Religious intolerance rife in Saudi schools - report

King Abdullah’s international push to promote interfaith dialogue has hit a setback on news children in Saudi Arabia are still being taught religious intolerance.

Textbooks used in schools across the conservative Muslim kingdom refer to Jews and Christians as apes and swine and attack other Muslims who do not practice a fundamentalist form of Islam, according to a report by US-based think tank the Hudson Institute.

Wahhabism - the strain of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia - is considered one of the religion's most conservative.

Saudi Arabia promised to make changes to its textbooks following a similar study in 2006, but the most recent report, which looked at state-produced textbooks used in the 2007-08 school year, said very little has been done.

The news will come as a blow to King Abdullah and Saudi Arabia, organiser of a landmark three-day interfaith conference in Madrid that ended on Friday.

The meeting brought together Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and representatives of other religions in what was seen as an unprecedented event for the Saudi monarchy.

In a final declaration, participants urged the United Nations to play a role, saying they hope to follow up "recommendations in enhancing dialogue among the followers of religions, civilizations and cultures through conducting a special UN session on dialogue".

Prior to the conference, detractors said the Saudis were the last people who should be hosting a meeting on religious dialogue due to the ultra-conservative form of Islam practiced in the kingdom.

But the king has made reaching out to other faiths a hallmark of his rule since taking over the oil-rich kingdom in 2005. He met with Pope Benedict XVI late last year, the first meeting ever between a pope and a reigning Saudi king.

And in June, King Abdullah held a religious conference in Mecca in which participants pledged improved relations between Islam's two main branches, Sunni and Shia. At that meeting, the king also rejected extremism, saying that Muslims must present Islam's "good message" to the world.

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