Pamela Geller very disapprovingly included this item in the May 10 issue of Atlas Shrugs. (thanks to C Robb) The Saudi education ministry has instructed all international schools to start teaching Islamic civilisation and Arabic language, as well as the history of the kingdom and its geography, for at least one hour each week, Arab News has reported. Under the new regulation, international and private schools are required to offer students these subjects and hire Saudi teachers to teach the courses.....
Unfortunately Geller is not a Radical Centrist. She may ultimately be right in her criticisms, given political realities in Saudi Arabia, but for now we can at least imagine some other approach to the Saudi requirement than simply ranting about how bad it is. At one level the requirement is reasonable. If you are going to do business in Israel it would be a good idea to learn Hebrew and study the history of the state of Israel and learn as much about Judaism as possible. Similar considerations would apply for Japan, France, Mexico, etc. Trouble is that the Saudis will doubtless add all kinds of Wahhabi propaganda to the subject. But if a Western organization wanted to counteract that kind of thing there is a simple remedy which could turn the tables on the Saudis : Require, in the hour immediately following, a critique of the Saudi "lesson." But including such things as useful Arabic idiom, appreciation for local arts, and scholarly history of the kingdom. The principle is the same as the once topical Channel 1 furore of years ago. In that case schools got free TVs in exchange for daily 15 minute programs of all TV commercials. There was much hue and cry about how terrible this all was, essentially a lot of yelling and screaming. OK, no TVs for schools. OR, look at Channel 1 as an opportunity. Every day, in the next 15 minutes, students critique the ads, learn about TV commercials and how they are made, learn about advertising logic, learn about commercial values, etc, etc, and have a guarantee of TVs in the schools. Got a lemon ? Make lemonade. If this principle isn't basic to RC, what is ? Billy -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
