Daily News Article - May 25, 2006
1. Match the people mentioned in the article with their positions:
_____ Saud Al-Faisal
_____ Ahmed Omar Abu Ali
_____ Ali Al-Ahmed
_____ Turki Al-Faisal
a. director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs
b. a member of al Qaeda, and a valedictorian of the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Virginia
c. Saudi Foreign Minister and Prince
d. Saudi Ambassador and Prince
2. What is Wahhabism?
3. a) How many months ago did the Saudi government state that it had removed all of the content from its public school textbooks that disparaged other religions?
b) What does the Gulf Affairs/Freedom House report indicate about the current textbooks?
c) How did the Saudi government respond to the Gulf Affairs/Freedom House study?
d) To Muslims, infidels are all non-Muslims, and in Wahhabi Islam, infidels are all non-Muslims and also all non-Wahhabi Muslims. What do the Saudi texts teach students about their relationship with infidels?
4. What claims did Saudi Princes Saud Al-Faisal and Turki Al Faisal make about Saudi schools?
5. 'About Us' on the Islamic Saudi Academy's website reads: "...the Islamic Saudi Academy not only promotes respect and mutual understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, Arabs and Americans while keeping within the Muslim faith, it strives for its staff and students to uphold tolerance, honesty, integrity and compassion..."
Yet the textbooks used in this Washington D.C. area school include the following:
EIGHTH GRADE:
"As cited in Ibn Abbas: The apes are Jews, the people of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christians, the infidels of the communion of Jesus."
TWELFTH GRADE:
"Jihad in the path of God -- which consists of battling against unbelief, oppression, injustice, and those who perpetrate it -- is the summit of Islam. This religion arose through jihad and through jihad was its banner raised high. It is one of the noblest acts, which brings one closer to God, and one of the most magnificent acts of obedience to God."
What should be done about schools in America teaching such hatred?