Saudi textbook

WaPo Saudi Arabia's public schools have long been cited for demonizing the West as well as Christians, Jews and other "unbelievers." But after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis -- that was all supposed to change.

Maybe it did change; maybe it got worse.

A 2004 Saudi royal study group recognized the need for reform after finding that the kingdom's religious studies curriculum "encourages violence toward others, and misguides the pupils into believing that in order to safeguard their own religion, they must violently repress and even physically eliminate the 'other.' " Since then, the Saudi government has claimed repeatedly that it has revised its educational texts.... A review of a sample of official Saudi textbooks for Islamic studies used during the current academic year reveals that, despite the Saudi government's statements to the contrary, an ideology of hatred toward Christians and Jews and Muslims who do not follow Wahhabi doctrine remains in this area of the public school system. The texts teach a dualistic vision, dividing the world into true believers of Islam (the "monotheists")

Judiasm and Christianity are also monotheistic.

and unbelievers (the "polytheists" and "infidels"). This indoctrination begins in a first-grade text and is reinforced and expanded each year, culminating in a 12th-grade text instructing students that their religious obligation includes waging jihad against the infidel to "spread the faith." Freedom House knows this because Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident who runs the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs , gave us a dozen of the current, purportedly cleaned-up Saudi Ministry of Education religion textbooks. The copies he obtained were not provided by the government, but by teachers, administrators and families with children in Saudi schools, who slipped them out one by one.

We should send people into the schools to see for certain what is being taught, and if these accusations are true, the schools should be closed, and the teachers deported.

CQ blogged The Saudis intend on teaching hatred, bigotry, and religious intolerance to its children. With this kind of indoctrination in its schools -- as well as in its academies in other nations, including the US -- it is no wonder that so many of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis and that Saudis continue to take part in Islamist efforts around the world. The House of Saud has long been split between pro-Western and anti-Western factions, but these textbooks reveal that the anti-Western faction appears ascendant where it counts.

If the Saudis do not cease their brainwashing of children in an effort to transform them into bigots and worse, the US and other Western nations should take steps to close their academies within our borders. They can raise their children to commit suicide and murder, but we should bar them from doing the same to our own children. When they quit teaching the next generation to hate us, then we may consider them our friends, but it's impossible to embrace them while they corrupt their children against us.

Blue Crab Boulevard blogged Read the whole thing - it's pretty bad. The lessons get progressively more offensive and intolerant as the grades progress.

Howie blogged Mr. al-Fascidullah surprised, “Very good! Ok students, we are out of time, It’s time for another special film presentation in the Gym. Today’s movie is titled, Ten Reasons Allah Wants You to Martyr Yourself… Oh, And don’t forget Blood money for a free infidel is half of the blood money for a male Muslim, whether or not he is 'of the book' or not 'of the book. Blood money for a woman: Half of the blood money for a man, in accordance with his religion. The blood money for a Muslim woman is half of the blood money for a male Muslim, and the blood money for an infidel woman is half of the blood money for a male infidel. It will be on the test! Dismissed.”

Jonathan Adler blogged The bulk of her article provides selections from various texts to prove her point. As Glenn comments, this is further evidence that "the Saudis are not our friends." Unfortunately, the U.S. government has long tolerated outrageous conduct by the Saudi government, something I first blogged about here and here.

Dean blogged I keep hearing they're getting better. Then I read things like this Washington Post story. They aren't that. They aren't even close to that. It's a huge problem.

Maj P blogged Sun Tzu tells us that if you know yourself and your enemy, you're good to go. I'm not sure we're even at the fifty-percent mark on those tasks. We need to wise up.

Ranting Profs blogged Although this piece moves over it pretty quickly, one reason we need to be concerned about this is that the Saudis spend an enormous amount of money proseltyzing around the world -- not in an effort to convert unbelievers to Islam, but in an effort to move indigenous forms of Islam over to Wahhabism. One author I read called it the largest "propaganda effort in history." And one way they do that is by offering these texts in countries all over the world, in a variety of languages.