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Since the campaign began, worshippers in Riyadh and Jidda have reported hearing sermons promoting tolerance, denouncing terrorism and warning against radical interpretations of the doctrine of jihad. On a recent Friday, the sermon was mundane at Jidda's Juffali Mosque, which is next to Chop-Chop Square, so called for the work of the executioners who practice there. On the agenda were the importance of good deeds, kind words and the rejection of pagan customs.
Saudis are wondering how long the imams will stay in line. "When they speak about tolerance, the words don't come out easily," says a senior provincial official. "What we are hearing is only a facade. You can smell the disgust they feel in mouthing their new rhetoric." Sometimes it expresses itself plainly. Says Jordan: "We have noticed lately in influential mosques the imam has condemned terrorism and preached in favor of tolerance, then closed the sermon with 'O God, please destroy the Jews, the infidels and all who support them.'"
Like the mosques, Saudi schools have been the subject of scrutiny. Saudi textbooks have been laced with passages that not only extol the supremacy of Islam but also denigrate nonbelievers. An eighth-grade book states that Allah cursed Jews and Christians and turned some of them into apes and pigs. Ninth-graders learn that Judgment Day will not come "until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them." A chapter for a 10th-grade class warns Muslims against befriending non-Muslims, saying, "It is compulsory for the Muslims to be loyal to each other and to consider the infidels their enemy."
With these excerpts suddenly being quoted in the U.S. media after 9/11, the Saudis launched a review of their curriculum. The program 60 Minutes quoted Foreign Minister Saud that he was relieved to find that only 10% of the material was "questionable" and 5% "abhorrent"--a result that might not have comforted a top diplomat of many other nations. The Saudis vowed to excise the objectionable portions, and Prince Saud insisted to TIME that "the books have been changed for the new school year." The U.S. embassy has asked for a rundown of changes but to no avail, according to Jordan. "We continue to have some concerns about the curriculum," he says.
What kinds of changes are the Saudis making? Education Minister Mohammed al-Rasheed told TIME that the government had scratched the entire fifth chapter of a 10th-grade text that described how Muslims and non-believers were historical enemies. An excerpt detailing "ways to show hatred to the infidel" charges that "it is forbidden to show happiness during the holidays of the infidels." The minister noted that three Koranic messages encouraging tolerance would be included in Saudi texts. One of them says, "Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for your faith nor to drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them. For Allah loveth those who are just."
Al-Rasheed insists the old curriculum had "nothing to do with people being violent." Still, the modern, globalized world, he says, requires greater acceptance of other cultures. In a speech this week opening the new school year, he plans to tell students, "There is no future for us unless we are tolerant people, cooperating with others and seeking knowledge wherever it is."