Religious commission criticizes Saudi textbooks

An Islamic academy in Northern Virginia plans to revise before the new school year textbooks that reportedly advocate violence against non-Muslims and some Muslims, a school spokesman has said.

The Islamic Saudi Academy's head of Muslim teachings made the comment to the Cybercast News Service (CNS News) June 17, less than a week after a United States panel called for the reforms. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued an eight-page report June 11 on the curriculum, citing some examples of passages it said promote violence and intolerance.

Among the examples are statements from two 12th-grade textbooks used at the academy, which is operated by the Saudi Arabian government:

-- One book says a Muslim may kill an apostate (a Muslim who has converted), an adulterer or a person who has intentionally murdered an Islamic believer, according to USCIRF. Allah, the text says, "prohibits killing the soul that God has forbidden (to kill) unless for just cause...." Just cause is explained in the book as "unbelief after belief, adultery, and killing an inviolable believer intentionally," USCIRF reported.

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