A coalition of human rights groups has written to leaders of the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee advocating passage of a bill that would require the Department of State to produce and make public all passages in Saudi textbooks that urge Muslims to kill nonbelievers and commit other terrorist acts, Human Rights Watch said in a press release on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th September, 2018) A coalition of human rights groups has written to leaders of the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee advocating passage of a bill that would require the Department of State to produce and make public all passages in Saudi textbooks that urge Muslims to kill nonbelievers and commit other terrorist acts, Human Rights Watch said in a press release on Thursday.
"Textbooks published by Saudi Arabia's government continue to contain passages that 'extol jihad and violence against infidels,' urge believers to avoid befriending nonbelievers," teach that 'Muslims who convert to another religion should be killed,' assert that 'homosexuals are to be stoned to death,' and advocate 'beating women when they disobey and stoning them to death if they have an affair,'" the release stated, citing a recent report by the bipartisan US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Taking timely action on the Saudi Educational Transparency and Reform Act would send an important message about the House of Representatives' intention to ensure that Saudi reforms include a shift away from the discriminatory and hateful language currently found in its public school textbooks, the letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Ed Royce and ranking Democrat Eliot Engel said.
In addition to identifying problematic passages, the legislation would also require monitoring of Saudi textbooks shipped to other nations, Saudi efforts to retrieve and destroy old editions and Saudi efforts to reform teacher training.
The letter was signed by Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain; the Anti-Defamation League; the Council on Global Equality; Human Rights First; Human Rights Watch and the Project on middle East Democracy.
Many scholars have cited an austere version of islam known as Wahhabism as the basis for the terrorist ideology developed by al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden.
