Saudi Brings in the Love

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A_Wanderer

ONE love, blood, life
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By getting rid of the hatred from their textbooks
A review of a sample of official Saudi textbooks for Islamic studies used during the current academic year reveals that, despite the Saudi government's statements to the contrary, an ideology of hatred toward Christians and Jews and Muslims who do not follow Wahhabi doctrine remains in this area of the public school system. The texts teach a dualistic vision, dividing the world into true believers of Islam (the "monotheists") and unbelievers (the "polytheists" and "infidels").

This indoctrination begins in a first-grade text and is reinforced and expanded each year, culminating in a 12th-grade text instructing students that their religious obligation includes waging jihad against the infidel to "spread the faith." ...

The Saudi public school system totals 25,000 schools, educating about 5 million students. In addition, Saudi Arabia runs academies in 19 world capitals, including one outside Washington in Fairfax County, that use some of these same religious texts. ...

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." ...

NINTH GRADE:

"The clash between this [Muslim] community (umma) and the Jews and Christians has endured, and it will continue as long as God wills."

"It is part of God's wisdom that the struggle between the Muslim and the Jews should continue until the hour [of judgment]."

"Muslims will triumph because they are right. He who is right is always victorious, even if most people are against him." ...

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."
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Pfft, idiots ~ if only the inglorious deaths that many a product of this type of thinking strive for could be met in a way that doesn't kill others.

Of course one may also be led to believe that this makes these textbooks Islamophobic as they are obviously creating the (obviously) false impression that the religion or sects within have a bit of a connection to violence.
 
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Once a Wahhabist, always a Wahhabist. They made a few cosmetic changes after 9/11, but trust me, things are not going to change under the present king.
 
Why didn't someone try and smack these guys upside the head during the first Gulf War??? Oh ya, we used they're bases. Oh well, we should of smacked them upside the head anyway!!!
 
I don't think "smacking these guys" is going to do anything about the basis of the problem, which is an unchanging emphasis on Wahhabist Islam. Saudi Arabia is not going to stop being a Wahhabist state, and they're not going to stop teaching jihad as holy war. Traditionally, the word "jihad" means a personal struggle with sin, not violence. True, there have always been "holy warriors" in Islam, but there have also been many peaceful Muslims who were friends with all sorts of people. Mevlana Celaddin Rumi, who lived in Konya, Turkey, in the thirteenth century, started the whirling dervishes and could have also started the Coexist deal. He was a Muslim, too.
 
Traditionally, the word "jihad" means a personal struggle with sin, not violence.
I think that there is more than enough evidence for there being different forms of jihad of which physical warfare has been part of since the begining, it predates Wahabbism by about a millenium.
 
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A_Wanderer said:
I think that there is more than enough evidence for there being different forms of jihad of which physical warfare has been part of since the begining, it predates Wahabbism by about a millenium.

Oh, the physical warfare does indeed predate Wahhabism. The Seljuk Turk warriors who fought and defeated the Byzantines go back aways, their first victory in Anatolia was Manzikert in 1071. It didn't help the Byzantines that even Greeks in Anatolia began to think their government was a bad joke and started supporting the Turkish invaders and the Franks in the Byzantine army turned out to be a pain in the ass to the Byzantines. They refused to fight at Manzikert, thus the loss to the Seljuk Turks. Damn, I need to review my paper on the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks in Anatolia.
This doesn't mean that there aren't Muslims who interpret "jihad" as a personal struggle against sin. This is pretty much the norm in Turkey, they have very few "holy war" fanatics and they're not viewed favorably by the Turkish public as a whole. Some lady in a village outside of Bursa who was wearing the Islamic headscarf carried a chair across the street for me to sit in because I was winded from climbing the street. She knew damn well I was an American because I spoke English, but that didn't keep her from performing an act of great kindness. She's a Muslim, too.
 
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nbcrusader said:
Is the interpretation of "jihad" a more recent development?

Well, there have been "holy warriors" since Mohammed's time. Mohammed himself fought his opponents in Mecca. But the Arabic word "jihad" literally means a personal struggle against sin, not an order to kill the infidel. The Wahhabists are the sect who've really taken "kill the infidel" to heart, but there are people in Saudi Arabia, like the main character in the "Princess Trilogy", who are peace-loving people who see the practice of their religion as a struggle against their sinful impulses. The practice of Ramadan is a good example of this. Having just come home from a Muslim country where it's easier to get alcoholic beverages than it is in the U.S, I can tell you, there are plenty of Muslims around the globe who agree with us that this world is big enough for all of us. The mosques in Turkey are amazing buildings. They are beautiful. I can't stop talking about them. In Saudi Arabia, non-Muslims aren't allowed to enter mosques, but we're welcome to visit them in Turkey.
 
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