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Subject: Saudi schools preach hatred
capitalist72    10/15/2003 12:40:08 PM
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/287/oped/Saudi_schools_teach_hatred_of_the_WestP.shtml DAVID A. HARRIS Saudi schools teach hatred of the West By David A. Harris, 10/14/2003 THE SCHOOL YEAR is in full swing. Across the United States children are learning civics fundamentals -- democracy, pluralism, and mutual respect. These are all key values underlying our multiracial, multicultural society. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, however, children are taught contempt for anyone who is Christian or Jewish, and the West as a whole is denigrated. The daily teaching of hatred is taking place, as it has for many years, in a nation long purported to be America's closest ally in the Muslim world. Unfortunately, amid reports about tensions in US-Saudi relations, one issue largely neglected is education. That is a pity. The pervasive denigration of the West in Saudi schools is essential to grasping the root of the long dormant fissures in the US-Saudi relationship, and, of course, understanding why 15 of the 19 terrorists on 9/11 were products of the Saudi educational system. Saudi children are taught intolerance and contempt for the West and non-Muslims in a wide range of subjects, from literature to math. This is the central finding of a study, co-sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Education books used in grades 1 though 10. For example, eighth-graders are taught, in a geography book, that ''Islam replaced the former religions that replaced it'' and that ''a malicious Crusader-Jewish alliance is striving to eliminate Islam from all the continents.'' In a ninth-grade language exercise, Saudi youth are instructed to use the sentence, ''The Jews are wickedness in its very essence,'' when learning the rules of the Arabic language. Saudi schoolbooks implore Muslims not to befriend Christians or Jews. ''Emulation of the infidels leads to loving them, glorifying them and raising their status in the eyes of the Muslim, and that is forbidden,'' states a ninth-grade jurisprudence book. Saudi spokespeople have dismissed the indisputable fact that the demonizing of Christians, Jews, and the West is pervasive in official books used throughout the government-controlled school system. When the American Jewish Committee raised the education issue with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal, he told us, as he has stated in interviews with American media, that the problematic passages are limited to about ''five percent of the schoolbooks.'' Faisal and other Saudi spokespeople have grossly underestimated the problem. And, though the foreign minister and others have asserted that steps are being taken to rewrite them, there is no evidence as yet to support these claims. Moreover, Saudi schoolbooks and curriculum are actively exported to other Arab and Muslim countries, where Saudi largess funds many schools. Indeed, several Muslim schools in the United States have been built and staffed with Saudi money, opening the door to the spread 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. Thus far, our government has downplayed the issue of Saudi education reform. Members of Congress, though, are recognizing that education is at the root of the long dormant problems in the US-Saudi partnership. Resolutions calling for Saudi education reform are pending in the both the House and Senate. To continue to ignore the hate that is integral to Saudi education can no longer be tolerated, all the more so given Saudi demography. More than half of the Saudi population is under the age of 20. What can we expect from these youngsters after years of indoctrination? The answer should be obvious. The United States must press Saudi Arabia, which claims friendship with our country, to excise the hatred that permeates their schoolbooks. Until a new chapter, both literally and figuratively, is written in the American-Saudi relationship, truly amicable ties will be difficult to achieve. David A. Harris is executive director of the American Jewish Committee. This story ran on page A13 of the Boston Globe on 10/14/2003. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
 
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swhitebull    RE:Saudi schools preach hatred- and so do the Egyptians - more Peace Loving Muslims, Sane?   10/22/2003 7:20:16 PM
More from MEMRI, translating from ARAB sources - http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD58003 The New Egyptian Mufti - Dr. Sheikh 'Ali Gum'a: Opinions About Jihad, Supporting Suicide Bombings, and Forbidding Muslims in the U.S. Military From Fighting Other Muslims There has been a recent reorganization of the highest echelons of Egypt's religious establishment: Sheikh Dr. 'Ali Gum'a has been appointed to the post of Egyptian Mufti, replacing Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb (1), who was appointed president of Al-Azhar University. Dr. Al-Tayyeb replaced Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Omar Hashem. The following is a review of a number of the mufti's statements: It is Forbidden for a Muslim in the U.S. Military To Fight His Brother Following the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the start of the war in Afghanistan, a debate arose among Muslim clerics regarding whether it was permitted for Muslims to serve in the U.S.'s armed forces and fight against Muslims in Afghanistan.(2) Sheikh Gum'a objected to Muslims participating in the war as U.S. soldiers. In a Fatwa issued six days after the war began, Sheikh Gum'a wrote:(3) "...There is news that some of the Mujahideen [who fought] recently against the Communist forces are now behind the events that took place on September 11, 2001 in Washington and New York... The U.S. set the columns of soldiers in motion and insisted on moving from suspicion to actual punishment... "The Prophet said: 'Do not go back after [my death] to being infidels who strike each other's necks.' When he was asked about civil war between Muslims, he said: 'If two Muslims fight with their swords and kill each other, the place of both the killer and the killed is in Hell.' "A consensus emerged that it was forbidden for a Muslim to [fight] his brother. Even if the [brother's] guilt was proven, a Muslim is forbidden from fighting his brother, all the more so when it occurs as a result of propaganda and lies. "A Hadith says: 'A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim; he does not abandon him and he does not give him away.' ...The Muslim soldier in the American army must refrain [from participating] in this war, and if he cannot, he must serve in the [logistic] ranks, and if he cannot, he must submit his resignation. If he is forced to [fight] and is among the combating ranks, he is forbidden from killing a Muslim with his weapon; if he kills him in error he must pay reparation. If he kills him intentionally, he has committed the sin of killing a Muslim intentionally."(4) He Who Carries Out Martyrdom Operations Against the Zionists is a Shahid Sheikh Gum'a was one of the twenty-eight Al-Azhar clerics who signed a communiqué opposing the position of Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, who has at times prohibited suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.(5) Sheikh Gum'a was also a signatory to the "Basic Announcement of the World Campaign For Resistance to Aggression," which stated: "The Islamic nation is, in the recent period, subject to cruel aggression on the part of the forces of oppression and tyranny, primarily the Zionist forces and the American administration, led by the extreme right, that acts to impose [their] hegemony on the nations and on the peoples and to change their curricula and their social systems..."(6) In an interview conducted in early July 2003 with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Haqiqa, Sheikh Gum'a discussed current political topics and offered his view on the issues of suicide bombings and the killing of foreigners: Question: "Who has the authority to call for Jihad against the aggressors?" Sheikh Gum'a: "The one with the authority to declare Jihad is the imam who has under his [command] a regular army capable of waging a war of regular armies. When the Prophet was in Mecca, he had no army, and therefore he could not declare Jihad... that is, when there was a state of enmity between Muslims and the polytheists and there was harm caused to the believers by the polytheists, all the Prophet ordered his comrades to do was to say: 'You have your religion and we have our religion.' "[But], when the army in Al-Madina was formed, there was land, there was a regime, and there was the capability to fight, the Prophet launched war... "The Prophet taught us that warfare can exist only under a flag, and that the one with the right to declare Jihad is the one with the flag. The one with the flag in our day is the president of the state, in every one of the [Muslim] countries. He, and the leaders at his side, are capable of assessing whether this war is beneficial or whether it leads to loss, whether the war will protect the Muslims or whether it will harm them..." Question: "If so, what is the rule regarding a young man who infiltrates into the land of Palestine for the sake of Jihad without the permission of the ruler, and is killed?" Sheikh Gum'a: "He is a Shahid, because Palestine is a special ca
 
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