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Saudi educators warned not to foster terrorism on Saudi soil
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz urged educators on Sunday to avoid promoting extremist concepts and warned them against covering up on extremist activities. "The first thing teachers should do is serve religion and the homeland, nothing else - neither serving terrorism nor external principles that come to us and which we don't accept," the state SPA news agency quoted Abdullah as telling education ministry officials and school heads during a meeting marking the new academic year. Saudi Arabia's educational system and curricula have come under fire in the West, particularly the United States, for allegedly fueling the kind of extremism that led to the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which 15 of 19 presumed suicide hijackers were Saudi. But the Muslim kingdom, stung by a wave of terror on its own soil which began in May 2003 and has been blamed on Islamist militants, is taking tentative steps to reform its education system to combat extremism.Officials also endlessly repeat that Islam is a tolerant religion that has nothing to do with the "deviant thinking" of fanatics. "Your creed is the most important thing," Abdullah, the kingdom's de facto ruler, told the educators. "But this is the Koran (holy book) and Sunna (the prophet Mohammad's doings and sayings), no more. As to the interpretations (of Islamic teachings), you know better than most what they have led to," Abdullah said. He was apparently referring to interpretations that justify resorting to terror, namely the ideology of "takfeer" under which other Muslims are branded as infidels in order to legitimize violence against them. "I think some of you know about certain things (extremist activities by teachers) but try to cover up a bit," Abdullah said. "But there's no room for that. This is a question of life or death, of a country, and before that of a religion," he said. Posted by: TS(vice girl) 2004-09-06 |
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