Saudi textbooks still preach hatred - report

RIYADH, May 26 (Reuters) Saudi Arabia's education system continues to preach hatred for both Muslims and non-Muslims who oppose the ultraconservative state's version of Islam despite pledges of reform, a report published in the United States said.

The Saudi curriculum came under intense scrutiny after the September 11 attacks on US cities in 2001 since 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis acting in the name of al Qaeda, which is led by Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden.

Authorities in the absolute monarchy say the results of the reforms to tone down the kingdom's puritanical Wahhabi form of Islam in school textbooks and mosques will take time to appear.

But the report by the US-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, run by Saudi opposition figures, and US think-tank Freedom House says material currently taught at primary and secondary school level shows the reforms are far from complete.

Schoolbooks say that ''Christians and Jews are the enemies of the believers'' and that students should not ''befriend,'' ''respect'' or ''show loyalty to'' non-believers, the report said, citing Arabic passages.

The books also condemn most Sunni Muslims around the world, including those who do not interpret the Koran literally, as lax and accuses Shi'ite Muslims and Sufi sects -- mystical groups that cross the Sunni-Shi'ite divide -- of being heretical.

Shi'ite Muslims form a sizeable minority in the country and often complain of state prejudice against their community.

The textbooks are taught in Saudi government schools around the world, said the report issued this week.

''What is being taught today in Saudi public school textbooks ...

may not simply influence a new generation of Saudis, but also those Muslims around the world who rely on the Saudi government's claim that its instructions on Islam are authoritative,'' it said.

The birthplace of Islam, Saudi Arabia receives millions of Muslim pilgrims every year, most of whom are not Wahhabi.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, issued a statement this week urging patience.

''Overhauling an education system is a massive undertaking. There are hundreds of books that are being revised to comply with the new requirements, and the process remains ongoing,'' he said.

Through its King Faisal Foundation, the al-Faisal branch of the royal family says it will open a private university next year whose curriculum will showcase a new education system.

But education reform remains a hugely controversial issue.

The powerful religious establishment has used public debates, popular Web sites and mosques to attack liberal reforms, including watering down the education system, which they fear will ''secularise'' their model Islamic state.

The Islamists argue that the country, set up with Wahhabism as state orthodoxy, is compromising its principles because of pressure from the United States, which remains a close ally of the Saudi government despite a rocky patch after September 11.

REUTERS SRS PM1053