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Saudi Arabia: Religious Freedom

Question for Foreign and Commonwealth Office

UIN HL3556, tabled on 28 November 2016

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the content of school text books in Saudi Arabia, in the light of the extent of compliance by the Saudi authorities with their undertakings made in 2001 to remove from their school textbooks incitements to hate and kill Jews and Christians.

Answered on

7 December 2016

Since 2001, Saudi Arabian school textbooks have undergone a number of revisions and we are not aware of any recent examples of incitement in these books. The King and the religious establishment continue clearly and publicly to condemn Daesh, and to emphasise that it does not in any way represent the teachings of the Islamic faith. The Saudi Arabian Government has been at the forefront of international efforts to defeat Daesh and its poisonous ideology from which the country has suffered first-hand.

Answered by

Foreign and Commonwealth Office