Author: Nina Shea
Publication: Toronto Star
Date: Jun. 3, 2006
URL: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1149112209850
Despite Saudi assurances, their religious
textbooks still denigrate other faiths and cultures
These schoolbooks divide the world into believers
- followers of Wahhabi Islam - and unbelievers
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.
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.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador
to the United States, has worked aggressively to spread this message. "The
kingdom has reviewed all of its education practices and materials, and has
removed any element that is inconsistent with the needs of a modern education,"
he said on a recent speaking tour. "Not only have we eliminated what
might be perceived as intolerance from old textbooks that were in our system,
we have implemented a comprehensive internal revision and modernization plan."
The Saudi government even took out a full-page ad in the New Republic in December
to tout its success at "having modernized our school curricula to better
prepare our children for the challenges of tomorrow." A year ago, an
embassy spokesman declared: "We have reviewed our educational curriculums.
We have removed materials that are inciteful or intolerant towards people
of other faiths." The embassy is also distributing a review on curriculum
reform to show the textbooks have been moderated.
The problem is: These claims are not true.
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")
and unbelievers (the "polytheists" and "infidels"). This
indoctrination begins in a Grade 1 text and is reinforced and expanded each
year, culminating in a Grade 12 text instructing students that their religious
obligation includes waging jihad against the infidel to "spread the faith."
Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident who runs the
Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, gave Freedom House a dozen of
the current, purportedly cleaned-up Saudi Ministry of Education religion textbooks
(Freedom House is a U.S. non-governmental organization that monitors political
rights and civil liberties worldwide). 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.
Some of the sources are Shiites and Sunnis
from non-Wahhabi traditions - people condemned as "polytheistic"
or "deviant" or "bad" in these texts - while others are
simply frustrated that these books do so little to prepare young students
for the modern world. Freedom House had the texts translated separately by
two independent, fluent Arabic speakers.
Religion is the foundation of the Saudi state's
political ideology; it is also a key area of Saudi education in which students
are taught the interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism (a movement founded
250 years ago by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab) that is reflected in these textbooks.
Scholars estimate that within the Saudi public
school curriculum, Islamic studies make up a quarter to a third of students'
weekly classroom hours in lower and middle school, plus several hours each
week in high school. Educators who question or dissent from the official interpretation
of Islam can face severe reprisals. In November 2005, a Saudi teacher who
made positive statements about Jews and the New Testament was fired and sentenced
to 750 lashes and a prison term. (He was eventually pardoned after public
and international protests.)
The Saudi public school system totals 25,000
schools, educating about 5 million students. In addition, Saudi Arabia runs
academies in 19 world capitals that use some of these same religious texts.
Saudi Arabia also distributes its religion
texts worldwide to numerous Islamic schools and madrassas that it does not
directly operate. Undeterred by Wahhabism's historically fringe status, Saudi
Arabia is trying to assert itself as the world's authoritative voice on Islam
- a sort of "Vatican" for Islam, as several Saudi officials have
stated - and these textbooks are integral to this effort. As the report of
the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks observed, "Even in
affluent countries, Saudi-funded Wahhabi schools are often the only Islamic
schools" available.
Education is at the core of the debate over
freedom in the Muslim world. Osama bin Laden understands this well; in a recent
audiotape he railed against those who would "interfere with school curricula."
The following passages - drawn from the same
set of Saudi texts proudly cited in the new 74-page review of curriculum reform
now being distributed by the Saudi Embassy - are shaping the views of the
next generation of Saudis and Muslims worldwide. Unchanged, they will only
harden and deepen hatred, intolerance and violence toward other faiths and
cultures. Is this what Riyadh calls reform?
Grade 1
"Every religion other than Islam is false."
"Fill in the blanks with the appropriate
words (Islam, hellfire): Every religion other than ______________ is false.
Whoever dies outside of Islam enters ____________."
Grade 4
"True belief means . . . that you hate
the polytheists and infidels but do not treat them unjustly."
Grade 5
"Whoever obeys the Prophet and accepts
the oneness of God cannot maintain a loyal friendship with those who oppose
God and His Prophet, even if they are his closest relatives."
"It is forbidden for a Muslim to be a
loyal friend to someone who does not believe in God and His Prophet, or someone
who fights the religion of Islam."
"A Muslim, even if he lives far away,
is your brother in religion. Someone who opposes God, even if he is your brother
by family tie, is your enemy in religion."
Grade 6
"Just as Muslims were successful in the
past when they came together in a sincere endeavour to evict the Christian
crusaders from Palestine, so will the Arabs and Muslims emerge victorious,
God willing, against the Jews and their allies if they stand together and
fight a true jihad for God, for this is within God's power."
Grade 8
"As cited in Ibn Abbas: The apes are
Jews, the people of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christians, the infidels
of the communion of Jesus."
"God told His Prophet, Muhammad, about
the Jews, who learned from parts of God's book (the Torah and the Gospels)
that God alone is worthy of worship. Despite this, they espouse falsehood
through idol-worship, soothsaying, and sorcery. In doing so, they obey the
devil. They prefer the people of falsehood to the people of the truth out
of envy and hostility. This earns them condemnation and is a warning to us
not to do as they did."
"They are the Jews, whom God has cursed
and with whom He is so angry that He will never again be satisfied (with them)."
"Some of the people of the Sabbath were
punished by being turned into apes and swine. Some of them were made to worship
the devil, and not God, through consecration, sacrifice, prayer, appeals for
help, and other types of worship. Some of the Jews worship the devil. Likewise,
some members of this nation worship the devil, and not God."
"Activity: The student writes a composition
on the danger of imitating the infidels."
Grade 9
"The clash between this (Muslim) community
(umma) and the Jews and Christians has endured, and it will continue as long
as God wills."
"It is part of God's wisdom that the
struggle between the Muslim and the Jews should continue until the hour (of
judgment)."
"Muslims will triumph because they are
right. He who is right is always victorious, even if most people are against
him."
Grade 10
The Grade 10 text on jurisprudence teaches
that life for non-Muslims (as well as women, and, by implication, slaves)
is worth a fraction of that of a "free Muslim male." Blood money
is retribution paid to the victim or his heirs for murder or injury:
"Blood money for a free infidel. (Its
quantity) is half of the blood money for a male Muslim, whether or not he
is `of the book' or not `of the book' (such as a pagan, Zoroastrian, etc.).
"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."
Grade 11
"The greeting `Peace be upon you' is
specifically for believers. It cannot be said to others."
"If one comes to a place where there
is a mixture of Muslims and infidels, one should offer a greeting intended
for the Muslims."
"Do not yield to them (Christians and
Jews) on a narrow road out of honour and respect."
Grade 12
"Jihad in the path of God - which consists
of battling against unbelief, oppression, injustice, and those who perpetrate
it - is the summit of Islam. This religion arose through jihad and through
jihad was its banner raised high. It is one of the noblest acts, which brings
one closer to God, and one of the most magnificent acts of obedience to God."
Nina Shea is director of the Center for Religious
Freedom at Freedom House
