School Choice began as a movement to rescue children from failing public schools, but it has also become a taxpayer-funded pipeline for Islamic indoctrination. These institutions expose students to Sharia-based curricula that conflict with core American principles like individual liberty and equal rights under the law.
In Islamic school settings, Sharia is not an elective moral code — it is the governing framework. Instruction is not limited to faith or worship; it teaches a total system of law, authority, hierarchy, rights, and obligations that stands in direct opposition to the American constitutional model, which recognizes equal rights for all people irrespective of belief.
Administrators at these schools openly align with groups the U.S. Justice Department listed as unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas-financing Holy Land Foundation case — such as CAIR — and invite militant clerics to headline fundraisers. But it goes further: they operate in conjunction with ideological mosques and Sharia-adherent networks, functioning as extensions of a political-religious infrastructure rather than neutral educational facilities. It is a betrayal hiding in plain sight — programs created to empower families are instead channeling public funds into institutions that cultivate hostility toward Western norms and loyalties.
There is one obvious overdue remedy: designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and sever every financial artery connecting its U.S. front groups to taxpayer money. Until then, well-intentioned Florida families are unknowingly bankrolling the soft-power spread of an ideology fundamentally hostile to American freedom.
This report is the second in a documented series showing how Islamic institutions across Florida use school-choice funds not merely to educate children, but to build population bases, seed ideological infrastructure, and expand Sharia-aligned networks with taxpayer money. RAIR will release school-by-school case files in the coming weeks.
RAIR has already exposed one such case — Tampa’s Hifz Academy — a mosque-run voucher school where students spend half the day in Qur’an memorization, are forbidden from expressing any non-Islamic belief on campus, and are taught that loyalty to the global Ummah comes before loyalty to the United States. That investigation documented the same pattern now seen at Bayaan: Sharia governance rules written into handbooks, enforced on minors inside a school financed by Florida taxpayers.
Abusing School Choice Scholarships
Florida’s school choice scholarship programs provide $7,000–$10,000 per student to help families choose private or alternative schools. For many parents, these scholarships are a lifeline away from collapsing public schools.
A promotional video circulated within the community boasts that one of the main reasons Muslims are relocating to Tampa is the voucher system, which “helps you pay for private school.” The narrator explains: “One of the reasons that made people come to Florida — especially Tampa — is the voucher system that helps you to pay for the private school education.”
But these programs are not only attracting large numbers of Muslims to Florida — they are now funding Islamic schools tied to organizations named by the U.S. Justice Department in terror-finance cases and strictly Sharia-adherent academies. Students inside them are a captive audience for anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, and anti-Western instruction, formed under a legal-civilizational framework that directly conflicts with the U.S. constitutional order. Many of these schools are also tied to CAIR and related network actors.
One such example is Sr. Magda Elkadi Saleh — principal of Tampa’s Bayaan Academy and described in movement sources as coming from U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leadership lineage — who has publicly celebrated school vouchers even as her institution’s affiliations raise red flags.”
Bayaan Academy and the Network Behind Its Principal, Magda Elkadi Saleh
On September 17, 2023, Rabbi Moshe Matz and Sr. Magda Elkadi Saleh published an Op-Ed in the Fort Myers News-Press arguing that “school vouchers provide the broadest array of choices,” noting that nearly 4,000 students attended Islamic schools on state scholarships the previous year.
Saleh is the principal of Bayaan Academy in Tampa, “entering her 31st year as an Islamic school administrator.” Bayaan runs a Qur’an-memorization program (the Hifdh track) where students not only memorize the Qur’an but also learn Qur’anic Arabic, Qur’anic interpretation (Tafseer), Hadith, the life of Muhammad, and Islamic character formation.
On paper, she appears to be a routine voucher-program beneficiary. She is not.
In recorded talks, Saleh speaks in explicitly institutional and strategic capacities—identifying herself as Vice President (USA) of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), head of Bayaan Academy, and a member of both the Council of Islamic Schools in North America (CISNA) and the Islamic Schools League of America (ISLA). She frames these organizations as instruments in a long-term project, asking whether their work will make the United States “closer to what Allah has decreed.”
At the same time, she oversees Radiant Hands — a nonprofit that provides financial assistance, housing support, and employment services for refugees and new immigrants. Radiant Hands publicly identifies itself as an affiliate of Islamic Relief USA and as one of the first refugee-resettlement agencies operating in Tampa. In other words, the same individual directing Islamic school pipelines is also involved in importing, funding, housing, and stabilizing new migrant populations in Florida.
The lineage matters. ISNA leadership materials identify Saleh as the daughter of the late Dr. Ahmed Elkadi, who was documented by the Hudson Institute, the Investigative Project on Terrorism, and a Chicago Tribune investigation as a foundational U.S. Muslim Brotherhood figure.
According to those reports, Elkadi served as the General Mas’ul (national leader) of the U.S. Brotherhood network in the 1980s, previously held office in the so-called “Cultural Society” used to mask Brotherhood operations, and later became President of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) — an entity later listed by the U.S. Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas-financing case. Elkadi is further credited by investigators with helping establish the institutional pillars of that network in North America, including ISNA, MSA, ICNA, MYNA, and MAS. In other words, the first-generation architects built the infrastructure; the second-generation now runs it — including inside taxpayer-supported schools.
This is not a symbolic inheritance — Dr. Ahmed Elkadi was part of the U.S. Brotherhood leadership that, according to Hudson Institute research, explicitly prioritized building Islamic institutions in America (mosques, schools, charities, student networks, financial trusts) as the long-term mechanism for advancing Islamic governance within Western societies without confrontation. His generation built the legal, financial, and organizational shell; her generation is now filling it with students — sustained by taxpayer funds.
In her own words, Saleh praises ISNA and MSA as “pioneers of Islam in America.” She does not treat these bodies as mere heritage groups; she urges expansion—electing ISNA leadership, strengthening national Islamic school accreditation, scaling Islamic school systems, and platforming CAIR’s civil rights framing to students, even as those organizations’ origins and associations have been discussed in federal filings.
This isn’t neutral school administration; it is the deliberate enlargement of a national Islamic institutional system—with documented Brotherhood genealogy—leveraging a state-funded school and a refugee-service nonprofit as parallel channels of infrastructure-building in Florida.
Instead of examining these Brotherhood-linked institutional networks and the Sharia-adherent infrastructure she is actively scaling with taxpayer-enabled enrollment, local governments are doing the opposite: they are platforming her. In March 2024, the City of Temple Terrace publicly honored Magda Elkadi Saleh with a Ramadan proclamation — treating her as a civic partner rather than a subject of scrutiny. The city did not investigate the networks she builds or the legal-civilizational agenda arranged through the school she runs; it certified her publicly and helped launder legitimacy onto the very infrastructure she is expanding.
What Saleh promotes on paper shows up in practice. The ideological networks she sits inside of directly shape the school’s exposure, partnerships, and religious authorities placed in front of children using state dollars.
This past May, Bayaan students traveled to Washington, D.C., where the class itinerary included a tour of the Diyanet Center of America — the $100-million mosque built by the Turkish government in 2016 — a stop that raises obvious questions about the content and vetting of school trips funded in whole or in part by state scholarship dollars.
The Bayaan Academy Handbook: A Sharia Governance Code Imposed Under a Taxpayer-Enabled School
The most probative evidence is not public messaging — it is the school’s own handbook. The policies in the Bayaan Academy handbook do not read as neutral school rules; they track specific fiqh rulings (Sharia) governing dress, conduct, bathroom use, ritual behavior, and speech.
Sharia = the overall system of Islamic law (the divine legal framework) Fiqh = the human juristic rulings derived from Sharia (the applied rules)
These rules are binding not only on students but on parents and non-Muslim chaperones during school functions funded in whole or in part by Florida voucher programs. Taken together, the handbook shows religious legal categories being applied inside a school whose operating enrollment is sustained by public funds.
1) Mandatory Sharia Dress Code — Enforced on Muslims and Non-Muslims
Applied on field trips and public-facing school events:
Muslim women: headscarf (Sharia head coverings) required; hair/ears/neck covered; clothing loose/opaque/ankle-length; belts forbidden
Non-Muslim women: loose/opaque clothing; sleeves to elbow; pants to ankle or skirts mid-calf; tops mid-thigh; no low necklines
Men: loose clothing; gold jewelry forbidden (a fiqh rule, not an American custom)
This is not “modesty culture” — it is the enforcement of a religious legal code as a condition of participation in a publicly supported school activity.
2) Niqab Clause — Evidence These Are Fiqh Rulings, Not “Professional Standards”
“Teachers who wear niqab cannot cover their faces while teaching.”
This is not based on pedagogy, safety, or identity — it reflects a specific Islamic legal exemption about when the niqab is religiously required or suspended. In other words, the rule is not educational — it is issued in accordance with fiqh. That is direct evidence that the handbook is enforcing Sharia categories as binding authority, not applying neutral school policy.
3) Bathroom Rules Derived From Religious Law, Not Hygiene
“Boys are to sit, not stand, when using the bathroom.”
“Clean yourself with water as per the sunnah.”
Used tissue is discarded in bins, not flushed. These are ritual-purity rules — not safety, plumbing, or educational policy — enforced inside a school sustained by taxpayer-enabled enrollment.
4) Compulsory Religious Ritual Infrastructure and Conduct
• Gender-segregated musallah (prayer hall)
• Wudu (ritual washing) and prescribed rak’ah/prayer conduct enforced
• Prayer garments required
• Girls must remain in hijab even during dismissal at the public curbside
• All Islamic prayer behavior is governed by handbook rules
This is not “identity expression.” It is ritual governance inside a school financially enabled by the state.
5) Erasure of American Civic Life and Exclusive Recognition of the Islamic Calendar
• No birthdays
• No Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, or any non-Islamic holidays
• Only Islamic Eids and religious observances are recognized
6) Prohibition on All Non-Islamic Religious Expression — Even by Parents
Non-Muslims may not promote or speak about religious beliefs not “accepted and/or taught by Bayaan” at any school event
This applies to school events financed through state scholarship dollars.
7) Media Speech Control Shielding a Publicly-Enabled Institution from Scrutiny
Parents and staff may not speak to press without principal authorization
This is an explicit gag rule protecting an institution built partly on state funding from external scrutiny.
What This Section Proves
When a school is funded through state voucher enrollment:
• imposes religious dress law on non-Muslims
• regulates bathroom use by fiqh
• mandates ritual participation and Islamic calendar observance
• bans non-Islamic expression at school events
• controls speech to media
• and does so while expansion is enabled by taxpayer dollars
— this is not “parental choice,” not “diversity,” and not “religious freedom.”
It is the assertion of religious jurisdiction inside a publicly enabled educational space.
The handbook does not disguise its legal foundation: “BAYAAN ACADEMY is a Muslim-Sunni school and follows the teachings and tenets of Ahl-us-Sunnah wa-l-Jamaa’ah.” That is not a statement of cultural “values” — it is a declaration of Sunni-Sharia as the governing framework. The same handbook makes clear that this religious jurisdiction is not limited to children — it is imposed on the adults who operate the school, including non-Muslims.
Faculty are required to adhere to a Sunni-Sharia dress and conduct code; non-Muslim women must cover to the elbow and ankle and may not display any non-Islamic religious symbol; male staff are forbidden from wearing gold; and all staff are instructed to “adhere to the Islamic code of conduct” and to integrate Islam into all subjects “wherever and whenever possible.”
The handbook further forbids staff and parents from promoting any belief not “accepted and/or taught by Bayaan,” and authorizes dismissal of any parent or employee who speaks critically about the school, including online.
Florida is not merely funding a religious school — it is subsidizing an institution that openly declares Sunni Sharia as its governing system and applies that system as a binding authority over students, staff, and parents inside a publicly enabled educational environment whose operating enrollment is sustained by state dollars.
This is not a static enclave — it is a scaling one. The same institution enforcing Sharia jurisdiction inside its walls is now expanding its physical and political footprint using voucher-backed enrollment as the growth engine.
Fundraiser expansion
A quick review of Bayaan Academy’s public materials shows that it is not merely maintaining operations — it is actively engaged in an expansion campaign. And the logic is obvious: the state is paying for the students who make expansion possible. Voucher dollars guarantee a permanent tuition base, which in turn justifies land purchases, construction, and long-term institutional build-outs. These schools are not merely operating — they are scaling — because Florida taxpayers are underwriting the enrollment that triggers and sustains that growth.
Bayaan says this openly. In its current fundraising appeal, the school declares:
“Bayaan Academy is a leading Islamic magnet school in the state of Florida…”
“We have acquired a 14-acre property and have begun building the first Islamic school in Pasco County…”
“…a state-of-the-art PreK–12 school with an on-site Musallah and community professional development center…”
“…our goal is to raise $10 million in two years, inshaAllah.”
This is not a local private school improving facilities — it is the erection of parallel Islamic civic infrastructure: a K-12 system, a mosque, and a training center to reproduce this model elsewhere. The seed capital comes from private donors — but the operational viability comes from the State of Florida. Taxpayers fund the students; the students justify the expansion; the expansion cements an ideological footprint made durable by public money.
This is the part defenders of school choice refuse to confront: we are not merely “allowing” these institutions — we are financing their growth.
And this $10 million capital drive is not the only one. A separate Ramadan virtual fundraiser has already raised $168,821 from 116 donors toward an additional $3.5 million goal. Bayaan tells donors that this is a “multi-million-dollar project” to build out its new 14-acre campus, and urges Muslims to “invest in your Akhirah” by funding it.
In other words, there are multiple concurrent fundraising campaigns actively converting voucher-enabled enrollment into permanent Islamic infrastructure — and when Bayaan seeks the clerical prestige needed to secure those funds, it does not turn to neutral civic leaders but to clerics and networks with direct lineage to the Muslim Brotherhood..
On November 15, 2025, Shaykh Yaser Birjas is scheduled to headline the school’s fundraising dinner. Birjas serves on the “Religious Leadership” team at the expanding Valley Ranch Islamic Center in Irving, Texas, alongside Shaykh Dr. Abdul Razzak Junaid and the notorious Dr. Omar Suleiman — both trained in Sharia at the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia.
The Islamic University of Madinah was built as a Saudi state export hub for global Sharia training; roughly 85% of its students are non-Saudi. Through its network of mosques, schools, charities, and media arms, the institution functions as a clerical pipeline — producing imams and jurists who are then deployed back into foreign communities, including in the United States.
From the 1970s through the 1990s, Saudi state institutions worked in coordination with Muslim Brotherhood figures on curricula and international Islamic bodies. In that period, Madinah became the core training center for a hybrid export model — Saudi Salafism fused with Brotherhood-style political Islam — projected into Western countries.
Birjas graduated valedictorian of Madinah’s College of Sharia, the discipline that asserts the legal supremacy of Islamic rule over man-made law. That is not an incidental credential; it signals training for a governance system that conflicts with the American constitutional order of equal rights and civil authority.
The hard question writes itself: Why is a Sharia-trained cleric produced by a foreign ideological export institution being platformed in the United States — and why is a Florida school receiving state funds to put him in front of American children?
A state-funded school giving legitimacy to a graduate of a foreign Sharia-power institution is not education — it is the importation of a rival legal-civilizational project using American dollars.
Sympathy for Terrorism
When evaluating whether a cleric belongs in a state-funded school setting, the most revealing metric is not their CV — it is their reaction to the deliberate mass slaughter of civilians.
The October 7 Hamas massacre provided such a test in real time. Yaser Birjas, though not highly active on X, chose his signal carefully: on the day of the Islamic terror attack, he amplified Omar Suleiman — a cleric who openly targeted critics of Hamas while the bodies were still warm.
In response to Jordan Peterson’s post “Give ’em hell” directed at Netanyahu to strike Hamas, Suleiman did not condemn Hamas; he replied “Go to hell,” directed at Peterson, and Birjas chose to repost Suleiman’s attack rather than condemn the massacre.
This is not the first time Yaser’s colleague Omar Suleiman has expressed sympathy for terrorists. Suleiman has also supported the Holy Land Five, who were convicted of financing the terrorist organization Hamas, and “Lady al-Qaeda,” Aafia Siddiqui.
How many terrorists must one support to be taken seriously? And why is Yaser Birjas speaking at the Bayaan Academy?
Americans are Not Paying Attention to the Danger
Yet amid these clear warning signs, much of the school choice advocacy overlooks the extremism seeping into the system.
“This week, political commentator Steve Deace discussed school choice with Bob Vander Plaats from The Family Leader. The discussion was highly enthusiastic about the growth of school choice — but it completely ignored the terror-linked Islamization project now advancing through the same system.
(37:16 timestamp) “…right now in the country, 6 million kids are in Christian education or Christian schools. And what they’d like to do is see that number doubled within five years – go up to 12 million. Because what’s happening, like in states like Iowa and Texas and others, you’re seeing this school choice movement take place. Basically, say we’re advancing parental rights…
[…](40:00 timestamp) “Millions upon millions of dollars are going to flood into the system. And what’s going to do: it’s going to give inner-city schools – like you guys are familiar with Joshua Christian Academy here in Des Moines – an opportunity for parents to get out of a failed public school environment and into quality Christian education. I think it’s a praise God moment and cheering on the parental rights to take full advantage of this as they move forward.”
Watch here:
This blind spot ignores the central collision at the heart of these programs: Sharia-based curricula embedded in Islamic schools stand in direct opposition to the freedoms school choice is meant to protect.
These schools do not just indoctrinate — they attract and consolidate migrant Muslim populations into the very states financing them, accelerating the construction of a parallel Islamic network on U.S. soil with public money.
The Collision Is Now Inevitable
What defenders of school choice present as “parental empowerment” is, in practice, the transfer of public dollars into institutions whose stated mission is to replace American civic norms with an Islamic legal-civilizational order. This is not theoretical, not future, and not accidental — it is written into the handbooks, enforced in the rules, embedded in the leadership, and scaled through voucher-backed expansion.
Florida is not merely tolerating this — it is subsidizing it. And Bayaan Academy is not an outlier. It is a prototype.
RAIR’s next release will expose another Florida Islamic school — already receiving voucher funds — with direct links to the same network and implementing the same parallel system under the cover of “school choice.” The patterns are repeating, the infrastructure is replicating, and legislators still pretend nothing is wrong.
What is unfolding is not a misunderstanding of a well-intentioned program — it is the exploitation of that program by Islamist networks that have been identified in federal filings for building long-term institutional infrastructure in the United States. It follows, almost line-for-line, the strategy described in the Muslim Brotherhood’s 1991 “civilization jihad” memorandum entered into evidence by the U.S. Justice Department: use American systems, laws, and social programs to construct Islamic institutions until they displace the host society from within.
Unless federal and state governments sever funding streams and legally prohibit Muslim Brotherhood-linked entities from accessing taxpayer programs, the same actors will continue to use our own laws and our own money to build a parallel order on American soil.
What happens next will not be a mystery. It will be whatever we fail to stop.
