A Saudi school for Dublin?

Saudi Arabia's plan to establish a school in Ireland is receiving a mixed response, especially from non-Saudi Muslims worried that the kingdom's monolithic view of Islam could be a source of conflict, reports Foreign Affairs Correspondent MARY FITZGERALD

THE NEWS THAT the government of Saudi Arabia plans to establish a school in Dublin has its genesis in a meeting that took place in a city-centre hotel late last month. In attendance were several Saudi nationals studying in Ireland; visiting members of the education committee of the Saudi Shura Council, an unelected body whose members advise the kingdom’s government; and Abdulaziz Aldriss, Saudi Arabia’s first resident ambassador to Ireland. An account of the meeting in Arabic, together with a photograph of those present, was posted on the website of the Saudi embassy in Dublin.

“It was decided in the meeting to establish a Saudi school to teach the children of Saudi citizens and students residing in Ireland,” it states.

A spokesperson for the embassy, which opened on Fitzwilliam Square in September, has stressed that the plans are at a very early stage. So early, in fact, that the Department of Education says the Saudi government has not been in contact with the department regarding the matter. Nothing, according to a department spokeswoman, was mentioned during Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe’s visit to Saudi Arabia in September, when he attended the opening of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, the country’s first co-educational third-level institution.

According to embassy figures, less than 15 Saudi families live in Ireland, in addition to the more than 400 Saudi nationals currently studying here. A spokesperson said the number of Saudis coming to Ireland for tertiary education is expected to rise within the coming years because the Saudi ministry for education has given its imprimatur to an increasing number of third-level institutions here.

Mohammed al-Saddique, 24, moved from his home in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah to Dublin five years ago to study at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He supports the opening of a Saudi school in the city.

“It’s a very good plan and I think there will be a lot of support for this because it addresses the needs of the Saudi community, and the Arab community here in general,” he says. “We believe that a child should grow up with certain values, so putting them in a school with that kind of environment is essential. Parents will feel better knowing that their child is going to a school that won’t create such a culture shock.”

But, al-Saddique adds, the school should not be the Saudi model simply transplanted to Ireland. “It should take in the context here in Ireland instead of having a strictly Saudi environment. There should be an effort to address the other cultural values that exist in society here. This is important for integration. You have to be open to the society you live in, even if it is different.”

The fact that plans are still at an embryonic stage has not stopped speculation and debate – both positive and negative – among Ireland’s 40,000-plus Muslims over the possible size and nature of the school, and whether it will cater for non-Saudis. While Dublin already has two Muslim primary schools, located in Cabra and Clonskeagh, there is talk that the Saudi school may offer secondary education. If true, this would achieve “a long-cherished Muslim ambition” in Ireland, according to Ali Selim, an Egyptian-born theologian at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh.

Liam Egan, an Irish convert to Islam whose teenage daughter’s request to wear the hijab at her Co Wexford school last year led the principal to call for official guidelines on the wearing of the hijab in State schools, agrees. A secondary school with an Islamic ethos “should be a priority” for the community, argues Egan, who lived with his family in Saudi Arabia for several years.

BUT NOT EVERYONE welcomes the prospect of a Saudi-sponsored school opening in Ireland. Many non-Saudi Muslims are wary of the kingdom’s austere and monolithic interpretation of Islam, one which it has exported across the world in recent decades through the funding of schools and the distribution of religious literature. One Saudi national living in Ireland is apprehensive about the planned school, noting that similar institutions elsewhere have proved controversial because of allegations that textbooks and other material sourced from the Saudi education ministry contained language intolerant of other religions, and passages that could be interpreted as advocating violence. Two years ago, a British government minister ordered an investigation into such claims in relation to the King Fahad Academy in west London, a school which caters for 600 children, aged five to 18, and which receives more than €4.4 million each year from the Saudi royal purse.

A similar school in the US state of Virginia, funded by the Saudi embassy in nearby Washington DC, was forced to revise its curriculum for the second time last year after a US government agency raised concerns about questionable content.

Mohammed al-Saddique says he is unaware of such controversies at some of the 19 or so Saudi schools in cities worldwide. He notes, however, that Saudi Arabia itself has attempted to reform its own educational system in recent years. These efforts, which have drawn criticism from conservatives, are driven in part by the soul-searching prompted by a series of militant attacks within the kingdom and the fact that 15 of the September 11th hijackers were Saudis.

One study by a Saudi academic found that the existing curriculum encouraged animosity towards Christians and Jews and was “aggressively biased toward one school of thought, completely disregarding the principles of dialogue and respect between Muslims”. Recent changes to textbooks used in the kingdom include the excising of references to walaa wal baraa (a concept which hinges on the question of whether Muslims should associate with non-Muslims) and to jihad.

But, as with all reform efforts in Saudi Arabia, the approach is tentative, and critics are not convinced it goes far enough to address the deep ideological roots of a world view which, as the kingdom knows only too well, can sometimes lead to violence.