Textbook Diplomacy: Why the State Department Shelved a Study on Incitement in Saudi Education Materials

(Foundation for Defense of Democracies) David Andrew Weinberg - With President Obama poised to visit Saudi Arabia at the end of this month, there is a looming counterterrorism problem: Saudi Arabia's ongoing sponsorship of religious hatred in its public education system. In 2011, the State Department commissioned a comprehensive study on Saudi Arabia's government-published textbooks, which are widely distributed both inside the country and abroad. However, when the study was ready for release in 2012, U.S. government officials decided not to publish it. Current and former officials assert that the study was withheld because of how bad it makes the Saudis look. Passages continue to dehumanize Jews and Christians, promote the murder of homosexuals, and sanction violence against Muslims who do not follow the Wahhabi brand of Islam sponsored by the Saudi state.


2014-03-26 00:00:00

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