A Freedom House report in the United States of America said that textbooks used in Saudi Arabia’s schools were promoting religious intolerance. Religions other than the Salafi branch of Islam are demonised, beginning in the first grade. ‘Every religion other than Islam is false.’ By eighth grade, Saudi students are taught: ‘The apes are Jews, the people of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christians, the infidels of the communion of Jesus.’ By the twelfth grade, Saudi students are reading that ‘Jehad is the path of God - which consists of battling against unbelief, oppression, injustice, and those who perpetrate it - is the summit of Islam.’



Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States of America Prince Turki Al-Faisal responded to the Freedom House report in a written statement, saying, ‘The Saudi government has worked diligently during the last five years to overhaul its education system,’ the objective being to ‘fight intolerance.’



Nina Shea, director, Centre for Religious Freedom at Freedom House said Saudi Arabia was positioning itself as the ‘Vatican of Islam,’ an observation Dr Akbar Ahmed, a Pakistani academic contradicted, pointing out that Mecca and Medina, the holiest cities of Islam, happen to be in Saudi Arabia. Muslims throughout the world look up to Saudi Arabia, which is a ‘terrible burden’ on the Saudis because not all Muslims have the same views on even essential religious issues and concepts.



Asked if Saudi Arabia was funding the spread of an austere version of Islam around the world, Dr Ahmed said the world of Islam was only 18 percent Arab. The rest of the community of Muslims does not speak Arabic, which means that for a lot of Muslims, what comes from the Arab world becomes literally the truth, which is doubly dangerous.



The USA Today has expressed in its editorial comments that the Saudi government needs to get serious and transparent about cleaning up the kingdom’s instruction. And the Bush administration must start paying more than its present cursory attention.



To be sure, the Saudi royal family has a dilemma. For years, like other Arab regimes, it has repressed democratic opposition parties but allowed mosques to flourish. It has supported and poured money into the Wahhabi belief system and bolstered the idea that Saudi Arabia is the Vatican of Islam. If Saudi Arabia challenges the grip of the clerics and the religious beliefs too vigorously, it risks provoking an overthrow of the royal family.



The United States also is in a tough position. Saudi Arabia is a strategic U.S. ally that guarantees plentiful oil. Even though President Bush has challenged the Saudis to be more democratic, that hasn’t extended to broad pressure on their education system.

The textbooks are used globally in schools funded by the Saudi government. Changing these books might be at least as important, in the long term, as any military campaign.



How important? Bin Laden certainly knows. In a recent audiotape, he warned against American interference in the school curriculum.



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