February 23, 2017 | Quoted by Rebecca Tinsley - The Huffington Post
Why Isn’t Saudi Arabia On Trump’s List Of Banned Muslim Countries?
Why doesn’t President Trump’s executive order include Saudi Arabia, the country of origin of 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11? And why does the US State Department refrain from pushing The Kingdom to drop the incitement to commit violence from the text books it exports around the world?
Some years after 9/11, Saudi Arabia eventually promised to revise its hate-filled school books by 2008. Since then, the State Department has exaggerated the extent to which anti-Semitic and anti-Christian bigotry have been purged from the Saudi curriculum. In fact, analysts believe, US officials have covered-up for the Saudis, failing to ask for copies of recent books (as recently as 2016, it was regurgitating Saudi excuses that seven books requested were “still being revised“).
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According to terrorism authority David Weinberg, the State Department tried to bury a US-tax-payer-funded study of the Saudi books commissioned in 2011. When the report, completed by the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, was finally published, after significant pressure, it concluded that Saudi school texts “continue to teach hatred toward other religions and in some cases, promote violence.”
In his paper “Textbook Diplomacy,” David Weinberg reports that current and former State Department officials admit they withheld an official report on the toxic nature of Saudi school books because it made the Saudis look bad. “American officials can sometimes be so focused on Saudi Arabia’s massive oil production and pivotal role in regional security that long-term concerns such as indoctrination get swept under the rug.” That, and the estimated $100 billion in arms sales to Saudi since 2010.
The State Department claims the Kingdom cooperates in shutting down the financing of terrorism and in sharing intelligence. Yet, at the same time, millions of young people around the globe are receiving a different message from Saudi-donated school books.
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Read the full article here.