Comment: Saudi Arabia and the war on terrorism

To say that Saudi Arabia changed after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon would be an understatement. Even if the official Saudi reaction was muted, the Riyadh bombings sharply increased Saudi ire.

More important, the latest bombings drew the attention of the media, both Saudi and foreign, in a seldom seen fashion.

The many changes in how perceptions evolved then and now were due to the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, and Osama bin Laden - a Saudi who was stripped of his citizenship - and his Al Qaida organisation boasted that they carried out such dastardly deeds.

Not surprisingly, in the past two years, the Kingdom has become the target of derision because so little is actually known about the Saudi society. Two main criticisms were levelled at Riyadh that merit discussion.

First, critics pointed to the Saudi education system as a producer of anti-American hatred that, in turn, encouraged these and other terrorist acts, and second, that Saudi financial support fuelled terrorists.

Western critics of the Kingdom insist that a visceral hatred of the West in general, and the United States in particular exists within Saudi Arabia, especially within the broad and powerful religious institutions. Specifically, these accusations identify sermons and edicts that are passionate, often bordering on the hysterical.

According to the critics, homilies delivered by some sheikhs are anti-Christian and anti-Jewish. Indeed, it may be safe to argue that for some Saudis, the Christian world is still engaged in crusades against Muslims, and Christians and Jews are nothing more than infidels or polytheists who, therefore, are not protected people.

When one interprets these sermons or texts in their narrowest forms, the results may well lead to violence, as critics maintain.

Yet, it is also a fact that Muslims in general, and Saudis in particular, have come under direct attack for encouraging such discourse. Some Christian and Jewish fundamentalists have concluded that Islam is a violent religion. Sadly, the list is long, and getting longer every day.

These interpretations are false and extremely dangerous and it is critical that analysts decipher the root causes for such erroneous views. It is vital that steps be taken lest the consequences of inaction encourage extremists on both sides.

What is the reality of the Saudi education system and is it so narrow that few of its graduates can separate the wheat from the chaff? Given that so many Saudis have now graduated from the condemned education system, how come a very tiny minority "deviated," opting for violence?

It would not be inaccurate to state that the Saudi education system has failed the Kingdom. Between 1995 and 1999, 114,000 Saudis graduated from university, of whom 10,000 were engineers and 16,000 were in marke-ting/information technologies.

Another 48,000 earned degrees in art, literature, or religious studies (a high-ranking ministry of education official confided that a single graduate earned a degree in Christian theology and no scholar concentrated on the Jewish faith). Today, few Saudi entre-preneurs wish to hire these graduates, and Riyadh cannot provide cushy government posts to each one.

This reality cannot be changed quickly because the country's cultural environment cannot be replaced or altered without significant pain. It is all well said and done that the curriculum needs to be updated but to actually introduce such changes will take time and, more important, will necessitate a new compact at the highest levels of government.

Introducing significant changes in the education system will require a renewed mandate in the 1744 alliance that created the Saudi monarchy. Still, assuming that such a compromise was reached, what are the merits of criticisms on the actual contents within the curriculum?

A respected researcher of Saudi Arabia at Brown University has recently concluded that what passes for hate in school texts is, in fact, discourse that is largely motivated by fear.

In her recent essay titled Manning the Barricades: Islam According to Saudi Arabia's School Texts, that was published in the Spring 2003 issue of The Middle East Journal - Dr. Eleanor Abdella Doumato concluded that Unitarian (Wahhabi) teachings mostly offered defensive interpretations.

Of course, in journalistic circles, it is fashionable to blame the co-founder of the 1744 alliance for these ills. Yet, what Mohammed Abdul Wahhab did was to call on his followers to accept Islam's original teachings. No one argues that his methods were not particularly harsh.

But to impugn from his methods that his teachings promoted hatred of Christians and Jews is false. It may be argued that the collaboration between Mohammed Abdul Wahhab and Mohammed Al Saud guaranteed tribal unity.

What would be fair to advance now is whether their successors are doing everything in their capacities to provide long-term success for Saudis while preserving existing traditions.

In my travels through Saudi Arabia, I have always been struck by the harsh social conditions that existed there, but I never felt pity. In many conversations with savvy religious Sheikhs, members of the ruling family, university professors, nervous security personnel, or plain ordinary people, I was always impressed by how proud Saudis felt of their country, traditions and values.

Some were rigid in their outlook - to the point of not even tolerating a simple discussion - but most were superbly balanced. The system may appear to be harsh in its approach but it is also impeccably egalitarian. Yet the challenge facing this modernising society is to protect the country's religious and social norms without losing out in other areas.

How this challenge is met is truly the key question in front of contemporary Saudi leaders. There is a desperate need to update textbooks and delete the fear that many authors instill in their copy.

In this respect, one is reminded of the situation in pre-Renaissance Europe, when entire Western societies faced similar challenges. German, Italian, French and British - to name just a few - textbooks at the time were filled with narrowly interpreted theology that passed for sacred.

Those who deviated were often tortured and burned at the stake. So many innocent souls were destroyed that, eventually, entire populations rebelled. Just like their pre-Renaissance colleagues, Saudi scholars now face the challenge of adapting their traditions to contemporary normative requirements.

Rather than condemning Saudi or, for that matter, Muslim education, it may simply be better to share the benefit of whatever accumulated wisdom one may have. Such a response to terrorism may actually be a winning option.

Kechichian, author of several books, is an expert on Gulf and Middle East affairs.