Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music The Best Music of 2025 All Songs Considered Tiny Desk Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Fresh Air Up First Featured Embedded The NPR Politics Podcast Throughline Trump's Terms More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop The Best Music of 2025 All Songs Considered Tiny Desk Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics A thriving Muslim school in Alabama looked to expand, but was met with Islamophobia A Muslim school near Birmingham, Ala., was thriving — winning academic awards, increasing enrollment and looking to expand. Then came the lawn signs, the first warning that trouble was on the way. National A thriving Muslim school in Alabama looked to expand, but was met with Islamophobia February 3, 20265:05 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered From By Vahini Shori Muslim School Alabama Listen · 5:14 5:14 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5655921/nx-s1-9633777" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript A Muslim school near Birmingham, Ala., was thriving — winning academic awards, increasing enrollment and looking to expand. Then came the lawn signs, the first warning that trouble was on the way. Sponsor Message
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The Islamic Academy of Alabama was thriving, winning academic awards and drawing students from across the country. Enrollment increased so much the school needed to expand beyond their Birmingham building. But things did not go as planned. The first hint that obstacles were on the horizon were the lawn signs. Vahini Shori from WBHM reports.
VAHINI SHORI, BYLINE: The Islamic Academy of Alabama has been in Homewood for nearly 30 years.
STACY ABDEIN: We've come a long way. Currently, we go from pre-K up to 12th grade, and we have around 270 students.
SHORI: That's Stacy Abdein, one of the school's founders and assistant principals. The Academy consistently wins awards for its academic achievements. This year's graduating class' performance on the ACT was eight points higher than Alabama's state average.
YUSUF NABI: It's amazing because at the same time, I was also gaining, like, traditional knowledge, like, science, math, I'm also gaining knowledge about my religion. And it's really good for me because instead of, like, growing up isolated from my community, I grew up with it.
SHORI: Yusuf Nabi is the student council president. His family actually moved to Alabama so Yusuf and his siblings could have an Islamic education. While the Islamic Academy of Alabama continues to thrive in Homewood, it's encountered challenges accommodating its growing student body. So they looked into ways to expand and found a bigger space in an office park nearby in Hoover, another Birmingham suburb. It just needed to be rezoned for use as a school and community center. Suddenly, there were lawn signs calling people's attention to a zoning board meeting in the neighborhood where the Academy was trying to move.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I'd like to call the December 1...
SHORI: The room was packed. People from the neighborhood came to share their thoughts. Many were anxious about increased traffic, noise and heightened activity that comes with a new school. But some concerns had nothing to do with the school at all. Johnny Padgett talked about a wedding hosted in the Airbnb next to his house while he was away.
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JOHNNY PADGETT: They parked in my driveway, without my permission, blocking my cars. They didn't know if I was there or not. They drove through my yard, waving Islamic flags out the window and screaming things in Arabic.
SHORI: And Martha Yohannes, a new resident, spoke about her observations of the Muslim community in the U.K.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARTHA YOHANNES: Here are a few specifics of how I watched the takeover. I have even seen elderly men hang out in libraries, cracking pistachios and talking loud for hours as if it was a coffee shop.
SHORI: Basically, the comments boiled down to this.
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YOHANNES: In reality, they're not assimilated nor integrated but rather estranged from our society. Would that not threaten our own well-being and safety?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Miss - ma'am (ph).
SHORI: Those kinds of comments have been echoing around the country. The governors of Texas and Florida have declared a Muslim civil rights group to be a foreign terrorist organization. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard characterized, quote, "Islamist ideology" as the greatest threat to American freedom and security. Other conservatives have tried to ban Sharia or Islamic law in their states. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, anti-Muslim bigotry was actually on the decline in 2021, a first in the time that CAIR has been tracking anti-Muslim bigotry. But that changed sharply after October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. This is CAIR's deputy director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell.
EDWARD AHMED MITCHELL: We saw a sharp rise in anti-Muslim bigotry, complaints of discrimination, hate crimes, bullying at schools, and that trend has continued upward for the past two years.
SHORI: According to CAIR's tracking, anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies surged in 2025, like nothing they've seen before.
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UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER #1: Aye.
UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER #2: Aye.
UNIDENTIFIED BOARD MEMBER #3: Aye.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: All the votes (ph)...
SHORI: Back in Alabama, the zoning board unanimously voted not to recommend the Islamic Academy of Alabama's application to move forward. In that week, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville from Alabama weighed in.
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TOMMY TUBERVILLE: There's a small school that's a Muslim school in that area. They want larger area where they can build a bigger school, infiltrate more and bring in more young people to teach them the Muslim faith. And I'll be d***ed if we're going to do that in the state of Alabama. We're going to protect the people of Alabama. We're going to protect our Constitution. We're going to protect our state, and we're going to protect our country.
SHORI: Comments on social media mirrored the same anti-Muslim sentiments. One user commented that the K through 12 school looked, quote, "flammable," while others express anxiety over a violent Muslim takeover of the country.
ABDEIN: We did not have to hire security after 9/11. We've had to hire security after Senator Tuberville's comments.
SHORI: The Islamic Academy of Alabama has hired off duty police officers for security, and the local police have increased patrols in the area. Abdein, the assistant principal, says Tuberville has not reached out to the Academy and has never visited.
ABDEIN: We would invite him. You know, he's very welcome. Senator Tuberville, come visit us. Let's see what we're all about.
SHORI: Tuberville's staff responded by linking to a tweet in which the senator says he will, quote, "never stop fighting for Americans and our constitutional values." For now, school administrators have decided not to pursue the property in Hoover, as they reevaluate how to accommodate their growing student body. For NPR News, I'm Vahini Shori in Birmingham. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor MessageBecome an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{1167:function(e,n,c){e.exports=c(323)},323:function(e,n,c){"use strict";c.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([c.e(1),c.e(2),c.e(3),c.e(4),c.e(84)]).then(function(e){c(3),c(1140),c(116),c(94),c(52),c(493),c(239),c(102),c(104),c(1141),c(143),c(1142),c(238),c(48),c(1143)}.bind(null,c)).catch(c.oe)}},[[1167,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();