In our system of education, showing admiration for non–Muslims’ achievements is a great sin and indulging in such praise deserves severe punishment. Our teachers always talk of jihad and its rewards for those who participate in it. We are exhorted to admire the jihadists and emulate them. We are urged to participate in jihad, at least once in our lifetime. Here is a hadis, often used to call Muslims to partake in jihad : 

Narrated Abu Hurayra: Allah’s messenger (peace be upon him) said, “If anyone meets Allah with no mark of jihad, he will meet Allah with a flaw in him”. (Tirmidhi No1068). 

In our society, the good students are always the religious students. They command all the respects from the headmaster and the ordinary teachers. They cut their hair in zero. They dress in short ‘Thoub’ and usually work as religious police in the school in which they had studied. As a reward, they receive many facilities and respect. This is the reason why many students become religious—they just covet this sumptuous respect and rich amenities showered unabashedly by the people and the government. To sum up; the religious people in Saudi Arabia receive special respect from the government and the public. They are, in all respect the caretakers of Allah, to tell it plainly. 

In our schools, it is quite normal for a mathematics teacher to speak about jihad, and for that matter, a science teacher to speak about the latest discovery by the infidel west which was invariably discovered by early Islam, long before the Kafirs discovered! Our sports teachers talk about the haram and halal attires in Islamic sports. For example: shorts and jerseys which bear any symbols are out. I clearly remember that one day, during a football match between the students and the teachers; one of the teachers was wearing a short pant. On observing such an odious act, our headmaster ordered him to change his despicable infidel’s dress, failing which he would have to be out—he was warned. The headmaster’s argument was that the teacher had set a bad example to his students. The harassed teacher concerned steadfastly refused to comply with the headmaster’s order. So, he was dismissed from the school. A religious teacher sporting long Islamic beard and wearing a lengthy, baggy trouser replaced him. 

I vividly remember our callous history teacher told us that when the Muslims defeated the Christians in the battle of the Toors in 732 AD, it was proclaimed that Azan would be heard in all of Europe. I would like to remind this dim–witted teacher that Azan is already being heard all around Europe. Today, this (Azan) is more ubiquitous in the USA, Canada, UK and many other infidel lands. This has been achieved even without fighting a single battle. I would like to call this as the fruit of the stupid system of the west—the system of democracy. Jihadi Islam is poised to topple the western civilization by using their (infidels’) own weapon—it is Democracy. My view is that if left unchecked, the Islamists will topple the western governments by using the method of democracy. These Islamists need not fight any bloody battle—democracy and the system of freedom of expression are the two best arsenals the Islamist will take advantage of. The Kafirs have unhesitatingly handed over these powerful weapons to Islam!  

Therefore, we note that everyone in our school, notwithstanding the religious teachers speaks about religion (Islam, of course). Our entire life is surrounded with religion. Everywhere we go there is nothing but omnipresent, omnipotent religion—even our English class is about religion—about Makkah, Medina and their history. In each term we used to study six religious subjects. They were: the Qur’an, ahadith, tafsir (Qur’an exegesis), tajowed, tawheed  and fakih. In addition to those subjects we had to attend the lectures in the morning, after breakfast intermission and after the Zohr prayer. Students who desired to be hafizs (Qur’an memorizers) had to attend the mosque in the evening for Hafiz Qur’an ‘preserve’. 

Was there any provision for music lesson in our school? Forget about music as a subject in any Islamic schools. In Islam, music is ‘Satan’s sound’. 

During those days of my school life our best topic of discussion was the mujahidins who had just returned from fighting in Afghanistan. During our breakfast break, we would keenly absorb their stories of how the angels had fought with them and how one mujahed could kill so many Russians by simply saying Allah Akbir la elah elah Allah. We would hear about the wounded mujaheds and how they had recovered very fast. We would also listen to the claim of excellent smell which emanated from the martyr’s dead bodies. All those gripping, spell–binding, incredible and miracle stories about the mujahedins in Afghanistan would make many of us jealous about them. Many of us could not wait to go forward and join in the jihad, wherever it might be fought. Such was the intense motivation to participate in the Holy War—to kill and get killed. 

It is now quite simple to understand that the unbound fear, unremitting hate (for the non–Muslims) and an undying penchant to be a martyr made many Saudis to think that why should they not participate in the fight against the infidels. Look at the number of Saudis killed in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and other places around the globe. These diehard Islamists consider education as a waste of time. Their preferred method to go straight to Paradise is death in Allah’s path. 

Having been highly motivated to forsake the meaningless temporal lives in the way of Allah, many of us sought the opinions of our flippant religious teachers. The answer from them differed. Some of them said we must make proper preparations before setting out for fighting (we were not ready, according to them). Some teachers opined that we must seek permission from the muffitee), the religious expert. And when the muffitee permits us we must embark on the war path to kill the infidels. They told us there was no need to carry guns or any other weapons, because, according to them, we will be the winner—come what may. If we are killed then we are headed straight to Paradise, and if we win then this is the victory of Islam. Both ways, we are the victorious. There is no way Muslims could lose a war—we were convinced by our teachers. 

I remember how we were tortured in school with prayers— above the required prayers. I wrote before that we had to offer the zohir prayer before the school hours ended for the day. But this was not the last ritual we were forced to perform. In addition to the hateful zohir prayer, we were required to offer the distasteful Sunni prayer every day. This was done, under compulsion by our teachers, as a demonstration of our extra love and devotion for Muhammad, our Prophet and for his companions.  

All those school activities made us to live in the distant past—during Muhammad’s time. When I reminisce those fearful school days, I really think we were on a time–travel, retrogress, of course. We were living in the seventh century, not in the current period. Even our teachers used to tell us that the modern time is Taleban and nothing else. Time did not exist except for the Taleban time, which was nothing but the re–emergence of Muhammad’s period, the Islamic Period. This is nothing but the incredible Islamic Time Machine, we must admit. 

All those incidents I described above dates to my school days. With the end of Afghan war and with the departure of the infidels (the Russians) from the Islamic land of Afghanistan, I was expecting the passionate fervor for jhad  and martyrdom to die. After 9/11, and after all the troubles that took place in Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of this horrible event, I was under the impression that Islamist will lie low, at least for a time. But I am totally wrong. 

It is sad to say that nothing has really changed, so far as the Islamic zeal is concerned. My younger brother who attends the same school as I did decades ago informed me that many of my classmates have become teachers in the school, propagating with unbound fervor whatever they had learned during their school days. In a true sense, these teachers of religious schools have turned into Islamist terrorists, so much so, that even the government is scared of these teachers. This is definitely a victory for them (the Islamist terrorists). They got what they wanted. They are now fully satisfied that they have no serious threat from any source. They (these Wahabi terrorists) are now so bold and powerful that they openly declare their intention to control the education system. Recently they got what they wanted. The new minister of education is from Qasem (land of Wahabi). See the attached photo of the new education minister.

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