Islamic education, Saudi style

There is a story in the National Post about Saudi school textbooks still containing passages showing hatred towards the west and contempt for Christians, Jews and Infidels, along with homosexuals. Children are taught that murder is religiously justified in certain circumstances. Apparently, the U.S. government has been pressuring its friend and ally in the Middle East to tone it down.

The following is a passage, on page 52 (paperback edition) of British historian Charles Allen’s interesting book, God’s Terrorists, The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad:

In about 1744 a remarkable partnership was forged between Muhammad ibn Saud and Al-Wahhab (founder of Wahhabism). This was formulated in an oath-swearing ceremony between the two by which the former took upon himself the role and title of emir, or secular leader, and the latter became the imam, soon afterwards assuming the rather grander title of Sheikh ul-Islam. This alliance allowed the one to become a powerful local ruler and the other to transform the province of Nejd by stages into a dar ul-Islam, that much sought after domain of Faith wherein the true sharia prevailed.

In the 1930s, the Sauds became the effective rulers of all Arabia and the pact continues to the present day. Does the U.S. really think that an oath that has stood for two and a half centuries is going to be set aside in a year, just because America doesn’t care for Wahhabism?

One of the problems with the Saudi-Wahhabi version of Sunni doctrine is that the Saudis fund madrassas (Islamic religious schools) all over the globe, tens of thousands of them, and these materials are the root of the students’ understanding of Islam.

For further reading on the threat these madrassas pose to the west, see here and here.

Tolerance and Unitarians

Now here is something new to me. There are two religions encompassing people known as Unitarians. See if you can guess which religions from these descriptions.

1. Along with the fundamental doctrine (the unity of God), certain characteristics have always marked those who profess unitarianism: a large degree of tolerance, a minimizing of essentials, a repugnance to formulated creed and an historical study of scripture.

2. An oath of absolute loyalty to a religious leader, to follow his every interpretation of scripture and to foreswear all other interpretations, to hate apostates, blasphemers and unbelievers, and to follow the leader in killing apostates, blasphemers and unbelievers, as may be required.

Not too hard now, was it?

The Islamic unitarianism is better known today as Wahhabism (after its 18th century founder, al-Wahhab). It is the official version of Islam taught in Saudi Arabia and in mosques and madrasses around the world supported by Saudi petro-dollars. It is the version espoused by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and endorsed by Osama bin Laden and his associates and acolytes. But originally, the theology was called ad Dawa lil Tawhid, which translates as The Call to Unity. Hence the name Unitarians.

I am indebted to the excellent book, GOD'S TERRORISTS, The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad, by the British historian, Charles Allen.