RIYADH, 16 April — The Riyadh-based World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) has expressed concern over reports in the local media that the National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) in New Delhi has introduced in the Indian schools in the Kingdom a history textbook that promotes all major religions except Islam.
Describing the reports as “surprising”, Dr. Maneh H. Al-Johani, secretary-general of WAMY, said in a statement issued yesterday that any attempt to promote a religion other than Islam in Saudi Arabia would be illegal.
He said the Ministry of Education prescribes the teaching of Islam for Muslim students and moral science for non-Muslims, apart from Saudi history and culture. These are the basic requirements for the granting of licenses to an international school in the Kingdom.
However, there is no objection to the teaching of a country’s history.
The secretary-general said, “It is surprising that a spokesman of the Indian Embassy should defend what is clearly indefensible by false justification of the argument. By trying to teach schoolchildren in their formative years all the ancient religions, it represents an unwise move on the part of the Indian authorities to deprive Indian Muslim children of their own religion and Islamic values. Moreover, a majority of the students in the International Indian schools are Muslims.”
Dr. Al-Johani wondered how Islam could be excluded from the major religions when its followers constitute almost a quarter of the world’s population. He said it would be taking up the matter with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and the Ministry of Education to take appropriate action by deleting objectionable parts of the textbook. Obviously, this particular textbook has not been cleared by the Ministry of Education.
The WAMY secretary-general called upon the sponsors of international schools in Saudi Arabia — whether Saudis or embassies — to ensure that the textbooks prescribed for their students do not violate the Kingdom’s rules and regulations or include any chapter that is detrimental to the interests of Muslim students. Any attempt to violate these regulations will not be tolerated, he added.
