Magic Kingdom

Remember the infamous Saudi textbooks? Not long ago, Khalid al-Awwad, the undersecretary of the kingdom?s Education Ministry, said Saudi Arabia was revising its school curriculum to stress ?peace and tolerance.? A conference was even held recently to critically address the issue of "militancy."

Now, 150 angry people, including judges and university professors, are fighting back. In a signed statement, they warned:

"Any omissions or mutilation of what was written by the Islamic scholars… contradicts the national unity the state is calling for, as this unity is based on our religious creed…"

One of the signatories is Sheikh Nasser al-Omar. If you can read Arabic and want an insight into how some Saudi clerics use Internet, you might want to visit him here. (Thanks to Michael Scott Doran for both links. Incidentally, he's just written "The Saudi Paradox" for Foreign Affairs that provides a background for all this).