GCC States Are Reforming Education Systems As Part Of Counter-Terrorism Measures.

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KUWAIT - The six Arab Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states have begun work on reforming their educational system and revising curricula as part of measures to stem Islamic fanaticism, with Salafi terrorism having affected security in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. Meeting here on Feb. 8-9, the six GCC ministers of education agreed on implementing a proposal to that effect made by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdel Aziz.

The ministers adopted Prince Abdullah's call for a comprehensive GCC-wide educational programme, in line with measures to fight both terrorism and unemployment. Their meeting coincided with the closing of an international counter-terrorism conference in Riyadh on Feb. 8 which called for establishment of a world centre to combat terror proposed by Saudi Arabia. One of various recommendations issued by the latter conference looked into ways to eliminate "Islamic terror" as well as its main causes: unemployment and a shortage of skilled national manpower in the GCC.

The first phase of municipal elections in Saudi Arabia was held on Feb. 10, despite ridicule of this "un-Islamic" experience by the kingdom's Wahhabi grand mufti (see overleaf). US pressure for the Arab world to democratise are being felt throughout the region after Iraq's Shiites led the way into defying Salafi terrorists in that country's first free elections in decades (see survey of Iraq in this week's Diplomat Package in rim2bIraqJordanFeb14-05).

The GCC education ministers agreed there was a pressing need for an overall improvement of the curricula and passed the project to the Arab Education Bureau (AEB). They urged a review of the time frame for execution and the related programmes and steps and underlined the "priority of each step". It would be prudent to benefit from other regions' expertise, they added.

There was a recommendation to set up a GCC centre for teaching the Arabic language and arts in the UAE, with co-ordination among all GCC ministries of education. There was also agreement on the need to fine-tune the Islamic studies and related education curricula and a project would be presented to the AEB.

Kuwaiti Minister of Education and Higher Education Rashid Al-Hamad told the press it was agreed that the AEB project concerning a new unified educational system for all the six GCC states should be executed within two years, rather than four, and stressed there were only "some slight differences in opinion but no disagreement". The issue of terrorism was brought up during talks on the fine-tuning of curricula for Arabic and Islamic studies in particular.

The minister said one specific agreement on unification of curricula for the subjects of mathematics and sciences would be signed next month in Riyadh between Kuwait and Bahrain and this would later include all the member-states. The new curricula would conform to international standards, the minister pointed out.

GCC Secretary-General Abdel Rahman Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah on Feb. 8 said: "It's time to develop the syllabus of Islamic education. This must be carried out by specialists... Reform is an urgent matter in all fields and reforming Islamic education is a prerequisite for developing education as a whole. From my viewpoint, Islamic education should be limited to teaching religious duties". He said the GCC was working to spread a "culture of tolerance and respect for others...as part of its effort to contain terrorism".

Also addressing the press on Feb. 9, Saudi Education Minister Mohammed Al-Rashid said ministers adopted a resolution to "develop methods of teaching Islamic education". However, he said: "There is nothing wrong in the general framework of the [existing] religious curriculum, but we are working to improve methods of teaching it... There is nothing in our school textbooks that calls for hating people of other creeds or sects... We do not call for hatred. We want to spread the spirit of love" among students, he added. Later on that day, King Fahd had Rashid replaced by a more moderate figure in a minor Saudi cabinet reshuffle.

Although the Kuwait meeting was devoted to adoption of an education reform plan presented by Crown Prince Abdullah, Rashid on insisted: "I affirm that [Saudi] school textbooks have no relation to terrorism. If education and school were related to the terrorist attacks, we would have all become terrorists...".

The Sectarian Threat: The problem with the Salafi movement, including Wahhabi fanatics in Saudi Arabia, is that it cannot tolerate other religious and other Muslim sects. For example, it regards the Jaafari Shiites as "heretics worse than the Jews and the crusaders", as one Salafi militant in Kuwait has said recently. The movement, particularly opposed to elections and democracy, is trying to trigger a Sunni-Shiite war in the region beginning with Iraq. The Jan. 23 declaration of war against the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq by Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, leader of the local Al-Qaeda franchise, was intended to cause such a war and for this to spread to the other parts of the Arab world.

In a way it is a miracle that Iraq has not collapsed into all-out wars between the Sunnis and Shiites and between the Arabs and Kurds. It is mainly thanks to the restraint of the Jaafari Shiites - a majority in Iraq as in Iran and Bahrain and a minority in most other GCC states - that a sectarian war has been averted so far. Sunni/Salafi fanatics such as the Zarqawi group have devoted as much effort to stoking a sectarian war as to fighting the US-led occupation of Iraq, having killed a big number of Jaafari Shiites. For the Salafis including the Wahhabis, the Shiites are idolaters and apostates who belong in a lower circle of hell than even the infidel Jews and Crusaders.

(Iraq has little tradition of Sunni-Shiite enmity. Many families are mixed, but so too are several tribes - including the huge Shammar confederation of Arab tribes which is mainly Sunni but has important Shiite branches in Iraq. While housing the Shiite shrines and centres of learning at Najaf and Karbala, Iraq has usually maintained a tradition of secular tolerance. But the Shiites have been kept under the Sunni thumb for a millennium. The main reason they have acquiesced in the US-led occupation and refrained from reprisals against the Sunnis is that they sense they will get their just share of power through the ballot box. Yet it is precisely that which is so agitating Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbours. Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, other GCC states and Egypt are all ruled by western-backed Sunni autocrats. While they distrust democracy they appear loathe Shiism.

(The essentially Persian doctrine of Khomeinism in Iran has made little impact on Arab countries, especially in Iraq. What Sunni Arab rulers fear is a tilt in the balance of power towards the downtrodden Shiites. King Abdullah of Jordan recently raised the spectre of a new "Shiite crescent" from Iran, through Iraq to Syria - ruled by minority Allawites, a derivative of Shiism - to Lebanon, where the Shiites are the biggest sect, with Hizbollah in their armoury. Other Arab leaders slyly highlight the location of most of the region's oil, for example in the Saudi Eastern Province, where systematically repressed Jaafari Shiites live).

The Riyadh Anti-Terrorism Declaration: The four-day conference in Riyadh ended on Feb. 8 with endorsement of a Saudi proposal to set up an international centre to combat terror. The closing "Riyadh Declaration" said: "A task force was established to further elaborate on this proposal". The communique, read out in Arabic at the closing session, did not say where the centre would be based, but aides to Prince Abdullah said it could be set up in Switzerland.

The declaration said: "Any international efforts will not be sufficient to effectively combat the terrorism phenomenon if not conducted within the framework of joint actions and an all-inclusive strategic vision". On Feb. 5, Crown Prince Abdullah opened the conference with a call for establishment of a global centre to combat and pre-empt terrorism. But basic details were left to be decided later, including what exactly such a centre should do, who would pay for it, and whether it should be based in Switzerland, New York or elsewhere.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef Ibn Abdel Aziz said the agreement was the "key accomplishment" of the conference - attended by security and intelligence officials from 50 countries around the world. He said the centre could be an institute for research, training and sharing of expertise. US State Department official William Pope said: "There are various ways. It could be more of a think-tank, doing research papers, or more of an operational real-time thing". He said the US would take part in the working group. Saudi Arabia proposed the centre be established in Switzerland - which was not present at the meeting - but New York, Vienna, Cairo and Riyadh itself had also been suggested.

Acknowledging an issue repeatedly stressed by Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states, the communique said "terrorism has no specific religion, ethnic origin, nationality, or geographic location". It added: "In this respect, it is of paramount importance to stress that any attempt to associate terrorism with any given faith will in fact serve the interests of terrorists". A proposal to set up an international fund of seized assets to help victims of terrorism was dropped by the conference

The communique said: "States were encouraged to set up domestic bodies" to deal with seized terrorists' money. On Feb. 7, the Belgian head of a workshop on ties between terrorism and money laundering said a recommended international fund from seized terror money to help victims of terrorism had been approved. But the recommendations - not spelled out in the communique - will only be made public in two weeks' time after delegates discuss them with their respective governments.