The Saudi people are held hostage to Islam and its teachings. Read verse 5.51 from the Quran which states for muslims not to befriend Jews and Christians. Look at the Saudi Flag...a couple of swords...America is not innocent, but Saudi Arabia is a backward, intolerant nation that exports a mentality that belongs in the middle ages.

I've taught history for 29 years and the books I've taught from do not teach hatred for Muslims or Jews or Christians. Our state has textbooks that have to be okayed before the various school districts choose the ones they want to use. Maybe in the past text books here did teach hatred, I don't know, but they haven't in all the years I've taught. The Saudis are wrong to allow this now, no matter what our country might have done decades or centuries ago. And to MOM in Pennsylvania, we don't all hate Muslims. I don't really think that much about them either way. I have other things to occupy my time with besides what religion someone is. That is something very personal, and only GOD knows the heart of people, not you or I or anyone else, only GOD.

The textbooks that teach hatred of Christians and Jews are okayed by the Saudi government. I guess those who flew the various planes on 9/11 (mostly Saudis) learned their lessons well. Why do we fool ourselves and think the Saudis are our friends?

thats an easy question to answer.......Saudi is an allie, at leat for now it is.

AHEM! The House of Saud has been financing Wahabi'ism for over a century. This is the Islamic school of thought that leads to untra-conservatism and sharia law and TERRORISM. And yes, it has returned to bite the House of Saud in the arse, but big deal! That's just good PR to keep the Americans guessing.

Wake Up America. The House of Saud is at the very GENESIS of terrorism, and ANY Americans caugh holding hands with a Saudi ought to be incarcerated. Saudis are the enemy, period. Get a clue and learn a wee bit of history.

Kelly-

"Working together" isn't a new idea - just one that doesn't fit the Bush agenda. True to his word, W. *IS* a uniter - 4/5 of the world fears and loathes us, and only through "enemies everywhere" fear mongering are they able to loot the treasury and gut the Constitution while their base begs for martial law.

The new paradigm goes like this: countries are irrelevant - what's good for the Carlyle group is good for the world.

If you read the book "History Lessons: How Textbooks from around the World Portray US History," you find sections that deal with excerpts from Saudi textbooks (as well as dozens of other nations). What is interesting about the Saudi excerpts is how closely they resemble in tone and concepts, right-wing Christian fundamentalist beliefs in this country. Exchange the word Islam for Christianity and they both want prayer in school, a return to fundamentalist values, a place for religion in government, etc., etc.

kudos to Bob Langfelder from Brockport, NY for his blog. I wish even the MASS MEDIA were as American as this. Then maybe we could have been discussing these consequences of a failed policy many years ago, when more people were talking but nobody (not even the MASS MEDIA) was listening.

The United States was nothing more than a "Hired Gun" by the Saudis, in the first gulf war when Iraq threatened its borders. Interestingly enough I believe they generously provided the petroleum for the operation. How big of them! Funny...now that the threat has been removed that they should gouge us to the hilt with skyrocketing fuel prices.

Apparently they have forgotten what we did for them...(via kuwait)...In my opinion, and I am sure I am not alone on this one,...maybe we should have let Saddam march into Saudi...maybe Sadam knows what it means to be an ally...apparently the saudis don't!...it is insult to injury and simply "shameful" that they have forgotten what has been sacrificed towards their benefit..billions of dollars, the numbers of american troops dying on a daily basis...the strength (and generosity)of the american public has been tested by this whole affair that reeks of oil...and americans are fed up with saving other countries butts only to have them turn on us...maybe next time....you're on your own! Ingrates!

Here's an idea...we stop judging what other countries teach in their schools. There are teachers or public figures in the US teaching intolerance and extremism such Pat Robertson’s diatribes about abortion and gay marriage.

Here’s a new idea…..Let’s stop the “us versus them” rhetoric and work together to improve the state of the world. The cost estimates that I have seen for the current war in Iraq is nearing $250 billion dollars. Yet, I just read on the Borgen Project's website (http://www.borgenproject.org/Iraq_War_Cost.html) that if the same attention was paid to ending world hunger as the war on terror then there wouldn't be anyone starving to death. A $5 billion dollar price tag to end world hunger sounds like a better placed priority than hundreds of billions for a war with no clear exit strategy.

Why didn't we attack Saudi Arabia (the land of the hijackers?) Because that's what bin Laden would have liked us to do. He was looking for recruits, and what better country to pick them from than our best friend? Remember, they had been planning 9/11 for years.

Yes we did close down the CIA unit designated to finding bin Laden, that does NOT mean in ANY way that we have stopped looking for him. Not by a long shot.

The bin Laden's are very wealthy. So are the Kennedy's. Not every bin Laden is evil, not every Kennedy is either.

The US has no right to tell another country or religion what beliefs are acceptable. Those beliefs come from the Qu'ran and Hadith. To tell the Saudi's they can't teach those beliefs would be the same as them saying you could not teach Biblical beliefs to a child here in the US. Yes, the Qu'ran teaches that Islam is the only true religion, just as Christians claim that the Bible says they are the only true religion. This whole controversy is full of double standards and is just another attempt to demonize Islam.

This same problem about religious textbooks promoting some kind of intolerance and hatred was also published in The Times in Europe concerning religious texts of 2 islamic universities. It's almost the same issue. The textbooks teach that christians and jews are the enemy? Is it wrong to teach history? In the time of spreading Islam "some" christians and jews were the enemies. I believe the report failed to include that this was a lesson in history. To The canadian muslim who says that they should not add words in parethesis ( ), These words are not changing or interpreting the verses in a new way. The Qur'an addresses many different groups of people with words such as "those", "they" "people" and it can be hard to identify who the verses address. Mistakingly, alot of people take the many verses that are recorded events in history as literal truth today. "Christians and Jews are the enemy," "kill the jews where they stand" Just two examples of a recorded historical events in the Quran that everyday people and news agencies use as islamic jihad but have no relivance to today.

I find it ludicrous that the Saudi’s are attempting to placate the west by “editing” the message of the Koran, and what is even more disturbing is that the west, particularly the news media, is promoting this as some sort of “stopgap” to the American public, in the so-called “war on terrorism.”

Anyone who has read the Koran, and unfortunately, to completely understand it one must speak Arabic as there is a lot lost in the translation, can plainly see with their own eyes the very message that the Saudi’s are attempting to edit out of their school books!

The translation that I read is called “The Meaning of the Glorious Koran: an explanatory translation by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall.” To a westerner, the Koran would appear to be read from the back to the front, but this western translation “juxtaposes” this so we can feel comfortable reading it.

The main “gist” of the Koran is this:

Islam is the last true religion. God got angry after the others He sent before failed to complete their mission and came to Mohammad with the last word on what was what.

All other religions are blasphemy in the eyes of Allah. It is the duty of all Muslims to spread the word of Allah, and convert everyone to Islam, by the sword if necessary. Infidels can be offered the option of converting to Islam, or they are to be eradicated. Jews are referred to as Idolaters, and the rest of us are infidels.

There are two types of Muslim. True, “good” Muslims, and what are referred to as “Hypocrites.” Hypocrites are Muslims who do not follow the teachings as described above and willingly leave their homes to partake in Jihad against all the Idolaters, Blasphemers, Infidels, and Hypocrites, which is their duty in the eyes of Allah. Again, we have the option of converting to Islam, or dying.

Islam is a religion of “peace,” the “peace” though, is when the world is one in the eyes of Allah and all are Muslim. "The Quran does not ask people to conduct war against non-Muslims, but that's what the Saudis are distributing," says Fatah.

I submit that if you read the Koran for yourself, that is, indeed, the underlying theme of the whole text.

If you don’t believe me, take the time to read the Koran. It isn’t a hard read, about 450 odd pages depending on the translation. Every westerner needs to read it to understand the mindset of the “true” meaning of the word of Allah. And Allah doesn’t mince words!

YOU ALL MAY HAVE YOUR OPPINIONS, AND THAT IS JUST WHAT THEY ARE, OPPINIONS, NOT BASED ON ANY REAL FACTORS. YOU CANNOT DISCUSS ISLAAM IN TRUTH BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT MUSLIM IF YOU UNDERSTOOD ISLAAM, THEN YOU WOULD ACCEPT ISLAAM AND BECOME A MUSLIM. YOU ALL ARE HATERS OF ISLAAM JUST LIKE BUSH THAT IS A FACT, BUT THERE WILL COME A DAY WHEN EVERYTHING IS SET RIGHT, AND NO ONE WILL BE DEALT WITH UNJUSTLY, AND THAT COMES FROM THE QUR'AAN....

Yes, there are a lot of things that I don't agree with that our best ally in the region believes. I don't know what the answer is other than to pressure the Saudis into evolving into a more tolerant society. The dissaffected youth in Saudi Arabia was a great resource for bin Laden as he recruited his "soldiers." Saudi Arabia is our best ally in the Middle East and Pakistan is our best ally in the Far East. We need to tread lightly, lest we lose the best governmental support that we have in the region.

What does being an ally in the war on terror has to do with the teachings in Saudia Arabia?

The Saudis didn't start taking up the subject of Christians and Jews in the classroom on 9/12. The teachings were going on before 9/11 and before the discovery of oil in S.A.

As long as the S.A. government supports the U.S. by trying to keep oil prices low and the war on terror by questioning terror suspects out of the public eye the Administration will look the other way as previous administrations have done when the Saudis spent billions of $$$ on military planes and other weapons; they can teach anything they want in Saudi classrooms without official U.S. government comments.

Only a nation as ignorant about history and arrogant about foreign policy as this one could fail to comprehend the millenium long struggle between the Islamic Middle East and the West. In short, the only way to preserve our own security is to end our dependence on imported oil and to cut ourselves off from Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Islamic Middle East. No need for oil = no involvenment in the Middle East = no terrorism = peace and security.

The Saudi's like all middle east leaders waited for their chance to use a weak greedy American President. We hadn't had any but during the Clinton years there was George W. Bush. So as smart as they are they helped Bush get into office as Bush put the US in debt they gave loans. Oh yes those backroom deals, notice Bush was unaware of the Dubai deal. The Saudi govenment used Bush just like he used them years ago when they gave him money for his oil advanture. Like Al Qeada the Saudi can wait until they strike and they study the enemy. The knew the Bush family was greedy and money would draw them in. It worked very well. As Americans let this Administration use God's name and religion to suck us in the Saudi's were baiting the Administration with money. Even Cheney was sucked in by his greed. Dubai will own the New York ports first a new company with a good name will buy the port then Dubai will purchase it from them. The deal with Dubai was signed and sealed before the public knew, but in business law the deal has to go ahead or Dubai can sue for breach of contract. But MSNBC legal team already knew that right.

As a Christian, I hate to see another society portraying those with the same faith as myself as the enemy. However, I think one thing that modern America has yet to realize is that we will not, no matter how hard we look, find another country with the exact same belief system, moral code, or social priorities. This is not to say that these other countries are wrong--they are just different. If we want to succeed in our "War on Terror" or expect to deter North Korea, we need allies, and those allies will never have the same viewpoints as most American citizens. We must learn, as a worldwide community, to accept differences and work together in spite of them.

Why do some Saudi textbooks teach schoolchildren that Christians and Jews are the enemy? The answer is Wahabist Jihad.

Apologists can say this is not the true face of Islam, that Jihad is "a spiritual struggle", Islam is a "religion of peace" all they want. However the fact remains, it is still "a" face of Islam.

With no central authority in Islam (despite fantasies of a restored Caliphate being a cure-all) this face believes it is 100% correct in its opinions. It is also a petro-dollar wealthy face with the means of building Wahabist Islamic centers and spreading its' doctrine all around the globe.

If our leaders had good sense, they would recognize this and instead of waging a war on an abstract ideal such as terror they would wage a war on intolerent Jihad.

I have other questions: If the majority of the hijackers on 9/11 were from Saudia Arabia, why didn`t our country attack Saudia Arabia?

Also, isn`t it true that our country just recently close down the CIA division that has (supposedly) been searching for Osama Bin Laden (A naitve son of Saudia Arabia)?

And, finally, isn`t it true that the Bin Ladens are some of the richest people in the Middle East and former supporters of George W. Bush?

So, the question remains: What would make any reasonably thinking American conclude that the Bush Adminstration would do ANYTHING to upset Saudia Arabia?

With Friends like the Saudis, who needs enemies!! I guess the sound of petro-dollars overides National Security, common sense and a clean-healthy envirnoment. If Politicians cared for this country as much as they claim; we'd all be driving electric cars, have solar panels on our houses and probably would not be in Iraq.. Just my opinion!! Bob Ps, Our National Debt would also be much smaller due to less oil imports!!