Denial and dissimulation from the Saudis, broadcast with dismal credulity from AFP:
RIYADH (AFP) – The September 11 attacks in which 15 of the 19 suicide hijackers came from Saudi Arabia triggered a torrent of US accusations that the Muslim kingdom’s education system was fostering Islamic extremism.
Five years on the debate continues. Saudi educators argue that the problem lies in misinterpretation of religious texts or their “exploitation” to justify intolerance.
One dares not blame the Qur’an itself, or the ahadith and Sunna, of course:
“The problem is not with the texts of religious curricula, which are largely based on the Koran and the Sunna (Prophet Mohammed’s doings and sayings),” said Hamad al-Majed, an education professor at Imam Mohammed bin Saud University.
But some religious texts are interpreted by extremists to back up their thinking, while other texts fuel extremism when taken out of context, said Majed, who has taken part in dialogues with Americans on religious freedom.
Speaking of taking things out of context, and relying unquestioningly on someone else’s interpretation:
One example is a verse urging Muslim faithful to “fight the infidels around you, and be tough with them.”
Chapter and verse would be nice, but did it occur to the author to ask? Has the author ever picked up a Qur’an?
The quote comes from this Qur’anic passage:
O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him). (Qur’an 9:123)
Here’s the nice professor to explain it away:
The verse referred to a situation in which the prophet was under attack by enemies and amounted to a call for self-defense, not to go on the offensive, the professor told AFP.
Feel better? No? Good.
Saudi officials, who started reviewing schoolbooks even before the 2001 attacks in the United States, should “look at this matter without sensitivity and remove whatever could be misinterpreted” from curricula, he said.
A red herring, unless they’re prepared to call literal interpretation a “misinterpretation.”
Changes have been introduced and continue to be made. Even “the dose of religious studies” fed to students is a subject of debate, he added.
Khaled al-Awwad, a member of the appointed Shura (consultative) Council and former education ministry undersecretary, said that since September 11, curricula have been reviewed by specialized committees which dropped some of the material that could be misunderstood or “exploited” to promote extremism.
Saudi curricula in general do not encourage intolerance of other faiths or extremism, he insisted.
But as always, the real catalyst for violence is never from within the Muslim camp:
Other factors are more liable to fuel extremism, such as “the injustice inflicted on some Muslim peoples” and US support for Israel, which creates hatred toward the United States, Awwad argued.
According to Aziza al-Mana, a US-educated professor of education at King Saud University, “the flaw can be traced to the insertion of personal views of the authors in religious schoolbooks.”
“After a verse (from the Koran holy book) or a text from the Hadeeth (words of the prophet), the author adds his personal, fanatical views,” she said.
Mana, who sits on a committee preparing the sixth round of a “national dialogue” on developing the Saudi education system, said it needed to be revamped to introduce more relevant sciences, change teaching methods and foster independent thinking.
Good luck with that.
“If we can create a student who thinks freely, he will not be unduly influenced by personal opinions featuring in some books … Our students now don’t have a critical mind,” Mana said.