationships with state officials. The comptroller’s office has told them their application, submitted in December, is under review.

The exclusion of Islamic schools began to materialize in November, when Gov. Greg Abbott designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR — the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group — as a foreign terrorist organization. CAIR sued Abbott over the designation, calling it false and defamatory. 

Shortly after, Hancock asked Attorney General Ken Paxton if he, as comptroller, could exclude schools tied to state-designated terrorist organizations from the voucher program. Hancock noted that some private schools, presumably those with an Islamic focus, had organized events with CAIR. Paxton, Texas’ top lawyer, said the comptroller could exclude them.

State officials, meanwhile, have argued in court that the exclusion of Islamic schools has nothing to do with religious discrimination and everything to do with concerns about the schools’ accreditation.

Iman Academy and other Islamic schools are recognized by Cognia, a state-approved company that “erroneously” listed schools as accredited without following required procedures, according to state attorneys. That created a need, they said, to independently review every Cognia-accredited school that applies to the voucher program. The state said it has started accepting Cognia schools case-by-case. Until the recent court order, none were known to be Islamic.

“We don’t want school choice funds going to radical Islamic indoctrination with historic connections to terrorism,” Abbott said in a recent social media post.

But at Iman Academy, U.S. and Texas flags stand tall. When the school looks for guest speakers, it seeks both Democrats and Republicans. A Black Christian woman from Mississippi is the school’s education director. It has a zero-tolerance policy for employees who violate its pro-America values.

If state officials are serious about education freedom and putting America first, Iman Academy leaders say, they should provide Islamic schools an opportunity to prove they are not against America.

Otherwise, “the only thing is that you don’t like Muslims,” said Noor Mobeen, director of marketing and community outreach at Iman Academy. “It’s not extremist or Islamist. You just don’t want a Muslim, period.”

Mobeen said the school has reached out to the state about a dozen times to inquire about its application status but has not received a clear answer. The comptroller’s office, when contacted by The Texas Tribune, declined to comment on Iman Academy but previously said it plans to continue “the ongoing process to review and add more schools.”

While some of the state’s Republican leaders have attacked Islam, Iman Academy students said they would reassure those leaders they are allies, not enemies.

“We actually support the voucher program; whoever gets it, whichever faith, whichever community, we all respect it,” said Afeef Rahman, an 18-year-old senior who serves as student council president. “Then we would explain all the things that we’ve done as a community, our values, our curriculum, and everything like that. And then I feel like they would realize how, pretty much, we’re similar. Schools are schools. We’re all learning. Just different people, different places.”

When Navaid, the student council secretary, prays at school, she does not wish for America’s downfall. She does not seek strength to overthrow the Texas government. She does not want to sabotage the voucher program.

Instead, “I pray for everyone’s safety and health and education,” Navaid said. “I wish for the safety of everyone who’s around me.”