Saudi
Curriculum Still Promotes Radicalization, Former Congressman Testifies
by IPT News • Jul 25, 2017 at
2:52 pm
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Saudi Arabia has made progress in ridding its school textbooks teachings
hostile toward other faiths, former U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., said last
week in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism,
Nonproliferation, and Trade. But, more needs to be done, including more
steps to ensure teachers aren't promoting "a more radicalized version
of Islam."
Wolf expressed concern that educational material used by the Saudi
government-funded Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia may have
potentially been responsible for inspiring terrorism. He cited the example
of Ahmed Abu Ali, a former valedictorian from the school, who is currently serving
out his sentence in the supermax in Colorado for plotting to assassinate a
former U.S. president.
"While it is impossible to say whether Mr. Abu Ali was directly
radicalized by the textbooks used at the Islamic Saudi Academy, the use of
books that promote religious discrimination and the justification of
violence toward non-believers cannot be tolerated," Wolf said.
He expressed frustration that the State Department never met with the
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to
translate textbooks used at the school.
It since has closed,
replaced by the King
Abdullah Academy, also funded by Saudi Arabia's government. No publicly
available information is however available on textbooks taught at the new
school.
During his House tenure, and since joining the Wilberforce
Initiative in 2015, Wolf has been a leading voice against intolerance and incitement to
violence promoted by Saudi Arabia's government-published textbooks.
Saudi Arabia's promotion and export of radical Wahhabism, including
through its school textbooks, remains a concern. There's a reason more
researchers aren't focused on the problem, Wolf said: "By
funding top American university research centers, the Saudi government has
been able to minimize the voices of those in academia who would otherwise
have the best means of researching the effects of radical Wahhabism. In
other countries such as Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Indonesia they have
continued to promote radicalism."
He urged the government to follow USCIRF recommendations to annually
review Saudi education textbooks to see if passages that teach religious
intolerance have been removed, and press the Saudi government to try to
eliminate older versions of Saudi textbooks containing material that
teaches hatred and intolerance of others.
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