Some 150 Saudis, including judges, university professors and a cleric with links to Muslim militants, have signed a document warning the kingdom against changing its Islam-based school curricula.
| That right there kind of tells you something, doesn't it? |
The warning, which was obtained by Reuters on Saturday, was signed on January 1, a day after Saudi intellectuals, clerics and prominent personalities recommended educational reforms at the end of a conference held to tackle the roots of militancy.
| Those would be the Soddy intellectuals, clerics and prominent personalities without links to Muslim militants. Overt links, anyway... |
The kingdomâs education system has come under attack in the West for promoting hatred towards Christians and Jews. In October, Education Ministry officials began removing references they saw as encouraging militancy. Saudi Arabia, along with five other Gulf countries, also agreed last month to amend its school books to help stamp out militancy. The warning criticised the proposed changes in the curriculum as American pressure that was aimed at âtaking the kingdom along the path of infidelsâ.
| "Mindless violence is as Islamic as turbans, dammit! Our traditions must be preserved!" |
âAny omissions or mutilation of what was written by the Islamic scholars... contradicts the national unity the state is calling for, as this unity is based on our religious creed,â the statement said. Reformists in the Magick ultra-conservative kingdom criticised the warning. âThis is an attempt by hardliners who benefit from the status quo to keep their influence,â said one, who declined to be named. The signatories included Sheikh Safar al-Hawali, a cleric with links to militants who reportedly encouraged some of them to surrender to the police. It named others as Nasser al-Omar, a professor at an Islamic university, and Abdullah bin Jibrin, a former religious authority. In December, a group of Saudi reformists sent a petition to Crown Prince Abdullah calling for the kingdomâs absolute monarchy to become a constitutional one and for the public to have more say in affairs of state. |