Saudi textbooks revised, but still incite hate

[Valin]

Long War Journal

Marcus Sheff & David Andrew Weinberg

March 30, 2020

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has been in power now for just over half a decade.  He and his son Crown Prince Mohammed have been credited with carrying out a comprehensive reform agenda to modernize the kingdom’s economy and liberalize its society.

(Snip)

Following up on several recent studies of the Saudi curriculum by ADL, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Education in School Textbooks (IMPACT-se) just completed a longer, comprehensive review of Saudi textbooks since 2016, using standards for peace and tolerance outlined by UNESCO as a benchmark.

The results are eye-opening, including the examination of textbooks for the 2019-2020 academic year that are currently in use. In some respects, progress has been made. Hostility towards Christians has been softened in some regards. References to Christianity as a colonial force and “an invalid and perverted religion” have been removed from the latest Saudi curriculum..............(Snip)

Yet, on the other hand, the latest Saudi curriculum remains plagued by intolerance. Non-Muslims – including Christians and Jews – are still demonized in the latest books as infidels, who are described as enemies of God and all Muslims.  Shi’ite Muslims, referred to derogatorily as “polytheists,” are similarly marginalized and condemned. 

Meanwhile, vicious incitement against gay men continues unabated. They are still presented in this year’s books as scapegoats for societal misfortune, with children taught that society will be punished with disease and disaster for the sin of homosexuality. The kingdom’s lessons continue to teach that the proper penalty for men having sex with men is death.

In addition, the kingdom’s official textbooks still contain numerous messages of anti-Jewish hatred. Jews are described at one point as monkeys and blamed as assassins of Islamic prophets or caliphs throughout history, although some of these references have been cut out since 2017.  Jews are portrayed in several instances as eternally treacherous, guilty of committing evil and determined to harm Muslim holy places. Jews are repeatedly accused of plotting to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. For example, the textbooks’ authors teach the blood libel blaming Jews or Israeli authorities for setting fire to the mosque in 1969, an act that was actually perpetrated by a mentally ill Christian man from Australia.

(Snip)