"But critics are sceptical about whether such initiatives would work as long as the powerful, and ultraconservative, religious establishment in Saudi Arabia continues to exert enormous influence over society." Uh huh.
How did 40,000 clerics -- 40,000 -- get The Religion of Peace™ so drastically wrong in the first place?
Tiny Minority of Extremists™ Update: "Saudis to retrain 40,000 clerics," by Magdi Abdlehadi for the BBC (thanks to all who sent this in):
Saudi Arabia is to retrain its 40,000 prayer leaders - also known as imams - in an effort to counter militant Islam....The plan is part of a wider programme launched by the Saudi monarch a few years ago to encourage moderation and tolerance in Saudi society.
The ministry of religious affairs and new centre for national dialogue will carry out the training, the paper said.
The centre was created five years ago to disseminate a moderate interpretation of Islamic tradition....
Saudi clerics have long been accused of encouraging Saudi youth to join global jihad and of inciting hatred of non-Muslims.
Nearly 1,000 imams have already been sacked over the past few years.
The Saudi royal family has come under increasing pressure - mainly from Washington - to change religious textbooks and to rein in militant clerics.
But critics are sceptical about whether such initiatives would work as long as the powerful, and ultraconservative, religious establishment in Saudi Arabia continues to exert enormous influence over society.
Only last week, a prominent cleric called for the beheading of two liberal writers who had questioned the orthodox view that Muslims can not change their religion.
Remember everything you've been taught about Islam and its place in the world and the duty of Muslims everywhere to wage jihad on those who don't recognize Mohammed?
Never mind!
Call it the Emily Litella School of Islam.
And for their next trick, they are going to convince all the world's animals of prey to become vegetarians.
Does the referred-to "centre for national dialogue" have a web site? If so, can someone please point me at it? Yes, in Arabic.
Even a less generic name would be helpful. In English or in Arabic.
"How did 40,000 clerics -- 40,000 -- get The Religion of Peace™ so drastically wrong in the first place?"
This is just a guess - but I think they read the Qur'an.
How many imams does Saudi Arabia have?
OT
This deals with the "honor killing" of Amina and Sarah Said.
http://pajamasmedia.com/xpress/phyllischesler/2008/03/10/jihad_comes_to_dallas_the_fema.php
I poked around a little and didn't find a good official site for the Ministry or the Centre. But I did find on a Ministry Arabic-language content site a link whose text is "against terror" and the link goes to a page with a lot of individual documents on it (as PDF files or Word files), so I have something to chew on.
http://alminbar.al-islam.com/Mehwar_erhabM.aspx?nid=1&pno=1
This means - they will be trained in wahabbism and learn how to double talk so they can tell us with a smile that they don't hate us while sharpening their swords.
Since their biggest export is jihadists, besides oil, I wouldn't trust a saudi as far as I can spit (unless I spit on them).
This ought to be a hoot. Some possible ideas:
-It's not OK to kill infidels but you may stone them. If they happen to die then it's Illah's will.
-Having more than 3 wives is unacceptable.
-Marrying 6 year olds is out. A girl must reach double digits in age in order to be married.
At that rate the imams will join the 21st century in about the 35th century.
How did 40,000 clerics -- 40,000 -- get The Religion of Peace™ so drastically wrong in the first place?
........................................
Good question. Here are a few comparative statistics. Depending on how they are catagorized, there are between 30,000 and 40,000 Catholic priests in the United States, to serve 60-70 million Catholics--about a quarter of the population, although they are not all frequent churchgoers.
Now, the Vatican often castigates American Catholics for being too liberal in their attitudes--on contraception, on divorce, and even sometimes on homosexuality. Still, I doubt that the Vatican would ever claim that *every American Catholic priest* was a misunderstander of his own religion.
And yet, as absurd as this would be, it is more credible than the Saudi claim. After all, American priests mostly attend seminaries a continent away from the mother church, and augment their latin with english.
Saudi imams are being trained in madrasses right in the birthplace of Islam, and with the sort of strict oversight you find in a theocracy.
The entire population of Saudi Arabia is 27million. JeffS asks an excellent question: How many imams does Saudi Arabia have? I have been unable to find any estimates. Still, even though I'm sure that Imams are pretty thick on the ground in Saudi Arabia, 40,000 has to be a pretty large percentage of "misunderstanders".
So what does this article mean? Either it's a completely bogus attempt to convince the West of Saudi reform, or--if the attempt at reform is genuine--it's likely to make Wahabbis even more convinced that they represent "true Islam".
40,000 imams got Islam "wrong". How many imams got Islam "right"?
I'd be surprised if they could find one imam who could teach the class the "right" way. But maybe the teacher won't be an imam, maybe it will be noted Islamic expert Dr. Rice, or her boss, the brilliant Islamic scholar GWB. Maybe the training consists of forcing the imams to repeat the mantra "Islam is the Religion of Peace" three or four times. That ought to undo 1400 years of Islamic jurisprudence and history.
And of course, remember, when the Saudi Royal Family says that the imams have gotten Islam wrong, they don't mean the part about smiting at the neck of the non-believers. They only mean the part about it being okay for Muslims to overthrow governments that are not sufficiently in accordance with Islam.
Can we label this a 'factory recall'?
I am hoping they will be 'recalling' all of the American models that they produced.
Some Saudis are getting the picture: if they are involved in another 9/11 or worse event, there´s no telling what could happen to them and their economy. They like being rich as Croesus.
1000, 10000, 100000, 1000000000000 ... an Islamic count has absolutely no bearing to the reality, therefore they aint worth a cent. The Mo-madians never tell the truth because they never learn to tell it. The bi-product of Mo's teaching about not to tell the truth is they do not trust each other either. They are so jacked-up, it is unthinkable.
"Moderation and tolerance" means that religious leaders in Saudi Arabia must not inveigh against the al-Saud government. Elsewhere, of course, holy war may, and should, continue apace.
JeffS-
"How many imams does Saudi Arabia have?"
40,002.
(The last 2 are going to be some busy fellows.)