Saudi Arabia Is Scrubbing Hate Speech from School Books

Discussion in 'Latest US & World News' started by Space_Time, Dec 15, 2020.

  1. Space_Time

    Space_Time Well-Known Member

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    More reform in Saudi Arabia! Could this type of textbook updating spread to other countries? What will Saudi Arabia look like in 2030:
     
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  2. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    What a marvelous thing to happen! That means a generation or two will grow up not being taught hatred in school.

    I don't know what brought this on. This is Saudi Arabia after all. They must be preparing for their future decline as their oil revenue drys up. It's not going to be a pleasant place to live in the future.
     
  3. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    So when historians judge the Trump administration let's hope their assessment is
    more nuanced than it is today.
     
  4. fmw

    fmw Well-Known Member

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    Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship. Few dictators allow freedom of speech. But perhaps the government should refuse to buy books with hate in them. Well, hate except for that directed at Jews.
     
  5. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

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    It's not really gangbusters for wild nightlife now

    I like what Pelton's Guide to the World's Most Dangerous Places said about it: "The Country is Closed"

    Shows you what you get when you let your religious nuts run the show.
     
  6. Eleuthera

    Eleuthera Well-Known Member Donor

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    Yes, the Saudis are following the lead of the US. We have statutes against hate speech, and our Ministry of Truth has rewritten history for decades.
     
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  7. Giftedone

    Giftedone Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    What do you mean "Spread to Other Countries" - as in - other than the Gulf states - which even they do not have the strict rules El Saud does. I don't know of any other Muslim Nation - sans perhaps one of the more backward Gulf States - that teaches the hate the El Saud was teaching.

    The US and other nations have been calling for an end to that hateful ideology for decades. It would be good if El Saud would change its evil ways - and perhaps this is a start - but not holding my breath quite just yet.
     
  8. Reasonablerob

    Reasonablerob Well-Known Member

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    First thing Gorbachev did when he took power in the USSR was cancel the history exams, because Soviet history was a lie. This is actually much more important than it seems, some of the most encouraging signs since Camp David.
     
  9. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    Yes, that's what Saudi Arabia has been about for years now. But, they are building a city (Neom - Wikipedia), which they are making out to be a tourist destination. And, one might conclude that it might have loose standards of law enforcement to attract cross-border tourists. Tourism is the one money source that Saudi Arabia could have after they run out of oil.
     
  10. MGB ROADSTER

    MGB ROADSTER Banned

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    Maybe the Palestinians will do the same...
    Probably they won't.
     
  11. nobodyspecific

    nobodyspecific Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The crackdown on political activists since the Arab Spring makes me wonder if these reforms are designed to offset the poor image Saudi Arabia has garnered across the world for its long record of human rights violations. Still, it is heartening to hear such developments. These are undoubtedly good for the Saudi people regardless of their motive.
     
  12. Pisa

    Pisa Well-Known Member

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    Seems to me that this type of change has spread to Saudi Arabia since the Arab Spring started in Tunisia. Egypt reformed school textbooks to counter Islamic extremism years ago.

    Meanwhile in Dubai:
    https://www.wam.ae/en/details/1395302895197

    Definitely a "wow" moment.
     
  13. Pisa

    Pisa Well-Known Member

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    First thing first: when I write "Saudis", I mean the ruling Saudi tribe, not the population of Saudi Arabia.

    Several factors contributed to this tremendous change.

    1. The Iranian threat, and more recently Turkey's hegemonic ambitions. For decades the Saudis have trusted the American administrations' willingness to help them against any outside threat. With the Obama administration, however, a new and frightening chapter has been written in the Saudi-US relations: the obviously pro-Iranian, pro Muslim Brotherhood (deemed terrorist organization in Saudi Arabia) American administration could no longer be trusted to back Saudi Arabia unconditionally. Furthermore, Obama's policy in the Middle East had been a long string of one blunder after another, proving that whatever else he was good at, understanding the region was not on the list. Trump's administration added gas on the already hot Middle Eastern fire when he let Turkey loose in Syria against former American allies. The future Obama-era American president doesn't look more promising to the Saudis, either.

    The Saudis need to look elsewhere for support, or risk being overthrown by their enraged population for not being able to protect them. The best way to find reliable allies is to change in such ways as to turn into an attractive place for foreign investments, as China did, becoming thus not only an economic power, but also an important political player. Opening Saudi Arabia to the world would be impossible if religious fundamentalism isn't thrown under the bus.

    2. The terrorist threat. For almost a century, Saudi Arabia exported hate-filled school textbooks to Islamic schools in Western countries, and funded extremist imams in mosques all over the world. Radicalized young Muslims joined terrorist organizations, which didn't bother the Saudis (although their brand of Salafism doesn't preach violent jihad) until their rule over the holy places of Mecca and Medina was challenged by those organizations. Al-Qaeda, the unholy offspring of the strict Saudi Salafism and the vile "kill all infidels" ideology of the extremist Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid Qutb, and later ISIS (qutbists as well), have declared a holy war against the Saudi rule. Seems the Saudis have learned the lesson well - he who sleeps with terrorist dogs wakes up with bombs under the throne. They have to renounce fundamentalism if they want to keep their behinds safe in their palaces.

    3. The effort to remain relevant in a changing world. And yes, this is about oil revenues, and the power that came with being a huge oil exporter. That power isn't going to last.

    4. Outside influences. The Arab spring has brought winds of change, and dangerous thoughts about democracy, human rights, secularism. The Saudis have two choices: wait for upheavals, or change. They wisely chose change. Brains over brawn.

    Long post. Sorry, but this is a complex topic.
     
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  14. Pisa

    Pisa Well-Known Member

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    I know of a Muslim nation that teaches even more hate than the Saudis: Pakistan. The children are thought in religious schools that Christians and Jews are not human beings.
     
  15. Giftedone

    Giftedone Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Ahh yes .. good for bringing that up - El Saud teaches the same though- is the belief system - but point taken .. forgot about Pakistan. We are all worried about Iran getting a nuke - heck .. Pakistan already has them (thanks to the US/France) - and they are way more likely to use them than Iran.
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2020
  16. notme

    notme Well-Known Member

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    That's not Trump. That's the UN and the HRW.

    Being the dictator in Saudi Arabia doesn't mean you're above religion. And these are religious text.
    And even though the King can apparently now leave them out of schoolbooks. I mean.. it's not going out of their religion.
    It's just like the bible, where it (basically) says all Jews are for ever to blame for the death of Jesus.
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2020
  17. notme

    notme Well-Known Member

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    I know a Christian nation were parents are totally free to openly teach their children to hate Jews.
    The government protects those people in their ways too.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2020
  18. notme

    notme Well-Known Member

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    Pff... the US is far more likely to nuke a country... again.
    It rages war over nothing all over the middle east.
    +10 years of Afghanistan, killing civilians having weddings with impunity, to than hand it back to the Taliban.
     
  19. Giftedone

    Giftedone Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Unfortunately you have a point -but the boys would not nuke a significant nuclear power - MAD - Sans Pence making it into the white house and believing he is fulfilling Gods Plan in revelations.

    In Pakistan - Pence is already President.
     
  20. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I agree. If the Afghan Taliban want to host terrorists like Al Qaeda, or flood the West
    with drugs like heroin, what is that to our pure minds?
    And if there can be an unobstructed union between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistan
    Taliban, where neither side needs to flee to the other, then perhaps we will see the
    overthrow of the Pakistan government, giving us not an Islamic bomb but an Islamist bomb.
    Terrorists need a safe country, just as Russia and Germany provided countries for the Fascists
    and Communists.
    Bring it on.
     
  21. notme

    notme Well-Known Member

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    The Taliban were very willing to hand over Bin Laden to a neutral Islamic court.
    And terrorism gets the death penalty in their courts.
    The US said no thanks and started a war. Them are the facts.

    And if the West wasn't so eager to use heroine than, you know...
    Do note... The UK empire was partially build on selling opium and went to war if you didn't support it.
    It was all fair when white people did it.

    You mean... the US was a safe country for nazi's to go to.
    And the Catholic church gave it's support to help nazi's flee.
    Nothing extremist when the Christian church is behind it.
     
  22. notme

    notme Well-Known Member

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    Yeah sure... PEW did a poll about it in Pakistan.
     
  23. Jestsayin

    Jestsayin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Not rocket surgery,
    Trump brought this on.
    Once the US became energy independent, the world changed.
     
  24. Giftedone

    Giftedone Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Something prickle your pear ?
     
  25. Poohbear

    Poohbear Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I find it laughable that the Afghans would hand over bin Laden to an Islamic court.
    He was their guest. What "Islamic court" would send bin Laden to America?
    re west using heroin, "you know" - that's no excuse for allowing narcotics to flood your society.
    And please, none of this racist 'white people' stuff - read up how the Mongols murdered 12% of
    all people on earth, how the Arabs enslaved Europeans, how the Zulus had a scorched earth
    policy on all South African natives, how the Aztecs made sport of human sacrifices on an industrial
    scale, how some American tribes were intent on inter-Indian genocide and so on, so on.
     

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