Saudi cleric slams school curriculum for spreading extremism

Hujjat al-Islam Abdul-Karim al-Hubayl, the Friday prayers’ leader of the eastern Saudi Arabian town of al-Rabi’yah, has called on the Saudi Ministry of Education to plan its school curriculum on the basis of religious commonalities between Muslims of different sects, reported Rasa.

He referred to the negative consequences of the provocative material in Saudi school textbooks saying: “The existence of such material and the teaching of it in schools leads to the institutionalization of radical thoughts in the minds of Saudi youth which causes challenges to the overall security of the county.”

The Saudi Shi’a cleric said it is surprising that even though all Muslims agree on most major issues, the textbooks published in the Wahhabi kingdom focus on divisive points rather than promoting proximity and Islamic unity.

Hujjat al-Islam al-Hubayl warned: “If these ministries will not stop the spread of the Takfiri ideology among the youth, in the event of an outbreak of crimes based on extremism, they will be done in partnership.”

He called for the Interior Ministry to issue a statement which bans the teaching of divisive material which results in nothing other but the excommunication of a group of Muslims by other Muslims.

/SR