JEDDAH, 7 February — Minister of Higher Education Khaled Al-Anqari rejected Western attempts to find a link between religious extremism and the Saudi education system after the suspected involvement of Saudi nationals in the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States.

In a recent interview in Rabat to Nathan Gardels, editor in chief of the Global Viewpoint, Anqari dismissed as "uninformed and unfounded" allegations by author Francis Fukuyama, who said Saudi Arabia and the reformist movement launched by Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab were exponents of "Islamic fascism".

Fukuyama had also charged that a Saudi school textbook teaches 10th graders that "It is binding on every Muslim to be mutually loyal and consider all unbelievers as their enemies."

Anqari said Fukuyama is not qualified to undertake the task of interpreting Islamic teachings. "The minister said Fukuyama’s understanding of Islam and the Holy Qur’an is as warped as Osama bin Laden’s," the minister said.

"I grew up and was educated in the Kingdom. I studied in the 10th grade but never came across anything like what Fukuyama has said. Nothing of that kind is taught in our schools."

Even the American Constitution has been interpreted in different ways by different groups and factions, he added, saying the Holy Qur’an can be properly understood only when it is interpreted with a comprehensive knowledge of the background of its revelation. "When quoting from the Holy Qur’an one should know the context of each verse to be able to fully understand it. Otherwise it will only serve personal interests of some selfishly motivated people," the minister said.

"Sheikh Abdul Wahhab’s movement, which began in the 18th century, focused on a return to the pure and simple Islam as understood from the Holy Qur’an and the practices of the Holy Prophet, nothing more," he said.

What Sheikh Abdul Wahhab aimed at was to free Muslims from the rigidities of false religious practices and not the opposite, Anqari explained.

On the question of the Sheikh’s view that all innovation in religion is tantamount to sedition and against the monotheistic principle of Islam, the minister said: "Of course, his teachings emphasized the unity of God... But the Holy Qur’an has made it clear that ‘there is no compulsion in religion’."

Responding to the charge that the Sheikh’s view serves as a clarion call for war against infidels, the minister said Wahhabism in the past two centuries could be judged in the backdrop of Saudi history. "Over this period, the country was a source of peace and stability in the region. This is the best evidence against the charge that Wahhabism is hostile and intolerant."

The minister disagreed with the view expressed by a former US official in The Wall Street Journal that Saudi Arabia was the apparent source of "fundamentalism, subversion and religious hatred" and that Saudis had participated in a decadeslong campaign against "secular and tolerant" countries in the Muslim world.

Saudi Arabia has always maintained a moderate stand in its relations with other members of the international community and has won the respect of the moderate Muslim countries on the one hand and the West on the other. As such, the Kingdom has been extending help to both Muslim and non-Muslim countries, he said.

Indeed, the Kingdom has been blamed for being moderate and cooperative with the West, particularly with the US, by some Muslim and Arab countries. But never has Saudi Arabia been accused of attempting to destabilize a Muslim country, the minister stressed.

Refuting the charge that Saudi Arabia has financed extremists the world over by founding mosques and religious schools, the minister said the religious schools were opened in response to requests by the people and governments of the countries where they were opened. These schools achieved very high academic standards not only in the learning of the Holy Qur’an but in scientific subjects as well. The schools functioned in close coordination with the authorities in these countries. If the authorities there had detected these institutions were fostering any extremist tendency, they should have withdrawn their licenses to operate.

Asked about the presence of Saudis among the suspects who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks, Anqari pointed out that 200,000 young people have graduated from Saudi secondary schools this year alone. "Can an entire education system be blamed if a few of these students are charged with carrying out terrorist activities?" the minister asked.

If the system is blamed, then the educational system in the US need to be overhauled too, because recurrent violence is reported from schools there with students going on indiscriminate killing sprees, he said.