religion and identity in saudi texts

7/27/2019 Religion and Identity in Saudi Texts

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EARLY DRAFTPLEASE DO NOT QUOTE OR CITE WITHOUT PERMISSION OF AUTHOR

Religion and Identity in Saudi Textbooks:

Wahhabism + Salafism + Saudi Legitimacy = Schoolbook Islam

Be Eleanor Abdella Doumato

When I was in Riyadh in January, 2002, I was invited to attend a lunch and informaldiscussion about a book I wrote on the subject of women’s rituals and their suppression

under the Wahhabiyya in Saudi Arabia. The people attending were well-educated Saudis: university professors, heads of charitable societies, entrepreneurs, and at least one

royal, all of them on the social invitation list of the American Embassy. At the lunchtable, I was asked to summarize the book’s thesis, and when I mentioned moulid votive

ceremonies and the Shiite lamentation readings at the women’s Husseiniyya in theEastern Province, an embarrassed silence filled the room. Finally a voice at the table

spoke up and emphatically corrected me. “There is only ONE Islam,” she said.What the speaker meant is that in Saudi Arabia there is only One Islam we

acknowledge publicly. The rituals I had mentioned are considered illegitimate accordingto the Wahhabiyya, and are forbidden by Saudi decree, along with the wearing of

amulets, chanting by religious mystics, and the women’s healing ritual called “Zar.” Evenso, moulid ceremonies are popular among women in Hejaz, and lamentation ceremonies

are central to ritual expression for at least 10 and maybe 15% of the Saudi population.These rituals are part of the historical fabric of the kingdom. Otherwise, there would be

no decree banning them.By correcting me, and by the complicit silence of others, the women were

affirming their allegiance to the Wahhabi idea of “tawhid,” the cornerstone of officialIslam in Saudi Arabia, and by implication they were also affirming their allegiance to

Saudi Arabia’s political culture, exactly as prescribed in the kingdom’s compulsoryschool curriculum.

Designed to homogenize the population and instill loyalty to the state, thecurriculum teaches in every grade that there is One Islam, that all Muslims are united in

one Umma, that Saudi Arabia holds a special and sacred place in the Muslim world, and that its royal family fulfills the requirements of Islamic rule. The schoolbooks inure

students to respect authority, to equate opinion with knowledge, and to see ethicalquestions in black and white. At the same time, the kingdom, like the rest of the Muslim

world, is ethnically diverse and its people divided by sectarian orientations. Theauthoritarian model has been undermined by economic realities and new information

technologies, and the moral posturing of Saudi Arabia’s political culture has grown ever more distant from the world into which the country has emerged. The school books are

cites that not only help to create and fuel these contradictions, they are a mirror of themin society at large.

If Islam is One, what kind of Islam is it? What are its ethics and its sources? Howdo the texts deal with heterodox Islam and non-Muslims? As a mirror of political identity

for the people of Saudi Arabia, what are the inclusions and exclusions that define belonging, and how do the texts reconcile belonging to the Umma as well the nation-




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state? What the texts reveal are claims of authenticity in ancient roots, but an Islam thatis a modern amalgamation of home-grown Wahhabism, the Salafism of the Muslim

Brotherhood, plus a pan-Islamic agenda that rubs against the Saudi’s goal of buildingloyalty to the state.

The texts and religion in the curriculum

The texts used for this paper are the books of Fiqh, Hadith, and Tawhid for grades

9-12 which were used in the school year 2001-2002, and a selection of textbooks that arecurrently in use [2003-2004]: “National Training,” for grades 4-6, and 8-12, and

“Prophetic Biography and History of the Islamic State” for the 10th

grade, and a newTawhid text for the 10

thgrade. The new texts are all produced under the aegis of the

Ministry of Education, since the General Presidency for Girls Education was dissolved in2002. However, it is not clear to what extent the influence of the General Presidency has

been diminished in making curricular decisions since the personnel working for thePresidency, including its supposedly fired director, Dr. Murshid Murshid, have been

moved into the Ministry of education bureaucracy. In the past, the Presidency and theMinistry each produced their own books, although in most cases the content was

identical. At the start of the 2003 school year, some of the books designed for boys werealso assigned to the girls’ schools, replacing texts that used to be provided by the

Presidency, but I doubt that the Ministry is moving toward a uniform curriculum since,especially at the elementary level, Ministry textbooks are addressed to boys.

For purposes of promotion, religion courses are counted as more important thansecular subjects, and the religion curriculum is extensive, designed to occupy more than a

third of students’ weekly classroom hours in elementary and middle school, and at leastfour hours a week in high school.1 Religious instruction actually occupies a great deal

more of the students’ time because books on history are Islamic history, and books onArabic literature are about religious literature, while “National Training” is premised on

religious affiliation and values. These texts include “Recitation and Language [Style],”“Stories from the Lives of the Companions,” Stories from the Lives of the Followers [of

the Companions],” “Recitation and Memorization,” and “Tafsir.”All of the books, I have been told, are being revised, which is happening in

response to American criticism and pressure from American government sources, and Ihave been told that there are some changes in the books for this year, and that additional

changes will come later. However, a check of the Fiqh, Hadith and Tawhid texts for 2001-2002 against the 2003-4 editions of the same books revealed only one that is

radically altered: the 10th

grade tawhid text. The current situation notwithstanding, thecontent of the religion curriculum remains virtually unchanged since its inception,

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curricular guides dating back to 1970 show the same concentration in religious subjectsthat exists today.3

Information in the texts is repetitive from subject to subject and year to year, and requires memorization. There are illustrations in some of the elementary level texts,

including pictures of adults and children, both boys and girls, which is very surprisinggiven the strong prohibitions against the use of pictures articulated in the high school

hadith texts. For the elementary grades, in some books both the vocabulary and subjectmatter, such as who goes to heaven and who to hell, the causes of polytheism, apostasy




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and God’s unity seem entirely inappropriate to grade level. On the other hand, someelementary books offer gentle lessons on loving God and family, good manners, the

importance of being helpful at home, and on personal safety in every-day situations suchas crossing the street.

One Islam: Pure Faith, a Patron Saint, Nation, and Ruling family

In the school books, the message is there is only One Islam for all Muslims, and

the Arabian Peninsula has a special place in Islam, preserved and defended by God’sgrace and the ruling family. The One Islam-Saudi nation message begins at the

elementary level, especially in a series called “National Training,” but is most thoroughlyfleshed out in the tenth grade Tawhid text

4where Islam is conflated with the word

“Salafi.” The introductory lesson is entitled “On the foundational sources of the creed,and the way of the Salaf [minhaj al-salaf] in acquiring knowledge of it.” Correct belief, in

the lesson, is the way of the as-salaf as-salih, the “worthy ancestors” who lived at thetime of the Prophet and the centuries after his death. To follow the pious ancestors means

eliminating reason and drawing only on the Quran and Sunnah:

The established creed stands firm only according to the proofs of the lawgiver,and there is no place in it for opinion [al-ra’y] or individual reasoning [al-ijtihad].

Therefore, its sources are confined to what comes from the Book and the Sunna, because nothing offers more knowledge of God and what is owed to Him and

what to refrain from. And God alone knows best, and after God then themessenger of God, and thus it was the way of our worthy ancestors [al-Salaf al-

Salah] and those who followed them and pursued knowledge of the creed, toconfine themselves to the Book and the Sunnah.

Why ignore the scholarly tradition of Islamic jurisprudence in favor of just the Book and

Sunnah? According to the texts, unity of thinking and avoidance of communal strife isthe goal:

Whenever the Book and Sunnah give guidance as the right of God the most High,

they have faith in it, and they hold to it, and they act according to it. And whatever was not proved in either the Book of God or the Sunnah of his

messenger, it was repudiated and they rejected it. And therefore there was never among them differences in religious doctrine [al-a’tiqaad]; on the contrary, their

creed was one, and their community was one, because God guaranteed unanimity[in thought], correctness in creed, and a single path to whomever clings to his

Book and the Sunnah of his messenger.5

Philosophical thought and logic lead to schism, says the text, are therefore especially to be avoided.

…when some people built their creed on other than the Book and the Sunnah,

from metaphysical speculation [‘ilm al-kilaam] and systematic logic [quwaa’ad al-mantiq] inherited from Greek and Roman philosophy, they produced




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deviations and divisions [sects] in the creed, and resulting from it were arguments,and divisions in the community, and cleavages in building Islamic society. [p. 14]

“Deviation from the correct creed,” indeed, spells “disaster [mahlikah] and perdition [diyaa ‘a].”

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The message in the lesson is that intellectual debate and individual reasoning must be sacrificed on the altar of communal harmony and political unity. The lesson isliterally a textbook illustration of what Khaled Abou El Fadl describes as the anti-

intellectualism” of contemporary Islam’s “supremacist, puritanical orientation” whichretreats to the “secure haven of the text,” where it can safely disassociate itself from

“critical historical inquiry.”7[p.14] The name he gives to this “supremacist, puritanical

orientation” is “Salafabism,” a combination of the word “Salafi” and Wahhabism, the

home-grown Najdi version of Islam that the school book employs in the next lesson tolocate the One Islam in Saudi Arabia and legitimize its present rulers.

This chapter, the “Call [da’wa] of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab,” places the progenitor of Najdi Islam as the historical rectifier of deviations in the peninsula, and

draws a parallel between Al Shaikh, as ibn Abd al-Wahhab in known in Saudi Arabia,and the Prophet Muhammad.8

The lesson explains that MIAW came as a mercy from

God to renew the religion of this nation [al-ummah] and his call for renewal fit the pattern established by God in the past: the Prophet Muhammad was sent by God as the

final prophet, to renew for mankind the creed that had been altered by deviations and innovations over time. While Muhammad is the seal of the prophet, God produces from

time to time individuals from the ulama to renew the struggle against innovation and torectify the creed and protect the shariah from change, and “bring the light of God to

people of blindness.” [p. 19] Such a person appeared in the 12th

century of the Hijra, and he was Shaikh al-Islam, al-Imam the Renewer [al-majdid] Muhammad ibn Abd al-

Wahhab, and he appeared in this country when it was steeped in ignorance and practicinggreater and lesser kinds of polytheistic practices [Shirk].

MIAW, like the Prophet, was awakened to the evils of polytheism and pursued the teaching of the truth with patience and persistence in the face of opposition and open

hostility, and, like the Prophet, triumphed in the end because he possessed the truth and was doing God’s will. MIAW is thus a sort of patron saint of Najd, who

preached the salafi creed first to his fellow scholars in Najd, and then traveled to

Mecca, Medina, al-Ahsa [Hasa] and Basra and acquired knowledge of thesciences of Hadith and Tafsir and Fiqh and languages and recitation of Salafi

books, especially those of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qiyyam, and he preached to hisfellow scholars in Najd, and then sent out missionaries to other territories. He

realized that in his own land, Najd, there were people of differing ideas aboutreligious doctrine, and ignorant of the Sunnah, practicing innovations and

committing greater shirk around graves and tombs and placing faith in stones and trees, and making judgments based on other than what God send down.

His call spread and enmity on the part of those who sought guidance incaves became hostile to him… but The Shaikh persevered in his call, giving

sincere advice and teaching students the true faith and writing useful treatises and books and sending them around the country, and he patiently issued legal




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opinions in answer to questions on the basis of what seemed to him right and correct. When staying in the country became difficult for him, he went to another

county in the path of the call to God, and to the renewal of this religion …..

The textbook narrative places the Al Sa ‘ud family in God’s light as reflected off MIAW,

for Muhammad ibn Sa ‘ud, the ancestor of the present rulers of Saudi Arabia, becomeshis partner and protector, and the means of expanding the Call:

When news of him reached the Amir of Dir ‘iyah, Imam Muhammad bin Sa ‘ud,and he accepted the truth of his call and the peacefulness of his goal of pursuing

God in the heart, and accepting it. So he admitted The Shaikh and announced hisacceptance of the call and his support of it, and an agreement was sealed between

The Sheikh and the amir on the basis of this blessed call, and the power of religious knowledge [‘ilm] and evidence was joined with the power of political

rule [sultah] and execution.

In the narrative, violence is the product of the need to defend, and parallels between theProphet Muhammad, forced by enemies to leave Mecca, and MIAW are further drawn

out as enemies of MIAW’s Dawa force conflict into the open:

Ibn Sa ‘ud becomes the defender of the Dawa of truth, and in the ensuingstruggle between the armies of Truth and the armies of falsehood, God fore-

ordained that victory would come to those who stand for truth. And the armies of tawhid gained victory over the surrounding lands and the State of Tawhid [ad-

doula at-tawhid] is established in the Arabian peninsula, and, at the hand of TheShaikh, polytheism [shirk] and innovation [bida’] and superstition ceased to be.9

As if to insure that no student misses the spiritual genealogy linking the present-

day rulers of Saudi Arabia to the reforming Shaikh and back to the Prophet Muhammad,the lesson concludes with a list of manifestations of the Blessed Dawa [al-da‘wa al-

mubaaraka] in the world today. The first is the spread of the salafi doctrine and therevitalization of the sunnah and the suppression of innovation and superstition, and the

return of the people to the Book and the sunnah. This point is important because itrewards conformity while validating the suppression of non-comformists and turning

their suppression into a positive attribute of the state. Second on the list is the foundingof a scholarly movement that produces Islamic scholars and libraries, reminding students

that the Saudi government has invested heavily in Islamic education. Third is thefounding of an Islamic state that rules by the Book of God and the Sunnah of his prophet,

and establishes God’s Da’wa as a model of emulation for the Muslims in this country and in all the regions of the earth, and is forever, an example of faith and constancy. In other

words, the accomplishments of The Shaikh are carried forward by the present rulers. Thelist concludes by highlighting the mass marketing of religious publications and the

establishment of highly-endowed Islamic institutions at home and abroad, which arecentral components of the Saudi agenda to wield influence internationally in the Muslim

world: “The publication of useful Salafi books and their distribution in Hajj season and at




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other times, and support for Islamic institutions and Dawa centers in other lands [saa’ir al-balaad].”

God, Homeland, and School-boy: identifying with the Saudi state

The National Training texts are all about connecting the ruling family to Islamic rule inthe kingdom, and affirming their beneficence and success in making Saudi Arabia a power in the Islamic world.

There is a good deal of common sense training for life in the series: lessonsdiscuss how to tell time, and why appointments, and keeping them, are important. The

texts discuss different kinds of work, and address the kingdom’s low-skill, highemployment problem by presenting manual labor in a positive light and explaining that

among the services the kingdom offers to its citizens are vocational classes for peoplewho want to learn a marketable skill. Lessons discuss safety issues such as keeping ones

fingers out of electrical sockets, not playing with matches, and avoiding drugs; takingcare to cross the street in a crosswalk. There are also lessons on cooperative behavior,

such as keeping public spaces like the mosque and classroom clean, as well as lessons on personal cleanliness and polite behavior at the table: eat only with the right hand, for

example.But the series is also about validating the performance of the ruling family and

instilling respect for authority. In a lesson entitled “al-Watan” p. 31 “the homeland is theland in which our fathers and forefathers lived, and they preserved it for us and we live

today in it….. Our country [baladna] is the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the place of inspiration, and it is the Islamic holy land for in it is the sanctuary [Harem] of noble

Mecca and the Kaaba, and the prophet’s mosque.” “Our homeland [watan], the kingdomof Saudi Arabia, is ruled in piety by the Book of God and the sunna of the Prophet in all

matters.”A lesson on[ p. 39] “ the kingdom and the defense of the Islamic faith” gives the

history of Saudi rule from the time of the first Saudi state, and tells the familiar history of Muh ibn Abd Wahhab and how he saw that there was a lot of evil and superstition and

innovation in the Arabian peninsula, and how he found an ally in Dari’iya and the twotogether brought about a renewal of religion.

The 6th

grade national training text validates the leadership role of the kingdom inthe Muslim world: has chapters titled “the holy places in our land, my country and the

Gulf Cooperation council p. 20; my country and the League of Arab States, theorganization of Islamic conference and Islamic bank for Development “which our

kingdom supports at all times” There are also chapters on “My county and the Islamicholy places, my country: guarding justice and truth of Islam. A photo of the al-Aqsa

mosque p. 29.accompanies a lesson called “My country supports the Arab cause.”An 8th grade text, in a few brief pages, explains the system of government: the

government has established ministries and agencies that offer important public services,such as education, security services; health, recreation; social services, economic

planning. The text explains that the system of government is a king with a council of ministers, who are specialists in the areas they oversee, and a Shura council, which is an

Islamic tradition, one that King Abd al-Aziz always used, and King Fahd instituted by




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royal decree. The government in its wisdom and in its attention to Islam assures that therights of individuals are upheld, rights that are derived from shariah.

The family receives special attention in the National Training books: the family isthe building block of society, to which each person turns for support, and in which each

person is part of a hierarchy of authority. A 4th

grade text tells boys to respect their

mother because she bore you, and cared for you after birth, and if you were ill she called upon God for you, and protected you. The elementary books are illustrated, and lessonsare incorporate an illustrative story: Ahmad’s mother asks him to get up and serve some

fruit to his grandfather. Ahmad answers, “No, I’m busy, let my brother do it.”Grandfather speaks kindly to Ahmad, asking him to come and sit by his side. He gently

puts his arm around Ahmad, and says, Treat your parents with respect, because respect isan obligation, and so is being good to them, as God says, [Sura 17 The Israelites #24] “

and make yourself submissively gentle to them with compassion, and say: O my Lord,have compassion on them, as they brought me up when I was little” p 25

A lesson on Islamic greetings in the 5th

grade text is especially noteworthy because its message is in marked contrast to another lesson on Islamic greetings that

appears in a high school hadith text.. The high school text teaches that a Muslim should not initiate a greeting of Salaam alaikum to a kaafar, but if the kafaar should speak first

with a greeting of “Peace be upon you, it is permissible to respond with the words, “and upon you.” The high school text includes hadith that have the prophet advising that if

one enounters a kaafar in the street he should force him to the side , and on no accountshould he say wa rahmet al-lahu wa barakatu.

In the 5th

grade text, however, Ahmad goes to the store to buy school supplieswith his father, and his father greets the clerk with the words, salaam alaikum wa rahmat

allah wa barakaatu and the clerk answers wa alaikum as-sallam wa rahmat allahu wa barakaatu. Father, says Ahmad, do you know this man? And the father replies, p. 17 he

doesn’t know him, but that doesn’t matter. Whenever you meet people, whether in a storeor in school, you always greet them by saying salaam alaikum wa rahmat allah wa

barakaatu and the response is wa alaikum as-sallam wa rahmat allahu wa barakaatu.Ahmed says, al-salaam is one of the names of God.

One Way to be “Woman”: Pillar of Islamic Identity, Pillar of the State

One of the most common themes in the high school texts is gender, where the

separation of men and women is highlighted as a major symbol for what it means to berespectful Muslims. Sex-segregation in the school texts is also explicitly foregrounded to

illuminate its character of the Saudi state as an Islamic state. The 10th

grade “PropheticBiography and History of the Islamic State” lists of the characteristics of Saudi Arabia

that qualify the kingdom to be called an Islamic state, and at the top of the list is the factthat it enforces the separation of unrelated men and women in all public places.

In the high school texts, gender segregation plays a prominent role in definingIslamic moral values: The ninth grade Hadith text, for example, contains a lesson based

on the following words attributed to the Prophet. “A man must not be alone with awoman unless she is with her mahram.” [a mahram is a woman’s closest male relative

and her guardian, usually her father or husband, and must be someone to whom thewoman could not be legally married.] A "guide to the Hadith" explains that being alone




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with a woman is a cause for her falling into prostitution, and for that reason Islam forbidsit. The lesson then extrapolates advice for the modern day from the Hadith: a man is not

to be alone in the house with an unrelated woman; a woman must not ride in a car alonewith a hired driver; a female servant must not stay in the house alone with a male

member of the family. Finally, the students are warned that leniency in matters ordered

by God spreads corruption in the individual and in society.

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The same text has a lesson entitled "Gazing at Women." The Prophet is asked about inadvertently glancing at a woman, and advises that one should look the other way.

The guide to the Hadith tells the student that seeing an unrelated woman opens the door to Satan, and puts one on the path to fornication, even if seeing the woman were

unintended, and even if a man sees a woman directly or in a magazine or in a film.Barricading the door against Satan, the lesson reminds students, increases the faith of the

worshipper of God.The ninth grade text of Fiq puts the onus on girls to protect themselves from being

seen by any man except a mahram.11

Entitled "What is Obligatory Regarding Clothingand Adornment," the lesson teaches that Islamic clothing must cover the private parts of

the body ["’awra"], which for a man is the area from the navel to the knee. For a woman,however, the ’awra means all of her body. She is therefore entirely private and all of her

must be covered, unless she is praying, and then her face and the palms of her handsshould be visible. Whenever she is in the presence of a man to whom she is not closely

related, all of her body, including her face and hands, must be covered, althoughexceptions are allowed for medical care or betrothal. The text gives no scriptural

evidence for equating the ’awra of a woman with her whole body, though thisinterpretation is well established in the Hanbali school to which Najd ulama subscribe.

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The lesson warns students that the Muslim woman must wear hijab for the sake of her religion and for safeguarding her reputation, and continues with a prescription for proper

Islamic dress [hijab]: hijab should be made of thick cloth, not of something flimsy thatwould show skin; it should be wide, not narrow so as to outline the parts of her body; it

should not resemble the clothing of non-Muslim women or the clothing of men. 13 Thelesson concludes with a warning never to uncover one's face or hands in front of

unrelated men, for it is a great wrong and a grievous fault.Almost every text for the four years from ninth through twelfth grade includes a

lesson offering some version of Islamic scripture enlisted in the service of promoting sex-segregation. A tenth grade lesson on Islamic greetings has a sub-section advising boys

never to shake the hand of a non-mahram woman, although exceptions may be made if the woman is old.14 A twelfth grade lesson says the mahram rules must apply to women's

work, and lists permissible places for women to work as extensions of women's nurturingroles: girls' education and health care, or in vocations such as seamstress, or nursemaid

for small children. Women may engage in "buying and selling," so long as a mahram is present or the woman has deputized a man to act on her behalf.15 There is a lesson on

sanctioning of wives who fail to submit sexually to their husband [angels will weep for them], on the rights and obligations of family members [good women are obedient], and

on the way in which Islam elevates the status of women by keeping them separate and protected by men.

Gender in the school books is a reflection of the parochial, sex-segregation habitsof Najd, and also of the way Najdi scholars think about scriptural interpretation. It is not




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exactly literal interpretation, but an interpretative reading into the text, to which isemployed the principle, “whatever leads to forbidden things must be forbidden.” For

example, in the version of the Quran published in English for free distribution by theSaudi government, a passage referring to women’s modesty is editorialized with

interpretation in parentheses[Q 24: 31]: “And tell the believing women to lower their

gaze [from looking at forbidden things] and protect their private parts [from illegal sexualacts] and not to show off their adornment except only that which is apparent [like botheyes for necessity to see the way, or outer palms of hands or one eye or dress like veil,

gloves, head-cover, apron, etc] and to draw their veils all over juyubihinna [ie their bodies, faces, necks and bosoms]…..”

Controls over women as detailed in the school books serve both socialconservatives who believe there is moral value to sex segregation, and the state, which

can stand on the very visible platform of women’s invisibility to declare loudly itscommitment to ruling in the name of Islam.

One Islam: Under Siege by Insiders and Outsiders from the Beginning till Now

Abou El Fadl describes the Salafi-Wahhabi combination as one that constructs

“Islam into the antithesis of the West” [p.15] , adopting “third world nationalisticideologies of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism [p. 20],” and one that has “searched

Islam for black and white,” which is, in his view, the antithesis of the Islamic tradition.16

El Fadl could have drawn these conclusions from reading the Saudi curriculum alone.

A history text for the tenth grade called “The life of the Prophet and history of theIslamic state” contains a section called “Waves of Enemies Against the Islamic World”

that begins with a warning that the solidarity of the Umma depends on unity of doctrine,firmness of character and high moral values, unity in foreign policy and unity in

civilization, and without these the Islamic Umma will grow weak and fall into decay [pp.69-71]. The chapter presents a Maneachean view of Islam versus the world, as if Islam

were one thing, but one thing that been besieged over the centuries by internal and external enemies that are ideological as well as political and military. The book’s

introduction for the teacher explains that the chapter is designed to allow the student tosee that the enemies the Muslim world faces today are really extensions of the same kind

of enmity they faced historically, and to understand how religious sectarianism and deviant beliefs have occurred repeatedly in Islamic history, and always serve Islam’s

enemies.17

The “waves of enemies” chapter expands the enemies list that appears in the high

school Fiqh and Hadith texts [see Doumato, “Manning the Baricades”]. Among thedeviants who have assaulted Islam’s unity [“ Internal Enemies of the Islamic world in the

Middle Ages”] are the Sabeans [ Saudi reference for Shia], the Kharijites, Qarmatians,the Zanj, and Ismailis; then there is the tribal ‘asabiyya of the jahiliyya era, the

Shu’ubiyya controversary of the age of the Ummayyads, and atheism [zandaqa], and heretical Sufism.[pp. 74-84]. Then there are outsiders like the Crusaders and Mongols,

and the Magi [Majus, adherents of Mazdaism], and others like them among the idol-worshipping nations. And in the contemporary age, there is nothing against our nation

more aggressive or more malicious than colonialism and its willing tool Zionism [p. 73].In modern times there is a revival of ‘Asabiyya [nationalism], especially Turkish and




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Arab nationalism, and socialism, as we see in Albania, Russia, Yugoslavia and thePeoples Republic of China, as well as Orientalism; and there are also magic arts and the

spirit of negativism toward Islam just as in the tariqas of the heretical Sufis. [p. 74] Tocounter their enemies, Muslims must not sink into extravagance or greediness, nor imitate

the character or behavior of their enemies.

Ideas that run counter to Salafi-Wahhabi orthodoxy, that are generated withinIslam, are not interpretations and modes of thought to debate and consider, but areunacceptable, deviant, heretical, and can only be promulgated by People who are not real

Muslims or who wish Islam harm, who create schism and therefore must be denounced.Admonitions against heretical thoughts are sprinkled throughout the high school Fiqh and

Hadith texts. 18

In the 11th

grade Fiqh text, for example, heretical thought can easily turn a believer into an apostate: The top crime is as-shirk , associating others with God, and

denying His Unity, which is code for Shia beliefs and rituals. One can also be labeled anapostate for denying any of God's attributes, or any of God's books or messages, or for

cursing God or his messenger, for mocking religion, or for placing a copy of the Quran inan unclean place, or by doubting, "as when one doubts anything of the requirements of

religion.” “The apostate is a person who denies his religion,” says the text, “and whensomeone denies his religion he strikes a blow to the solidarity of the community,” and the

evidence lies in Hadith, “Whoever changes his religion, kill him.”19 But first the apostateshould be put in jail and questioned, and if he repents he is freed.

Those on the enemies list have no redemptive features, even if they are Muslim,and the conflict between Islam and the enemy is all one-directional. “The Moghul

Enemies against the Islamic world,” for example, traces the Mongolian onslaught fromcentral Asia to the fall Samarqand and Tashkent, to the end of the Abbasid Caliphate with

the fall of Baghdad. But that is the end of the story: nowhere, here or in any of the other textbooks I have seen so far, is there a discussion about Moghul civilization, which

inaugurated a great age of Islamic art, architecture and sciences such as astronomy[p.103]. There are no four schools of law that are worth discussing. There is no Iranian or

Turkish civilization. Anything that is not subsumed under Salafi-Wahhabi orthodoxy iseither something to be denounced, or it does not exist at all. The world of the textbooks is

simply black and white.

One Islam: Showing loyalty and bearing enmity, the sine qua non of Wahhabism

The concept of al-walaa’ wa al-baraa’, “showing loyalty and bearing enmity”has resonance historically in every school of Islamic thought, but for Wahhabi Muslims,

from the very inception of the movement in the mid-18th

century, it has conferred supremacist identities in its adherents, facilitated authoritarian rule, and proven a

potential vehicle for violence. As explained in the 10th grade Tawhid text, any kind of non-conformist thought or action among Muslims is not only an error to be corrected, but

persons in error are to be despised. Non-Muslims are not to be befriended or tolerated. Nor can they be simply ignored: they are to be hated.

“It is a law of tawhid that one should show loyalty to the Unitarian Muslim and bear enmity toward his polytheist enemies,” says the text. “As God says,”




11

Only God is your Wali and His Apostle and those who believe, those who keep up prayers and pay the poor-rate while they bow. And whoever takes God and His

Apostle and those who believer for a guardian, then surely the party of God arethey that shall be triumphant. [Q 5:55-56].

“You shall not find a people who believe in God and the last day befriendingthose who act in opposition to God and his Messenger, even though they weretheir own fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their kinsfolk.” 58:22

Additional proof texts refer to specific events during the Meccan wars20 but without

historical context, and are used to show that disassociation between Muslims and non-Muslims is a universal and eternal condition set forth by God.

21

“The place of al-walaa’ wa al-baraa’ has great standing in Islam,” the lesson says,

as the Prophet said: ‘The strongest bond of belief is loving what God loves and hatingwhat God hates,’ and with these two one gains the loyalty [wilaayya] of God.’”22 The

lesson elevates enmity for the sake of God above the prescribed rituals:

From ibn Abbas may God be pleased with him, the Prophet said: ‘Whoever lovesfor the sake of God and hates for the sake of God and shows loyalty for the sake

of God and enmity for the sake of God, he will achieve the loyalty of God by that,and unless he does so, no worshipper will ever find the taste of faith even if he is

excessive in prayer or fasting.’ p. 110

Who are the polytheist enemies against whom the monotheist Muslim must bear enmity? To MIAW, polytheist enemies were other Muslims, especially the Ottoman

Turks, but also Shia, Sufis, and anyone who wears an amulet or practices magic. Theschool text however, parses out new ways to become an enemy, and explains why a

Muslim must be on the alert to show enmity toward the offender. Students should recognize for example, hypocrisy [al-mudaahanah] when they see it. If a person

socializes with moral deviants, the lesson says, but thinks himself immune to their deviancy, he’s being hypocritical because he isn’t immune, and by not breaking off

relations with them and showing them hatred, he’s showing disloyalty to God [p. 111].The proof text is the story of Abraham [al-Khalil] who broke off from those who did not

believe in God alone but instead worshipped idols.23

“Imam ibn Kathir said: ‘God ordered his believing worshippers to have enmity toward unbelievers and avoid them and

cut themselves off from them.”In the Fiqh and Hadith texts, imitating the kuffar is presented as morally

corrupting. For example, women who dress like foreign women invite temptation and corruption, so the fabric of Muslim women’s dress must be thick in order not to show any

skin, and wide so as to conceal the contours of the body, and the face must be covered to protect her personality. But in the Tawhid lessons, imitating the kuffar is a slap in the

face of God because the Muslim is supposed to love what God loves and hate what God hates. If a Muslim, for example, joins in holiday celebrations with the kuffar, or shares

with them their joys and sorrows, he is showing them loyalty; [ p. 118] To say ‘id mubarak to the kufaar is as bad as worshipping the cross; it’s an even worse sin against




12

God than offering a toast with liquor; worse than suicide, worse that having forbidden sex[artikab al-farj al-haram]; and many people do that without realizing what they have

done. [p.118]Imitating the kuffar by using Anno Domini instead of the Hijra year is another

problem, because A.D. evokes the date of Christ’s birth and therefore using it is a show

of affinity with them. At Christmas time, Muslims are not to dress like the kuffar or exchange gifts or attend a feast or display ornaments. The ceremonies of the kuffar should be like any other day for a Muslim. As Ibn Taimiyya said, “Agreeing with the Ahl

al-kitab on things that are not in our religion and that are not the customs of our ancestorsis corruption. By avoiding these things, you cease supporting them.” Some even say, goes

the lesson, that if you perform a ritual slaughter on their day it is as if you slaughtered a pig.

The past is repeatedly evoked as a warning to the present. In a section of thechapter called “Judgement about making use of the kuffar in employment and fighting

and things like that” quotes Shaikh al-Islam Ibn Taimiyya” as saying, ‘Knowledgeable people know that the ahl dhimma min yahood wa nasara wa munasabin wrote to people

of their own religion giving secret information about the Muslims.’” [p. 119] The principle is not to cooperate with the kuffar:

O you who believe! Do not take for intimate friends from among others than your

own people; they do not fall short of inflicting loss upon you; they love whatdistresses you; vehement hatred has already appeared from out of their mouths,

and what their breasts conceal is greater still. [Q 3:118]

One should not employ an unbeliever, says the lesson, if there is a Muslim who can dothe job, and if they’re not needed, one should never hire them because the kuffar can

never be trusted.24

Shaikh al-Islam ibn Taimiyya forbade using the kufar at all. Nor should a Muslim accept employment from an unbeliever, for a Muslim should never be in

a position of subservience to the kuffar, whereby the kuffar will show him disrespect. Nor should he be put in a position requiring him to deny his religion. “A Muslim should

not live permanently among kuffar because his faith will be compromised, and that iswhy God required Muslims to migrate from a land of unbelief [bilad al-kufr ] to a land of

belief [bilad al-islam]. As for those who would rather work for the kuffar and live amongthem, this is the same as showing loyalty to them and agreeing with them. This is no

doubt apostasy from Islam. And if you were there out of greed or if it was for pleasure[rafahiyye] even though he hates their religion and protects his religion it is not allowed.

Beware of the worst punishment.”25

In a subsection of the chapter on “al-walaa’ wa al-baraa’” are warnings about

music, laughter, and singing, proscribed behaviors for which the Wahhabis were oncefamous, and which led nineteenth -century commentators to liken the Wahhabis to

Calvinists. Proscriptions on joyous behaviors, according to the text, are meant toencourage the Muslim to invest all his being in thoughts of God, and not expend his

energies in frivolous activities. In the text, though, the significance of such proscriptionsshifts to contemporary concerns about the new enemy, the cultural invasion from the

west. The “worst kind of imitating the kuffar” is becoming so preoccupied with the kind of unimportant things that the kuffar have promoted in their own societies that the




13

Muslim neglects to remember God and to do good works, for God says: “Oh you who believe! Let not your wealth, or your children, divert you from the remembrance of God;

and whoever does that, they are the losers” [Q 63: 9].26 The lesson explains that thekuffaar assign value to unimportant things because, absent religious faith and belief in

stowing away good deeds for the Last Day, their lives are empty.

What are these unimportant things? First, there is what they [the kuffar] call thearts, such as singing and playing instruments, dancing, acting, theatre and cinema that isvisited by people who are lost from the truth. Then, there is the creation of pictures,

statutes and drawings, and also games and going out at night. Sports are more importantto youth than remembering God and obeying Him; prayers are missed because of sports,

and school and household obligations are ignored. Some of these are forbidden inreligion and some allowed, says the lesson, but whether allowed or not, the Muslim

nation today is facing challenges from its enemies, and should save their energy for dealing with these challenges and making the situation less dangerous. “Muslims have no

time to waste on insignificant activities.”27

The snuffing-out of art and music, and anything reflecting creativity has been a

defining feature of Wahhabism historically, and so has its hostility to the outsider.

28

Thehostility toward non-conforming Muslims at the heart of Wahhabism is not merely an

isolated element of this religious orientation that is pulled off the shelf periodically as ameans of firing up political cohesion, although it has proved useful for this purpose

repeatedly in the past. David Commins’ work on Ibn Atiq’s treatise on allegiance to the polytheists, for example, shows us that the duty to bear enmity was alive and well in 1883

when this treatise, which could be a template for the contemporary school tawhid text,was produced.

29

The destruction of tombs, the re-writing of the pilgrimage rites to eliminate music, theforbidding of dance and celebrations of birthdays, even the Prophet’s, the forbidding of

public cinema, drama, art exhibits, are all part of the modern fabric of Wahhabi culture.“ Its hostility to any human practice that would excite the imagination or bolster

creativity”, says Khaled Abou El Fadl, is “perhaps the most stultifying, and even deadly,characteristic of Wahhabism,”. Anything that suggests a step toward creativity” he says,

“constitutes a step toward kufr.” [p. 24-25.] The Saudi textbooks in and of themselvesexemplify the very unimaginative, creativity-crushing thought process they preach: in

one way or another, nearly every textbook that deal with religion repeats informationfrom other texts and is about the same thing, over and over.

Wahhabism and Salafism: their meeting in Saudi Arabia, and How did Odd-Ball

Islam get to be the One Islam?

The Salafi-Wahhabi version of Islam is represented in the school texts as Islam, pure and simple, the Islam of the pious ancestors of Real Muslims today. In some parts

of the world , Salafi-Wahhabi Islam has in fact transcended its self-image to become, inthe eyes of others, Islam. Yet the religion preached by MIAW and adopted by successive

governments in Najd was always, until the late 20th

century, considered odd-ball Islam.With its simplistic and parochial interpretations of Hadith, its dislike of art or music, film

or drama, its call for total segregation of women and sex-separation in public places, itsvalidation of a religious police force, and most of all its unapologetic contempt for




14

outsiders and encouragement of rude behavior towards them, Wahhabi Islam wasdespised and disparaged by Arab Muslims everywhere outside the peninsula as well

everywhere inside it except Najd. In MIAW’s lifetime, his own father and brother criticized his methods and his moral posturing,

30and the success of his mission was due

almost solely to conquest. Even Ahmad Abd al-Ghafour Attar, the 20th

century

biographer and panegyrist of MIAW, admits that in the 1930s, when he was a student of religious sciences in Mecca, MIAW was held in very low esteem by himself and all hisfellow students, and Wahhabism was considered something primitive and unique to Najd.

As recently as 25 years ago, when I first went to live in Saudi Arabia and started writingabout it’s confrontation with the west, Wahhabism was so marginal to the wider Islamic

world that I would always begin my articles by explaining that Saudi Arabia wasdifferent, and its brand of Islam had nothing to do with Islam anywhere else.

So how did Saudi Wahhabism come to be widely accepted as authoritative Islam?How did it become fused with Salafism, and how did the fusion of Wahhabism and

Salafism get into the school books?The answer begins with the Salafiyya movement that grew out of the colonial

occupation of Egypt at the turn of the century, and the response of Islamic scholars whosought to better their societies by reforming Islam. Like MIAW, men such as Muhammad

Rashid Rida, Muhammad Abdul, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, and Muhammad al-Shawkani[p. 31] believed that Muslims should return to Islam’s two scriptural sources for

guidance31

and thereby follow the way of their worthy ancestors. However, their goalsand methods were entirely different. MIAW was not trained in jurisprudence, had no

interest in history or authentication of hadith and wanted to reproduce what he imagined to be the perfect community in Medina. These Egyptian reformers, however, were

scholars, and their goal in shaking off the historical tradition was to clear the way toreinterpreting the foundational texts to accommodate modern needs.32 They too saw a

golden age in the era of the Prophet, but it was an era infused with the values of social justice they were seeking. They were, as El Fadl says, “synchronizers: they tended to

engage in a practice known as talfiq in which they mix and match various opinions fromthe past in order to emerge with novel approaches to problems.” They were mostly

“Muslim nationalists eager to read the values of modernism into the original sources of Islam.” [p. 32] They were striving to reconcile the Islamic tradition with such ideas as the

public good, democracy, constitutionalism, socialism, and the idea of the nation-state. [p.32]

Although today supporters of MIAW like to cite The Shaikh as the founder of modern Salafism, none of these reformers would have seen him in that light. It was only

in 1933 that Wahhabism gained respectability outside Najd, and this was largely due to amisunderstanding of its meaning on the part of the famous Egyptian writer, Taha

Hussein, who published an article in which he claimed to see in Wahhabism a vehicle for Arab nationalism: “It is the call of Islam as preached by the Prophet,” he wrote,

“excluding every mediation between God and his servants. It aims at reviving ArabIslam and purifying it from the influence of ignorance and of mixing with non-Arabs.”

33

Drawing a parallel between the experience of the Prophet Muhammad and MIAW,Hussein imagines that had the Turks and Egyptians not crushed the Wahhabis in the 19

th

century, the doctrine might have united the Arabs against European colonialism, just asIslam united the Arabs at the time of the Prophet. The doctrine, he wrote, “awakened the




15

Arab soul and presented it with a lofty ideal it loved and strove strenuously for with thesword and the pen, and turned the attention of Muslims in general and of the people Iraq,

Syria, and Egypt in particular, to the Arabian Peninsula.”34

The idea that a pure Islam could be used to unite an Arab nation that was

fractured and broken under the heal of colonialism resonated with the ideas of Hassan al-

Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood that would later bring Egyptian Salafism intothe Saudi education system. During the 1930s and 1940s, al-Bana developed a theory of Islamic training as part of his vision for revitalizing Muslim consciousness and building

an Islamic society. His vision called forth what seems common place now but was aninnovation in his time, that Islam is a complete system of life [nizam shamil], and in

many ways the goals he set forth meshed well with Wahhabi ideals for a unity of religion,spirituality, and politics, goals that are clearly organizing features of the Saudi education

system today. Al-Banna defined the Muslim Brotherhood as the “call of Salafiyya, thereturn of Islam to its pure sources, and the path of the Sunniyya because they wish to act

according to the pure Sunna in all life’s activities, in creed and worship.”35

He saw theBrotherhood as a “political society because they demand the reform of authority inside

[Muslim territory] and a change in the view [nazr] of the relationship between the IslamicUmma and the nations outside [of Muslim territory]” ; and he saw the Brotherhood as an

“intellectually learned [‘ilmiyya] union because Islam makes searching for knowledge aduty for every Muslim, man and woman,” and “an economic enterprise because Islam is

concerned with organization of capital and its gain ….’Verily God loves the gainfullyemployed believer.”

36Al-Banna was also concerned with physical training, because a

healthy body is necessary to be a helpful contributor to the aims of Muslim society, and these aims included military Jihad against occupiers.

37

During the years of secularization and suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood under Gamal Abd al-Nasser in Egypt, the Brotherhood became radicalized, exemplified

particularly by the work of Sayyid Qutb, and also by his brother Muhammad, who became a teacher in Saudi Arabia.

38In Sayyid Qutb’s last book before he was executed,

Milestones, he articulated a concept of Tawhid which expresses the Ikhwan’s educational purposes and means,

39

“those who call people to Islam are obligated to teach them that Islam means

firstly the acknowledgement of the creed: There is no God but God in its truesense, which is the attribution of sovereignty [hakimiyya] to God in every aspect

of life and the expulsion of those who oppose God’s authority [sultan] when theyclaim autonomy for themselves. This acknowledgement should be realized in

their innermost being [sha ‘a’ir] and in their worship and acknowledged in their pratices and in their everyday life.”

40

Qutb’s Tawhid is a concept that implies “a rejection of any man-made system and total

subserivience to God and His revelation, which are the Quran and His words to man thethe Prophet’s Sunna as the human manifestation of the Divine Will.”

41In Milestones

Qutb argued that the Muslim world was living in a state of Jahiliyya, which provided arationalization for the destruction of Egypt’s secular and un-democratic regime under

Nasser, an idea that made them supportive of the ruling family of Saudi Arabia, whovalidated the role of the ulama in government and claimed Quran as constitution.




16

The Muslim Brotherhood came to influence the Saudi education system in the1960s, when large numbers of the Salafiyya Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt, Syria and

Iraq were given political asylum in Saudi Arabia.42 It was during the “the Arab Cold War,” and the Saudis, fearing the threat of Arab nationalism that inspired revolutionary

activities against monarchies in the Arab world, saw the Brotherhood as natural allies as

they fought a proxy war in Yemen against Egypt and the Arab nationalism propounded by Egypt’s president, Gamal Abd al-Nasser.43

The members of the Muslim Brotherhood who came to Saudi Arabia exerted great influence, Rouleau says, as they became imams

in the mosques and teachers in secondary schools and universities. Muslim Brotherhood émigrés also became officials in the ministry of education, where they designed curricula,

wrote textbooks, and forged ties with Saudi ulama.44

How foreigners could take over the Saudi school system is easy to understand

given the state of Saudi education at the time: public education for boys had only begunin 1953, and in 1960, the year public schools for girls were initiated, the country as a

whole had an illiteracy rate in the 90% range for men, and higher women. The kingdomsimply did not have enough competent teachers, let alone scholars capable of preparing

school curricula. [Even today, forty years later, the public schools are not fully Saudi-ize]. As Arab Muslim intellectuals, the Muslim Brotherhood contribution was

indispensable in forwarding the public education agenda of the government, and their religious orientation was complementary.

At the same time, the Brotherhood were also in a position to support the rulingfamily in their confrontation with the challenge of secular nationalism in the Arab states.

In 1962, in an attempt to cultivate allies under the guise of Islamic solidarity, and tocreate a leadership position for themselves in the Muslim world, the Saudis created the

Muslim World League. According to Hamid Algar, the Wahhabi-Salafi stamp of theleague was evident by the composition of its leadership: the league was headed by the

mufti of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al ash-Shaykh, a descendent of MIAW,and among its eight other members were a son-in-law of Hasan al-Banna, founder of the

Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and the two most prominent Muslim statesmen and Brotherhood proponents of the time, Maulana Abu ’l-A‘la Maududi, leader of the

Pakistani Jama‘at-I Islami, and Maulana Abu ‘l –Hasan Navdi of India.45

The Brotherhood was thus very well placed to play an influential role in Saudi

Arabia on a number of different levels. In the Saudi education policy, formulated in thelate 1960s, the fusion of the Salafism of the Muslim Brotherhood, Najdi Wahhabism, and

the legitimacy concerns of the royal family is very clear. Islam, in the education policy, isa complete way of life and therefore teaching religion and instilling faith is the

fundamental purpose of education, along with instilling a commitment to the Islamic Nation and a sense of solidarity with all Muslims the world over; instilling a commitment

to Islamic proselytizing and eternal Jihad against Islam’s enemies; training students physically so they can pursue Jihad and fulfill their obligations to society [an echo of al-

Banna]; teaching them to denounce any system that conflicts with Islam; and teachingthem the rationale for legitimacy of the ruler: “reciprocal consultation between the ruler

and the ruled in what ensures right and duties and promotes loyalty and allegiance;” and “teaching students that Saudi Arabia has a special place and great responsibility in

leading humanity to Islam.”46




18

the text, in other words, is a moral universe unto itself that can be readily adopted bygroups with a political agenda.

But the most important reason for the success in spreading Wahhabi-Salafi Islamis the flow of oil money, which, as El Fadl says, gave the Saudis the opportunity to

address their legitimacy problem. Given Wahhabism’s incompatibility with main-stream

Islamic practices such as shrine visitation, poetry-reading, processionals and its out-righthostility toward minorities within the kingdom, and its attempt to snuff out centuries- old Pilgrimage celebrations, Saudi Arabia had a serious image problem in trying to lay claim

to leadership in the Islamic world, let alone be taken seriously as protector of the holy places. [Note that King Fahd took on the title of “guardian of the two holy places” only

after the second Gulf War and the surge of region-wide Islamism.]The Saudis, as El Fadl puts it, “either had to alter their own system of belief to make it more consistent with the

convictions of other Muslims, or they had to aggressively spread their convictions to therest of the Muslim world.” “The first,” he says, “would have required the Saudi regime

to reinvent itself, but, in many ways it was easier to attempt to reinvent the Muslimworld, and that is the option they chose.” [ p. 31]

So what exactly have the Saudis done to reinvent the Muslim world? It’s all inthe “National Training” school texts that praise the Saudis leadership role in Islamic

proselytizing and pursuing Islamic interests. The Islamic Universities welcomesubstantial numbers of foreign students on scholarship, who get an education they could

never afford at home; The World Assembly of Muslim Youth organizes conferences and Quran competitions, publishes religious tracts and sponsors missionary activities abroad.

The Organization of Islamic Conference, heavily supported by Saudi Arabia, operates onthe political and head-of-state level to promote cooperation among Muslim nations. A

lesson on “Connections of my country to the Islamic world” for the 6th

grade says, “Our country strives to spread the book of God, so Malik Fahd has established a publishing

house in Medina the Enlightened so that the Book of God may circulate among people of Islamic countries, and our king, khadim al-haramain wal-sharifain, gives guidance by

reproducing the noble Quran for all Islamic countries and for Islamic minorities in other states.”

[power point examples: the Saudi Quran with its editorialized suras, Islamic Ettiquette,the Natural Blood of Women. The Desired Muslim Generation]

Another method has been turning the Pilgrimage into a major tourist industry,with hotels and restaurants to serve all comers, including a tent-city for the poorest of

pilgrims, funding pilgrim-tourist agencies abroad that offer classes and literature aboutthe correct rites of pilgrimage according to the Wahhabi method and restrictions, and then

orchestrating the rites as they occur. One particularly successful method of assertingSaudi leadership through the Pilgrimage is inviting celebrities to make the Hajj as guests:

No where else, for example, could they have obtained the mileage derived from havinghosted Malcolm X.

One Islam: how far and how deeply has it really spread?

This brings me back to the women at the lunch table admonishing me that there is

only one Islam. I don’t know how seriously they took themselves on the One Islam issue, but after lunch, quite spontaneously, a number of them spoke with me individually about




19

the rituals of their mothers’ generation with which they themselves were personallyfamiliar. But they were, to a woman, young, and the product of the Saudi school system.

I’m unsure how much weight to put on the school curricula when it comes toinuring Wahhabi ideas within the Kingdom. This is because there is nothing in the books

I did not experience personally in 1979, when probably less than half the school -aged

population were even in school. Showing loyalty toward other Muslims and bearingenmity toward non-Muslims were well understood and discussed openly on radio and television, along with warnings not to imitate western women in their dress or their

behavior. [If a person works in an office where kuffar also work, should the Muslimshake the hand of the kuffar?] Total sex-segregation as something close to the kingdom’s

highest virtue was a constant theme in the media, along with Quranic punishments for morals violations, theft and murder. At that time, it was not unusual to hear a prominent

sheikh call for death to Shia, and Shia were excluded from high government positionsand jobs in the oil industry. Foreigners produced concerts and stage-plays, but in secret,

behind closed compound walls, in fear of the religious police. The point I’m making isthat the state successfully promoted and enforced Wahhabi ideas about the social order

before there was a fully functioning school curriculum at which we could point our finger, and since then, the state has invested itself more fully in catering to its Wahhabi-

Najdi constituency.The role of the state in promoting Wahhabism in the past has everything to do

with the potential for curricular change in the post 9/11 environment. The Saudigovernment has got itself between a rock and a hard place: it has molded its constituency

based on its claims to rule in the name of Islam as defined by its Wahhabi ulama, but atthe same time, it has created a violent opposition prepared to hoist the Saudi rulers on

their own petard, an opposition that would take Wahhabism at its word and find the Saudirulers wanting. Meanwhile, given the heavy promotion of religion over the past twenty

years, there is no longer the possibility of a liberal, foreign-educated elite that counts for enough politically to risk backing down, least of all on an issue as emotionally laden as

the national curriculum.One final point: this paper is not finished. I’d hoped to do a section on Islamic

ethics as defined in the school-books. The Fiqh, Hadith and Tawhid texts are notsufficient for this purpose given that there is a course of study on the Companions of the

Prophet and the Followers of the Companions of the Prophet, presented as models of emulation for students, and these books I received only recently and have not had time to

work through them. To be continued.

1

All of the textbooks cited were in use during the school year 2001-2002.

2 Hamad Al-Salloom.

3 Abdel-Fattah Ramadan Abdel-Al, “Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Case Study of the

Educational Development in Saudi Arabia from 1926-7 to 1986-7,” unpublished dissertation. Kennedy-

Western University, December, 1988.

4 Tawhid, 10th grade, girls, p. 13-14 [1996-97, in use during 2001-2002]




20

5

Two proof texts follow: God says: and hold fast by the covenant of God all together and be not

disunited…” [Imran 103]; So there will surely come to you guidance from Me, then whoever follows my

guidance, he shall not go astray nor be unhappy” [TaHa 123]

6Tawhid, 10

thgrade, girls, p. 15 In his biography of MIAW, Ahmad Attar says that ‘ilm al-kalaam is a

“science of theology known as ‘scholasticism,’ which is the science which makes it possible to prove

religious dogmatics by sound arguments. According to old doctors of theology it deals with the essence

and qualities of God.” Ahmad Abdol Ghafour Attar, Muhammad Ibn Abdel Wahhab [Mecca Printing &

Information Est., 2nd . Ed., 1979], p. 116.

7Khaled Abou El Fadl, “The Ugly Modern and the Modern Ugly: Reclaiming the Beautiful in Islam,” in

Progressive Muslims, ed. by Omid Safi, [Oxford: One World Press, 2003], 33-77. [my page references are

to a typescript]

8Al ash-Shaikh is the family name of MIAW’s descendants.

9 The proof text: “As for the scum it passes away as a worthless thing and as for that which profits the

people, it tarries on earth,” [Q 13:17].

10al-Mamlakat al-'Arabiyat al-Sa'udia, Wizarat al-mu’arif, Al-Hadith l'il-saf al-thalath al-mutawasat, P 94-

95.

11Wazarat al-mu’aarif, al-fiqh l'il-saf al-thalath al-mutawasat, p. 62-65

12Barbara Stowasser, Women in the Qur'an, Traditions, and Interpretation, New York: Oxford University

Press, 1994, p. 93. The school of Shafii also includes a woman's face and hands as part of her ’awra. The

schools of Malik and Hanafi exclude the hands and face.

13 Al-Fiq lilsaf al-Thaleth al-Mutawasit, wazira el-mu'aref, P. 63pp. 62-65.

14

Al-Hadith wa al-thiqafa al-islamiyye, lil saf al-thani al-thanawi, section for social science and medicineand sciences al-‘aloom al-idariyya wa al-ijtama’iuye wal tib’aiyya wa tifniyya, p. 67

15 al-Mamlaka al-’Arabiyya al-Su’udiyya, al-Ra'isat al-’Ama lit’alim al-Banat. Al-fiqh al-murhala al-

thanawia al-saf al-thalath, p.106- 109.

16El Fadl, “The Ugly Modern”

17Ministry of Education, “Life of the Prophet and the history of the Islamic state,” 10th grade, 2003. “The

goal in making the student aware of all this is so that he will have knowledge in the circumstances of the

Islamic faith which will fortify him against sectarianism and deviance.”[p. 5]

18 For example, [from the 11th grade Fiqh book, see Doumato, “Manning the Barricades”] “the apostate is a

person who denies his religion, and when someone denies his religion he strikes a blow to the solidarity of

the community,” says an eleventh grade fiqh text. The evidence lies in Hadith, “Whoever changes his

religion, kill him.” But first the apostate should be put in jail and questioned, and if he repents he is freed.

“Apostasy from Islam,” Fiqh, eleventh grade, General Presidency, p. 67-69.

19 “Apostasy from Islam,” Fiqh, eleventh grade, General Presidency, p. 67-9.

20Q 5:51: “Do not take the Jews and Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever

amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them.” Q: 60:1: “Do not take my enemy and




21

your enemy for friends. Would you offer them love while they deny what has come to you of the truth,

driving out the Messenger and yourselves because you believe in God?” Q 8:73: “As for those who

disbelieve, some of them are the guardians of others; if you will not do it, there will be in the land

persecution and great mischief.”

21 “al-walla’ wa al-baraa’,” Tawhid, tenth grade, General Presidency, p. 109-110

22“al-walla’ wa al-baraa’,” Tawhid, tenth grade, General Presidency, p. 110.

23Q 60:4 “Indeed, there is for you a good example in Ibrahim and those with him when they said to their

people: surely we are clear of you and of what you serve besides Allah; we declare ourselves to be clear of

you, and enmity and hatred have appeared between us and you forever until you believe in Allah alone.”

24 “al-walla’ wa al-baraa’,” Tawhid, tenth grade, General Presidency, p.121.

25 “al-walla’ wa al-baraa’,” Tawhid, tenth grade, General Presidency, p.121.

26“al-walla’ wa al-baraa’,” Tawhid, tenth grade, General Presidency, p.124.

27“al-walla’ wa al-baraa’,” Tawhid, tenth grade, General Presidency, p. 124-5.

28 There are far too many examples of Wahhabi expressions of hostility and aggression toward outsiders to

list them all. Well know examples include the killings in Ta’if by the Ikhwan during the Saudi conquest of

Hijaz and the destruction of tombs and sacred places of Shia in Itaq in 1803, or the leveling of the saints’

cemetery in Medina, or the beating of people in Hufuf in the 1920s for wearing gold, or the stopping of

traditional music and processions associated with the Pilgrimage. Incidents of personal experience with

Wahhabism’s hostility to the outsider abound. One particularly humorous occasion occurred in Riyadh in

1917, when Dr. Paul Harrison of the American Mission in Bahrain opened a clinic at Ibn Sa’ud’s request.

According to Dr. Harrison, patients he encountered on the street spat on him and called him “Kalb” and

then followed him into the clinic for medical attention. When the doctor tried greeting a patient with “as-Salaam alaikum,” the patient responded, “I say that only to a Muslim.”

29 David Commins, “Wahhabi Doctrine in an Age of Political Expediency,” unpublished paper presented at

the 36th

annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, November 2002.

30El Fadl, The Modern Ugly and the Ugly Modern: Reclaiming the Beautiful in Islam, in Progressive

Muslims 33-77 (edited by Omid Safi, Oxford: Oneworld Press (2003).

31El Fadl, p. 31, Algar

32El Fadl

33 Attar, p. 163.

34

Attar, p. 164.35 Roald, p. 111

36 Roald, p. 112, her translations of al-Banna’ 1984, Majmu ‘at rasa’il al-imam al-shahid hasan al-Banna’,

pp. 122-123.

37 Al-Banna was very much concerned with morality, and moral training to the Muslim Brothers stresses

patience, sincerity, truthfulness, tolerance, forbearance and hope, as well as discouraging illicit sex, gossip

and backbiting.[ roald p. 141-2] Moral training is based on models of behavior from the stories of the life




22

of the prophet and his companions, which are part of the Saudi curriculum, and al-Banna was particularly

concerned about social welfare and Islamic fraternity, espousing service to the public, including visiting the

sick, helping the needy, and offering a kind word. [p. 146 Roald]

38Algar mentions Sayyid Qutb’s book, Signposts Along the Road [Milestones], and In the Shade of the

Quran, as being particularly influential, and also mentions a book written by his brother, Muhammad Qutb,

Twentieth Century Age of Ignorance Jahiliyyat al-Qarn al-‘Ishrin [Cairo, 1964). Sayyid Qutb and his work

are discussed by Emanuel Sivan, Radical Islam, and by Yvonne Haddad, “Sayyid Qutb: Ideologue of

Islamic Revival,” in Voices of Resurgent Islam,” Haddad and Esposito, eds.

39Roald p. 125, quoting from Qutb, 1983b p. 40: “those who call people to Islam are obligated to teach

them that Islam means firstly the acknowledgement of the creed: There is no God but God in its true sense,

wich is the attribution of sovereignty [hakimiyya] to God in every aspect of life and the expulsion of those

who oppose God’s authority [sultan] when they claim autonomy for themselves. This acknowledgement

should be realized in their innermost being [sha ‘a’ir] and in their w orship and acknowledged in ther

raticesnd in their everyday life.”

40In Tawhid, for the 10

thgrade, five kinds of Tawhid are delineated, and three of these are considered

main concepts of Tawhid by the Muslim Brothers: unity of lordship [tawhid ar-rububiyya], unity of divinity

[tawhid al-’ asma’ wa s-sifat]

41Roald, p. 127.

42 Algar, p. 48.

43Eric Rouleau, “Trouble in the Kingdom,” Foreign Affairs, July 1, 2002.

44 Rouleau.

45

Hamid Algar, Wahhabism: a critical essay, p. 49. [The work of each of these men is recommended for inclusion in a model Islamic curriculum for North American Islamic schools published in 1412 by Umm al-

Qura University in Mecca.45 ]

46al-Mamlaka al-‘arabiyya al-su’udiyya wazarat al-ma’arif, Siyasat al-ta’lim, Riyahd, 1995. The

educational policy rests on “acquainting the individual with his God and religion, adjusting his conduct in

accordance with the teaching of religion, to fulfill needs of society and achieve national objectives.” #2.

faith in God as God, in Islam as religion and in Muhammad as God’s Prophet and messenger; #17.

absolute faith in the fundamentals of the Islamic nation and in its being the best nation given to people, and

the faith in its unity regardless of race, color and distance; #29. Islamic solidarity for the sake of uniting

Islamic ranks, strengthening cooperation among them and shielding them against all dangers; #22.

reciprocal consultation between the ruler and the ruled in what ensures rights and duties and promotes

loyalty and allegiance; #23. God has bestowed a special personality on the Saudi Arabian Kingdom in

being the guardian of Islam’s Sacred places and the defender of the land in which inspiration descended on

Prophet Muhammed, and in her adoption of Islam as creed, worship, law, constitution and way of life, and

in sensing her great responsibility in leading humanity to Islam and setting it on the right path; #25.

Preaching Islam through the world, with prudence and persuasion, is the duty of the state and the citizens



http://www WatsonInstitute org/events detail cfm?id=329

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in order to enlighten the people, bring them out of darkness to light and raise them in the realm of ideology

to the level of Islamic thought; #26. Jihad is a strict duty, an established tradition and an existing need

which will continue until resurrection day; #29, promoting the spirit of loyalty to Islamic law by

denouncing any system or theory that conflicts with this law and by honest action and behavior in

conformity with the general provisions of this law; #52 supplying students with physical skill based on

healthy and athletic principles to form sound bodies enabling the individual to fulfill his duties toward his

religion and society with strength and perseverance; #60 awakening the spirit of Islamic struggle to fight

our enemies, restore out rights, resume our glory and fulfill the mission of Islam; #104 preparing the

students spiritually and physically for Jihad.

47 For a discussion on the use of the term “wahhabism” see Dr. Fahd Al-Semmari, “The Invention of the

Term “Wahhabism:” an instrument against expansion through conversion,” unpublished paper presented at

the 36th

annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, Washington, 2002.

48 al-Minhaj.com, is the site of the “Salafi Society of North America.” Its agenda is Wahhabi: “Tawhid is

the Foundation,” reads the title page. “Making the Religion purely for Allah is the foundation of the

Religion, and it is its axis around which its mill revolves, and it is the Tawheed that Allah sent His

messengers with and for which He revealed His books. It is that which the prophets called to and for which

cause they made Jihaad.[http://www.al-manhaj.com/Page1.cfm?ArticleID=2] Similarly, the web site

[http://www.salaf.com/] is clearly a Saudi site, which lists MIAW along with Ibn Tayimiyya among the

pious descendents of the Salaf.

religion and identity in saudi texts

Documents