Murdered American Teacher in UAE

[shadowjack]

I guess my main point is that the reality at one of the top 3 or 4 schools in Saudi is very different than what you hear in the Western news. As Saudi becomes more open (and it definitely changed even in my seven years there, quite noticeably), things will change more. As the King Abdullah scholars, hundreds of thousands of them, live overseas and then return, change will come.

One Saudi friend explained something to me. "When I was in school," he said, "we believed everything the teacher told us. Why would he lie?"

"Now that my brother is in school," he continued, "when he is told something, he goes to the internet to check it out."

This alone points out the change that is coming, along with things like the increased emphasis of science in the curriculum and the decreased emphasis on Islamic studies, as well as co-educational schools up to grade four (formerly not allowed), the vote for women, and a myriad of other small changes that on the surface are innocuous, but as a whole will ripple out to create more change.

Anyways, to each their own. I hope I have challenged your views of what you see as a 'monolith'. I will leave you with this - unless you speak Arabic and go on the twitter boards and other public postings sites where Saudis gather, you won't know the differences of opinion that are there - and they range from extremely salafi to extremely liberal, with everything in between (see any similarities between that and the US?).