JEDDAH, 11 December 2005 — In addition to the recent case involving chemistry teacher Muhammad Al-Harbi which attracted Kingdomwide attention and saw the charges against him dropped, another teacher, Muhammad Al-Suhaimi, has now had the charges against him dropped.
Al-Suhaimi, a teacher in a Saudi intermediate school, was sentenced to three years in prison and 300 lashes. He was suspended from teaching and was told not to talk to the media. However, he received a royal pardon and was released from Al-Hair Prison in Riyadh last Thursday.
Al-Suhaimi’s problems began four years ago when he was accused of encouraging his students to indulge in homosexuality and to commit adultery. According to him, he told his students that love was noble. When one of them asked if love were not all about marriage, Al-Suhaimi replied that in a typical Saudi marriage in which the couple does not know each other before the ceremony, the controlling emotions tend to be amiability and compassion. The case was in the courts for four years, though the sentence was passed only six months ago. Al-Suhaimi, a teacher of Arabic to intermediate students, is also a playwright and won the prize for the best Saudi playwright at a recent Janadriya Festival.
Al-Suhaimi’s troubles began with a group of fundamentalist teachers who “believe that if you are not doing exactly as they are and not believing exactly as they do, then you are not a real Muslim.”
In a phone call, Al-Suhaimi said: “I was sure of my innocence. Though I went through many hardships in the last four years, I was certain that in the end, God would reveal the truth and the injustice would end.”
The teachers used young students of 13 and 14 to testify that Al-Suhaimi had said that sexual relationships outside marriage were all right. “I don’t blame the students at all,” Al-Suhaimi said. “They are children who were manipulated by adults and used as tools.”
Al-Suhaimi went on to say, “I asked my students to love God instead of fearing Him.”
He added that true believers should love God instead of fearing him and only by loving Him would they come to true belief. “I teach teenagers who need love and affection at a difficult period in their lives. I will not turn everything in their lives into fear and terror, especially their relationship with God.”
Al-Suhaimi told Arab News that though he wants to go back to teaching, he accepts the ministry’s decision to move him to an administrative position. “I was born to be a teacher,” he said. He plans to continue his education.
