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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sig who wrote (100564)	6/7/2003 1:13:13 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

Seeds of Hate in Saudi Arabia By David A. Harris - Washington Post Saturday, June 7, 2003; Page A23 The blow to U.S.-Saudi relations in the aftermath of the Riyadh bombings should concern us all. Yet diminishing the U.S. military presence and temporarily closing the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia will not end the deep-seated hatred of Americans that is embedded in the kingdom. In a country where 53 percent of the population is younger than 20, the first question Americans should ask is: What are Saudis learning and how does it affect their worldview? While Saudi Arabia is often portrayed as one of America's staunchest allies in the Muslim world, the sad truth is that the demonizing of Christians, Jews and the West is pervasive in official books used throughout the government-controlled school system. The Saudi ruling family's priority should be to revise this tainted curriculum. We know the urgency of the problem. A study, co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, of the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Education books used in grades 1 through 10 reveals that Saudi children are taught intolerance and contempt for the West, Christians and Jews in subjects ranging from literature to math. Children in the eighth grade learn in a geography book that "Islam replaced the former religions that preceded it" and that "a malicious Crusader-Jewish alliance is striving to eliminate Islam from all the continents." Christians and Jews are denounced as "infidels" and are presented as enemies of Islam and Muslims. Saudi schoolbooks implore Muslims not to befriend Christians or Jews, as in a ninth-grade jurisprudence schoolbook that states: "Emulation of the infidels leads to loving them, glorifying them and raising their status in the eyes of the Muslim, and that is forbidden." Even grammar and math books are full of phrases exalting war, jihad and martyrdom. Saudi youth are educated to reject all notions of Western democracy. Saudis are instructed that the West is a "decaying society" on its way to extinction. Teaching hatred is reprehensible under any circumstances. It is especially alarming when it forms an integral part of the school curriculum in a country long viewed as a close friend of the United States and regarded as the center of the Muslim world. Given the breadth and depth of U.S.-Saudi ties, Washington should take the lead in pressing for education reform. Thus far, though, our government has seemingly played down this issue on the bilateral agenda. Meanwhile, Sens. Charles Schumer and Gordon Smith have introduced a resolution calling for Saudi education reform. A similar measure is expected in the House. Members of Congress are recognizing that education is at the root of the long-dormant problems in the U.S.-Saudi partnership. When the American Jewish Committee raised the education issue with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Faisal in New York last September, he acknowledged a problem with his country's schoolbooks and assured us that steps would be taken to rewrite them. He asserted, as he has in interviews with American media, that the problematic passages are limited to about "five percent" of the schoolbooks. Faisal and other Saudi spokesmen have grossly understated the problem. Overall, Saudi Arabian schoolbooks do not comply with any of the international curriculum criteria established by the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO, of which Saudi Arabia is a member. The information given to students about the West, Christianity and Judaism is tainted, incomplete and biased. As long as Saudi youth are essentially brainwashed to hate others, truly amicable relations between Saudis and the West will be hard to maintain. Moreover, Saudi schoolbooks and curriculums are actively exported to other Arab and Muslim countries, where Saudi largess funds many schools. Indeed, many Muslim schools in the United States have been built and staffed with Saudi money, opening the door to the spreading of Saudi-sponsored hate on American soil. Probing which of the books published in Saudi Arabia might also be used here in the United States is vital. It is high time for the United States to put on the table the urgent need to reform the Saudi education system, to excise the teaching of hatred from textbooks and to monitor closely any Saudi claims of reform. washingtonpost.com