Stuff That Seems To Be OK With Barbara Schuddenboom

Here's a little report on Saudi Arabian textbooks, based upon the research of Ali Ahmed of the Insitute for Gulf Affairs:


Nearly four years ago, Saudi dissident Ali al-Ahmed and author Stephen Schwartz conducted a study for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. They examined textbooks and other publications distributed by the Saudi government and by Saudi-funded organizations. They found such messages as these:

“Judaism and Christianity are deviant religions.”

“The unbelievers, idolaters and others like them must be hated and despised.”

“We say to every Christian and every Jew and all those outside Islam, ‘your children are born into Islam, but you and their mother take them away from Islam with your corrupt rearing.'”

Since then, Saudi spokesmen, assisted by high-priced Washington public relations professionals, have claimed that such intolerant views were no longer being promoted by the rulers of Arabia.

Saudi advisor Adel al-Jubeir -- recently awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of North Texas – stated last year: “We have reviewed our educational curriculums. We have removed materials that are inciteful (sic) or intolerant towards people of other faiths.”

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the new Saudi ambassador to the United States, said recently: “Not only have we eliminated what might be perceived as intolerance from old textbooks that were in our system, we have implemented a comprehensive internal revision and moderation plan.”

But these spokesmen are misinformed. Ali al-Ahmed, now head of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, obtained a dozen textbooks used during the current academic year by the Saudi Ministry of Education. He turned them over to Freedom House which then had the materials translated by two independent Arabic speakers. Among the messages included:

“The apes are Jews, the people of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christians, the infidels of the communion of Jesus.”

“The clash between this [Muslim] community and the Jews and Christians has endured, and it will continue as long as God wills.”

“Whoever obeys the Prophet and accepts the oneness of God cannot maintain a loyal friendship with those who oppose God and His Prophet, even if they are his closest relatives.”

“This indoctrination,” wrote Nina Shea, director of Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, “begins in a first-grade text and is reinforced and expanded each year. By the 12th grade, students following the Saudi curriculum will be instructed that their religious obligation includes waging jihad against the infidel to ‘spread the faith.'”

What's more, such ideas are being taught not only to Saudi students but also to children in Saudi-funded schools in Pakistan, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy – and the United States as well.


A year back, Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom did a study of literature in American Mosques:


The 89-page report, “Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques,” is based on a year-long study of over two hundred original documents, all disseminated, published or otherwise generated by the government of Saudi Arabia and collected from more than a dozen mosques in the United States.

The report is available on the Freedom House website at: http://freedomhouse.org/religion/

The propagation of hate ideology by Saudi Arabia is known to be worldwide, but its occurrence within the United States has received scant attention until now. Within worldwide Sunni Islam, followers of Saudi Arabia’s extremist Wahhabi ideology are a distinct minority, as is evident by the millions of Muslims who have chosen to make America their home and are upstanding, law-abiding citizens and neighbors.

The report concludes that the Saudi government propaganda examined reflects a “totalitarian ideology of hatred that can incite to violence,” and the fact that it is “being mainstreamed within our borders through the efforts of a foreign government, namely Saudi Arabia, demands our urgent attention.” The report finds: “Not only does the government of Saudi Arabia not have a right – under the First Amendment or any other legal document – to spread hate ideology within U.S. borders, it is committing a human rights violation by doing so.”

Such publications that “advocate an ideology of hatred have no place in a nation founded on religious freedom and toleration,” write James Woolsey, chairman of the board of Freedom House, in the foreword to the report.

Among the key findings of the report:

• Various Saudi government publications gathered for this study, most of which are in Arabic, assert that it is a religious obligation for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews and warn against imitating, befriending, or helping them in any way, or taking part in their festivities and celebrations;

• The documents promote contempt for the United States because it is ruled by legislated civil law rather than by totalitarian Wahhabi-style Islamic law. They condemn democracy as un-Islamic;

• The documents stress that when Muslims are in the lands of the unbelievers, they must behave as if on a mission behind enemy lines. Either they are there to acquire new knowledge and make money to be later employed in the jihad against the infidels, or they are there to proselytize the infidels until at least some convert to Islam. Any other reason for lingering among the unbelievers in their lands is illegitimate,

• For a Muslim who fails to uphold the Saudi Wahhabi sect’s sexual mores (i.e. through homosexual activity or heterosexual activity outside of marriage), the edicts published by the Saudi government’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, and found in American mosques advise, “it would be lawful for Muslims to spill his blood and to take his money;”

• Regarding those who convert out of Islam, the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs explicitly asserts, they “should be killed;”

• Saudi textbooks and other publications in the collection, propagate a Nazi-like hatred for Jews, treat the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion as historical fact, and avow that the Muslim’s duty is to eliminate the state of Israel;

• Regarding women, the Saudi publications instruct that they should be veiled, segregated from men and barred from certain employment and roles ...


In the actual body of the report, it is asserted that, according to King Fahd, Saudi Arabia has funded more than 1,500 Mosques, 200 Universities, and 2,000 schools for educating children in the United States alone.

I called up Ali Ahmed, of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, identified myself as Pastorius the blogger, and asked him if, in his opinion, this literature is still in American Schools and Mosques to this day. His response was,

"Yes. In fact, you can call the Saudi Embassy and ask them to send you iformation on Islam, and they will freely send such literature. The phone number is 202-342-3800."

I asked Mr. al-Ahmed if American Muslims agree with such literature. He indicated that most don't, but added, "The problem is they will not stand up against it. I do not stand for shutting anyone up. But, when it is government sponsored, we need to act against it. Our world will not be able to live in peace if such things are tolerated. We need to go beyond tolerance to take right action against this kind of thing."

Ali al-Ahmed put it as well as I could have.

The fact is, there is no major Muslim organization working against such hatred. Ali al-Ahmed's Institute is a lobbying organization, based in Washington D.C., concerned with international affairs. As such he does good work, but the work he does does not reach down to the common Muslim.

Some organization needs to be formed which speaks for average Muslims, and which will stand up and speak out against this kind of evil. Until this happens, the distrust among Infidels will increase. At a certain point, this distrust will build and become dangerous.

I suggest that Muslims get together and invited us Christians, Jews, etc., down to their Mosques on a Saturday afternoon for a day of clearing out the hate literature. We can pack up the crap, put it in the trunks of our cars and haul it down to the local recycling plant.

A simple step such as this could reap huge dividends for the Muslim community.