Saudi Arabia S Troubling Educational Curriculum

Saudi Arabia is an ally in the fight against terrorism. Many of the same terrorist organizations that threaten the United States also desire to overthrow the Saudi Government and break our partnership with the government. It is a key member of the Coalition to Fight ISIS. In 2016, Saudi Arabia adopted strict laws prohibiting fundraising for terrorism, jointly designated support networks for al-Qaeda and the Taliban. However, the Saudis still have much more they need to do at home to counter the sources of extremism in the region. The battle against terrorism will ultimately have to be fought and won on the battlefield of ideas. The Kingdom is playing the role of both arsonist and firefighter when it comes to Islamic extremism. Nowhere is this more evident than the textbooks Saudi Arabia produces to teach young people. For too long, Saudi Arabia's education curriculum has inspired the very ideology that is at the root of many terrorist organizations like ISIS and al-Qaeda. Saudi textbooks are full of anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories, and calls to violence that have incited students both at home and across the world. This poisonous ideology has provided the groundwork for generations of extremism. ISIS adopted official Saudi textbooks for its schools in 2015 until that terrorist organization could publish its own textbooks. Its export of hateful material through Saudi-funded schools abroad has helped spread the toxic ideology to more tolerant and open Muslim communities in countries such as Kosovo and Indonesia.

Saudi Arabia's troubling educational curriculum : hearing before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fifteenth Congress, first session, July 19, 2017.

"On 17 April 2020, eleven soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) were killed during a battle with 40 fighters of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Patikul town, in the Sulu region of Mindanao, southern Philippines. The ASG had apparently ambushed the troops during the latter's operations aimed at tracking down two senior ASG figures, Radullan Sahiron and Hatib Sawadjaan-the leader of the Philippine branch of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) global terror network. The firefight between the pro-ISIS ASG and the AFP forces was apparently the bloodiest in months. This encounter occurred in the midst of the worldwide novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak that had not spared the southern Philippines as well. A government spokesperson acknowledged the strain on the armed forces, who were on "the forefront as the government's arm to prevent the spread of the dreaded disease on the one hand", while simultaneously engaged in "battling this terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group""--

Using prominent American-style universities as case studies, American Universities in the Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy explores how these institutions relate to U.S. foreign policy interests and how this relationship has evolved from the mid-19th century to today.

Saudi Arabia influences American policy through both conventional and unconventional methods, all due to the petro-dollars that have been generated from America's addiction to foreign oil. With chapters written by renowned experts, this book uses first-hand accounts to explore this vast influence