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U.S. allies still allowing Jihad indoctrination in wake of September 11

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, January 22, 2002

WASHINGTON Ñ Thousands of Arabs are continuing to be indocrinated in Islamic holy war in countries aligned with the United States including Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the growth of Islamic indocrination is endangering the U.S. security relationship with Riyad. Levin said Saudi Arabia has failed to restrict the so-called Islamic schools, or "madrassas," in wake of the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington.

"What makes it a little different is the support that comes from that country for the madrassas," Levin said. "I think if the Saudi government wanted [it could] prevent that from happening."

U.S. experts have told Congress that the failure of these governments have allowed Islamic fundamentalist groups to indoctrinate young Muslims in holy war. They said these countries have failed to stop the unauthorized schools, which serve as training ground for future Islamic insurgents.

"Right now a whole generation of young boys in certain Middle Eastern states are going through these madrassas and being indoctrinated into jihad [holy war] because they have no other way to feed themselves," Michelle Flournoy, a researcher of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said. "They have no other way to clothe themselves.

They have no other way to get an education, if that can be called an education."

Ms. Flournoy told a Senate hearing in December that the Bush administration must use foreign aid to help eliminate Islamic indoctrination. She said the problem is greatest in Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

"I think one of the questions we have to ask is whether we want to funnel all of our foreign assistance through governments, or whether we want to invest more directly in civil societies, and through non governmental organizations, through other groups that will build up educational structures," she said.

In Riyad, Saudi officials ruled out any change in government policy toward the Islamic schools or curriculum. "Our curriculum is based on well-established principles, determined by our needs and the requirements of our society," Saudi Education Minister Mohammed Al Rashid told the Riyad-based Al Watan daily. "No one has the right to interfere in our affairs or to dictate to us."

At the hearing, senators expressed skepticism whether U.S. aid could stop fundamentalism. They said introducing modernization and democracy in Saudi Arabia could merely increase Islamic opposition to the kingdom. But Ms. Flournoy said U.S. allies in the Arab world must be told that Islamic extremism will no longer be tolerated. "I would say," she said, "'We know you have a problem of extremists on your soil; in the past you have managed that problem by tolerating a certain degree of activity as long as it was directed outward. That is no longer acceptable for us. Because we have lost too many lives as a result of that posture. So, that needs to change.'"

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