07-16-2008, 03:34 PM
Fairfax, Virginia: Review Finds Slurs In '06 Saudi Texts
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>A Saudi-funded academy in Fairfax County used textbooks as recently as 2006 that compared Jews and Christians to apes and pigs, told eighth-graders that these groups are "the enemies of the believers" and diagrammed for high school students where to cut off the hands and feet of thieves</b>, a Washington Post review of the books has found. Saudi officials acknowledged that the textbooks used at the Islamic Saudi Academy had contained inflammatory material since at least the mid-1990s but said they ordered revisions in 2006. School administrators said that they have been scrambling to change the texts and that all potentially offensive passages will be gone by the coming academic year. But, they said, teachers have always been told to avoid inflammatory material in the classroom. A sampling of 2006-07 Islamic studies textbooks showed that much of the controversial material had been removed. <b>At least one book still contained passages that extolled jihad and martyrdom, called for victory over one's enemies and said the killing of adulterers and apostates was "justified." </b>The academy, founded in 1984, has about 1,000 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 and is separated into boys' and girls' schools. It is the only Saudi-funded school in the United States. About 70 percent of the academy's students are U.S. citizens drawn from the region's Muslim communities. About a quarter are Saudi.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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Not even a peep from Prof Witzel on this? Those hefty Saudi grants to Harvard seems to have bought lot of clout at Harvard. Also, it's not a surprise given that his assistant participates in anti-semitic rallies.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>A Saudi-funded academy in Fairfax County used textbooks as recently as 2006 that compared Jews and Christians to apes and pigs, told eighth-graders that these groups are "the enemies of the believers" and diagrammed for high school students where to cut off the hands and feet of thieves</b>, a Washington Post review of the books has found. Saudi officials acknowledged that the textbooks used at the Islamic Saudi Academy had contained inflammatory material since at least the mid-1990s but said they ordered revisions in 2006. School administrators said that they have been scrambling to change the texts and that all potentially offensive passages will be gone by the coming academic year. But, they said, teachers have always been told to avoid inflammatory material in the classroom. A sampling of 2006-07 Islamic studies textbooks showed that much of the controversial material had been removed. <b>At least one book still contained passages that extolled jihad and martyrdom, called for victory over one's enemies and said the killing of adulterers and apostates was "justified." </b>The academy, founded in 1984, has about 1,000 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 and is separated into boys' and girls' schools. It is the only Saudi-funded school in the United States. About 70 percent of the academy's students are U.S. citizens drawn from the region's Muslim communities. About a quarter are Saudi.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not even a peep from Prof Witzel on this? Those hefty Saudi grants to Harvard seems to have bought lot of clout at Harvard. Also, it's not a surprise given that his assistant participates in anti-semitic rallies.