Local News | Islamic school in Seattle opens door to non-Muslim leader, teachers | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | Islamic school in Seattle opens door to non-Muslim leader, teachers | Seattle Times Newspaper:

Islamic school in Seattle opens door to non-Muslim leader, teachers

For the first time, the Islamic School of Seattle has hired a non-Muslim leader. The small prekindergarten through sixth-grade school also will have two non-Muslims among its five teachers.

By Lornet Turnbull

Seattle Times staff reporter

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STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Luis Tornillo, the new non-Muslim director of the Islamic School of Seattle, sits in one of the school's classrooms.

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OMG! (Whichever one you like.) That's my old 1955 classroom! I used to melt crayons on...(September 4, 2011, by 3Chord Monty) Read more

What a feel good bit of pablum.- yuck . All private "religious " schools... (September 4, 2011, by et69) Read more

With the Times' web-edition, it seems they're following the NYTimes' credo: "All... (September 4, 2011, by samuelson is dead) Read more

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A year ago, during the holy month of Ramadan, a group of Muslims gathered for dinner at a home in Burien.

A single item dominated the night's agenda: the Islamic School of Seattle.

The private Montessori school in the Central Area that integrates Islamic teaching into every aspect of its curriculum was started 30 years earlier by five female Muslim converts.

Now, it was in trouble.

Enrollment at the prekindergarten through sixth-grade school had fallen to about 10 students, and with an earlier annual fundraising dinner yielding so little, there was a real possibility the school might close.

Conversations that night would continue for months