Excerpts: Saudi checkpoints.Islamic terrorism.Textbook narrowness.Saudi
superiority 23 May 2003
+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 223 May '03:"Checkpoint Delays Increasing",Staff Writer
QUOTES FROM TEXT:
"Motorists traveling between Riyadh and Dammam are facing long delays
at checkpoints."

" `police are checking documents and opening car trunks' "

"some streets have been reduced in width as concrete barriers have been
placed outside compound
walls."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
EXCERPTS:
ALKHOBAR, 23 May 2003 - Motorists traveling between Riyadh and Dammam are
facing long delays at checkpoints ... . Even inside the cities of Dammam
and Alkhobar checkpoints are causing long waits.

"Wednesday night was terrible," said one Asian expatriate. "When we left
Dammam at 7 p.m. we saw a very long line of trucks queuing to enter the city
from the highway. We never imagined what was waiting for us coming into
Riyadh at 10:30. As we approached the area of the checkpoint outside Riyadh,
I saw a long line of trucks. I reset my odometer at that time and found that
when we reached the checkpoint we had traveled 5 kilometers."

Getting to the Riyadh checkpoint is not easy. Four-wheel drive vehicles
common in Saudi Arabia circle around the main traffic lanes, going out onto
the road shoulder and into the sand. Then they come back up at the front of
the lanes near the checkpoint, where they push into the lines of vehicles
awaiting police clearance. ...

"What really troubles me is that although the police are checking documents
and opening car trunks, they aren't looking inside the suitcases and bags in
the trunks," said a Pakistani executive of a local IT company.

... motorists are advised to avoid the Green and Golden Belt compound areas
and the area near the US Consulate due to checkpoint delays. Near major
compounds, some streets have been reduced in width as concrete barriers have
been placed outside compound walls to keep traffic at a distance.

Taxi drivers from some companies have been instructed by their management to
ask potential customers for identification before allowing them into the
vehicle to avoid problems at checkpoints.

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 23 May '03:"Terrorism Casts Its Shadow Over Our Lives"
Wajeha Al-Huwaider-- Holds an MA from George Washington Univ., resides in
Saudio Arabia
Special to Arab News
QUOTES:
"This calamity has uncovered something within and reopened a wound left
over from the massacres of
Algeria and other similar crimes by people who have no religion but
choose to call themselves Muslims."

"Entire families were massacred, grandparents, children and
grandchildren, for the sake of paradise."

"We are the only country in the world that has transformed its
idealogical, cultural and linguistic wealth into
a point of discord, dissent and venom."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------
EXCERPTS:
Last week I lived through moments of terror just like everyone who has
family and loved ones in Riyadh. ...

This calamity has uncovered something within and reopened a wound left over
from the massacres of Algeria and other similar crimes by people who have no
religion but choose to call themselves Muslims.

In 1997, Amnesty International published a report containing detailed
accounts from those that survived the barbaric massacres in Algeria.
...During six years more than 80,000 people were killed. Among them were
many women, children and elderly people. Today's survey records over 100,000
killed - most slaughtered as they lay sleeping in their beds. Entire
families were massacred - grandparents, children and grandchildren - for the
sake of paradise.

The Algerian author Wassini Al-Araj embodied that tragedy in his novel "The
Memory of Water" and exposed the ugly face of those who slew the nation's
mainstay, its intellectuals as well as many ordinary people with varied
excuses. The author himself was among those threatened with extermination.
...

The culture of death became pervasive and imprinted in people's minds.
Wherever Wassini went he found the traces of armed violence: On the streets,
in the alleyways, at the university where he worked and even in taxis. He
says: "You see people getting into fights over petty things, and it might
come to each one pulling out a knife and threatening to kill the other."

A book by the writer Mahmoud Al-Sabbagh laid bare the slogans of the
killers, written on the walls of buildings in the city - things such as: "Oh
infidels, the hand of jihad will reach you, even if you hide in fortresses.
Say that terrorism is God's command." This is the manner and language that
the extremist armed organizations used as dialogue.

... Wassini retells the ugliness of a crime committed on one of his
colleagues in college. He read the news: "Yesterday the artist and poet
Yusuf was killed. He was found cut into pieces on his bed holding in his
hand a pencil which seems to have been his only method of resistance." When
one of the perpetrators was caught, a grocer with the features of a butcher,
"eyes frozen and empty," he was asked why he killed Yusuf, and his answer
was: "He deserved it - he blasphemed against Muslims." When he was informed
that Yusuf was a defender of Islam, the killer replied: "I didn't know and
it is not my concern. I know that he was an artist, a poet and sculptor and
he was preparing statues to be installed in our national cities. He had gone
astray." That answer epitomizes the way in which societies shrouded by
ignorance are easily manipulated by self-serving, secretive and immature
ideologies.

These are only some of the features of the darkness that envelops the cities
and towns of Algeria and has resulted in the death of tens of thousands of
its people. Some of that darkness has come to eat away at our society under
the pretext of purifying our soil of "infidels." For years violence between
people has lain undercover, to emerge in its ugliest form in a number of
incidents the last of which was the tragedy in Riyadh. "We are the only
country in the world that has transformed its ideological, cultural and
linguistic wealth into a point of discord, dissent and venom."

Some urgent questions trouble our minds. What is the size of that darkness?
How far does it reach? Will our society - both people and leadership -
confront it and prevent it from spreading? In our country, too, "ignorance
has fused with conviction and become a nuclear bomb in the hands of every
man with a blind heart and mind."

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 23 May '04:"Saudi Textbooks Lack Global Dimension"
Khaled Al-Awadh, Special to Arab News
QUOTES FROM TEXT:
"Saudi history textbooks are biased and lack any global perspective."

"all these books lack objectivity especially when approaching subjects
such as communism, Orientalism,
evangelism and Arab nationalism."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------
EXCERPTS:

RIYADH, 23 May 2003 - A Saudi scholar says Saudi history textbooks are
biased and lack any global perspective.

In a paper presented on Wednesday during a conference on developing
curricula ... Professor Reima Sado Al-Jarf recommended reviewing and
restructuring Saudi history books and adding global perspectives to them.

The paper looked at global content in history textbooks for grades four to
12, specifically at what level international content is introduced and the
percentage of international topics taught.

It found that 68.5 percent of the themes were Islamic, 30 percent focused on
Saudi history, and only 1.5 percent of topics in the nine history textbooks
were global.

"There is an urgent need to develop a global perspective in the minds of
Saudi students by adding global issues to their history books," said
Al-Jarf, who teaches at the College of Languages and Translation, King Saud
University.

She said global history was important to create global awareness among
students and make them understand the world "as different people and nations
interacting with one another."

"History books should teach them to live in interaction with the world and
not to live in isolation.

"These books should also enlighten them with information on various
political, economic and social aspects of all the regions of the world, and
not only the Arab and the Muslim worlds," she said.

She added that students should know of problems and challenges that go
beyond the borders of countries and understand the differences between their
own history and that of other nations and cultures and realize the links
that exist between their homeland and other countries.

Scientific analysis ...reveals that these books rely heavily on memorization
and do not develop independent and critical thinking skills among students.

The study also finds that all these books lack objectivity especially when
approaching subjects such as communism, Orientalism, evangelism and Arab
nationalism.

[IMRA: To be politically correct, anti-Semitism isn't mentioned?]

"Historical events and facts should be written up objectively without
biased conclusions," Al-Jarf said.

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 23 May '03:"The Way the US Would Have Reacted to the
Riyadh Blasts"
Muhammad Al-Shibani, Saudi writer based in Jeddah
QUOTE FROM TEXT:
"Among the many blessings conferred upon this country is that its rulers
are more farsighted, experienced
and responsive to their peoples' needs."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------

FULL TEXT:

Let us assume that, given its reaction to Sept. 11 and the way it is now
fighting terrorism, the United States were the governing authority here.
What would be its reaction to the bombings in Riyadh?

[IMRA: Evidently he thinks the Riyadh attack was more severe than
Sept.11.]

First, the country's religious establishment would be blamed for the attack
and as a result would be dismantled. Religious education would be severely
curtailed so as not to influence people. The Commission for the Promotion of
Virtue and the Prevention of Vice would have to be closed down to allow
people to live freely and indulge in pleasure. Religious schools and classes
teaching the Holy Qur'an would be shut down because they are centers for
raising children on a religious basis. Universities and colleges teaching
Shariah would have to be reduced in size because they are breeding grounds
for extremists. The curricula, especially those which teach Qur'anic
jurisprudence and interpretation as well as Hadith (sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon him) would have to be changed to allow youth easy
and unhindered access to modern sciences. The media must have unlimited
freedom so that anyone could express, and spread, any views and ideas
regardless of whether they were good or bad. It would not matter if people
expressed anti-religious or blasphemous sentiments as long as this fell
under the classification of personal freedom. Social restrictions, including
community values, customs and traditions, would be abandoned because they
might be contrary to personal freedom. New prisons would be built to jail
all those growing beards, which are a terrorist symbol, as well as imams and
preachers. New techniques and tools of intelligence and surveillance would
be devised to deal with the new situation, beginning by torturing the
suspects' relatives, friends and everyone who happened to know or come
across them. The borders with Yemen would be sealed to stop smuggling of
arms into the country. Westerners would not be allowed to live in compounds
because these are easy targets. Instead, they should mingle with the rest of
the population although this would mean they would have to give up the
luxurious Western lifestyles of many compounds. To make life easier for
Westerners as well as others, every neighborhood must have all the required
facilities that make peoples' life comfortable. This would at least occupy
the local population with the enjoyment of luxuries and focus their
attention on something other than targeting foreigners. It would be another
successful penetration of local society. It is an endless list of unjust
measures that we have seen the United States adopt over the last two years.

We must, however, remember one thing. Among the many blessings conferred
upon this country is that its rulers are more farsighted, experienced and
responsive to their peoples' needs. They are more rational than to allow
crimes committed by a group of deranged individuals to deflect their
attention or steer them from the course they have set for their country. It
is a course that takes into consideration the country's national interests.
Following the bombings in Riyadh, the Kingdom has been accused of being a
fertile ground for terrorists because it is a closed society, lacks
democracy and freedom of expression and applies a strict religious code. How
can those who voice these accusations explain the attacks that took place in
Morocco, an open and democratic country which enjoys freedom of expression?
Terrorism knows no boundaries. Why then single out Saudi Arabia?

Dr. Joseph Lener, Co-Director IMRA