Kinder, Gentler Saudi Textbooks?

The Saudi Institute, a seemingly reasonable bunch of well-connected experts on the Kingdom and its relations with the U.S., has just released a report on a current Saudi Arabian textbook.

Readers of this site (yes, both of you) may recall some of the hatred spewed by previous Saudi textbooks, as summarized in a paper I wrote earlier this year. Some original sources on the web include the AJC (not just my initials, it turns out) and MEMRI.

The press release on the current Saudi Institute report is titled “New Saudi Curriculum Disparages Christianity and Judaism.” The supporting evidence for this claim is the following quote from a textbook on Islamic religious doctrine (fiqh or figh, in Arabic):

“For the Teacher: Ensure to explain the following:… that all religions, other than Islam, are false, including that of the Jews, Christians, and all others.”

Huh.

Two comments to the folks at the S.I.:

1) Don’t most orthodox/evangelical Christians teach that all other religions are false, and that the only route to heaven involves acknowledging Jesus as the Savior and son of God? (In which case this textbook is no more offensive, in and of itself, than teachings which are already common in some Christian schools). And

2) Isn’t this a far cry from earlier Saudi textbooks which taught such things as that Judgment Day would not come until Muslims fought and killed Jews (see links above)? And called Jews and Christians "Apes" and "Pigs" (don't remember which was which).

There are many caveats here. It may just be, for instance, that this new textbook is somewhat sanitized while the actual classroom instruction remains essentially unaltered. But the S.I. report doesn’t prove that.

I’m not at all convinced that the Saudi education system has been substantially reformed, but until we see translations of more textbooks, and ideally some evidence of what is actually being said, right now, by classroom teachers, the current S.I. report seems a bit over-extended.