Publishers seek an end to hate in Saudi textbooks

Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran. He is the…

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Seven current and former leaders of major American publishing houses last month urged the government of Saudi Arabia to stop publishing hate-filled textbooks.

Homosexuals are one target of that hate, but only a relatively minor one, according to examples cited by author Nina Shea in the National Review Online.

She lists this excerpt from one textbook, which expounds on the Saudi Arabian law that provides for execution as a possible penalty for homosexual activity:

“The punishment of homosexuality is death. . . . Ibn Qudamah said: “The companions (of the Prophet) agreed unanimously on killing. Some of the Companions argued that he (a homosexual) is to be burned with fire. It has been said that he should be stoned, or thrown from a high place. Other things have also been said.”
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Other excerpts focus on Jews, Christians, other “infidels” and polytheists. For example:

“As was cited in Ibn Abbas, and was said: The Apes are the people of the Sabbath, the Jews; and the Swine are the infidels of the communion of Jesus, the Christians.”

“The Jews and the Christians are enemies of the believers, and they cannot approve of Muslims.”

Shea said she traveled to Saudi Arabia last year and met by the minister of education, who agreed that the country’s textbooks needed to be updated, but said it was not a priority.