A victory for moderate Islam over extremism has been a key foreign policy goal for the United States since the events of September 11. The reform and modernizing of education throughout the Muslim world is a crucial building block in the battle against extremism. Teaching hatred has bolstered groups like al Qaeda, a fact that Osama bin Laden himself recognizes; in an April 23, 2006, audiotape, he railed against “interfere[nce] with school curricula.”

Saudi Arabia, a major source of funding for education and schools throughout the Islamic world, has expressed an eagerness to help promote religious tolerance and has promised a comprehensive reform of its own educational system, long acknowledged to be under the influence of the Wahhabi establishment. On March 7, 2005, Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman Adel al-Jubeir held a press conference in Washington, D.C., to announce, “We have reviewed our educational curriculums. We have removed materials that are inciteful or intolerant towards people of other faiths.” This assurance was reiterated two months ago at a town hall meeting in Los Angeles by the new Saudi ambassador, Prince Turki al-Faisal.

But evidence of these reforms has been slow in coming. Redrafted Saudi textbooks preach hatred of Jews and Christians, and these books are used not only in Saudi Arabia, but throughout the Saudi-funded education network, including in the United States. Is real reform on the way? What does the new “reformed curriculum” instruct students about “the other,” and what are the global implications of the instruction toward violence? And is educational reform in Saudi Arabia really a priority for the United States government?

Please join AEI for a panel discussion to address these and other questions. Speakers include Nina Shea, director of Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom, and Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs and a graduate of Saudi public schools. Shea and al-Ahmed are the authors of a new Freedom House report, to be released on May 24, which reviews the teaching of tolerance in Saudi public school texts.