"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana
Posted on 11/18/2006 5:23:26 AM PST by theothercheek
Thanks to a joint education initiative by the US and Saudi governments, 10,936 Saudi students - a record number - are now enrolled at 733 colleges and universities in this country, with 3,000 more expected to arrive next semester. Nearly 87 percent of these students are studying at institutions of higher learning in just four states (California, Florida, Colorado and Virginia).
So what are Americans supposed to get out of this educational exchange? Kumbaya, a professor tells The Washington Post: "At the government level, relations are strong. . . . But at the popular level, there's a huge amount of mistrust and antipathy," said F. Gregory Gause III, a University of Vermont professor who specializes in Saudi affairs. "This [scholarship program] is a good step towards trying to dissipate some of that mistrust and antipathy."
According to the State Department, 9,471 Saudis were given student visas in the year ending Sept. 30 under this new program - 297 percent more than the 2,383 issued the year before. The Washington Post reports that State Department officials who agreed to be interviewed for its article insisted on anonymity – the anonymice strike again - and that the department's public affairs office "declined to provide an official to speak on the record."
The Stiletto thinks if no one at the State Department is willing to defend this program publicly, it is a tacit admission that opening our doors to thousands of young Saudi men - an unknowable number of whom may be harboring secret dreams of lounging in heaven with 72 virgins at their beck and call - is irresponsible, to say the least.
The Washington Post did not offer any details about a yet-to-be implemented reciprocal program in which students from the US will study and teach in Saudi Arabia. The Stiletto is willing to bet that to do so, both genders will need to give up:
† Freedom of worship if they are Christians or Jews. There are no churches or temples in Saudi Arabia, and Americans have reported their bibles being confiscated upon landing at the airport.
† Freedom of speech. Non-Muslims cannot discuss their religion, or they will be arrested for proselytizing. (On the other hand, non-Muslims are free to convert to Islam – sword held menacingly close to throat, optional.)
† Freedom of association. Women in Saudi Arabia never walk alone or in the company of a man who is not a relative; dating and any form of intimate contact between unmarried men and women is strictly forbidden.
Why any American would voluntarily give up his or her personal and religious freedoms for any reason is beyond The Stiletto’s comprehension.
NOTE: This is the third article in a feature called "The Daily Blade" and follows articles titled "The Time Is Still Not Right For Hillarycare" and "The Top 10 Safest And Most Dangerous Cities In The US." Also, the original source includes links to related articles.
More sleeper cells, coming to a university near you!
Thanks for posting. Very interesting. Check out this thread and the links...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1740751/posts
"So what are Americans supposed to get out of this educational exchange?"
Oil...
I'd love to think this move would make some Muslims more friendly to the USA.
I'd also like money to grow on trees.
reposts from previous threads:
More Muslims moving to U.S.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1699992/posts
US schools compete for Saudi students -not yet able do effective
background checks on applicants
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1699252/posts
Victor Davis Hanson: Those Saudi Students. It’s not irrational to
be wary of this deal
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1701943/posts
and here's a story of how one Muslim student learned tolerance and
embraced diversity after visiting America (/sarc):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1686655/posts
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/008046.php
"The other ISA location, which is for younger students and houses some 500 pupils, is on Popes Head Road in southern Fairfax County [Virginia]. In 1981, Saudi paid $3.1 million for that site, which used to be Fairfax Christian School. Another irony--Muslims buying Christian-consecrated ground."
Security is very tight at this 'school'- they are very very paranoid about visitors.
Thanks for those links. Outstanding.
Our president and congress are clueless. The enemy uses its host to train, and we do nothing.
If Victor Davis Hanson says the deal stinks...there's a really good
chance that it actually does.
I pray that, at the least, most of the Saudi students end up as
drunken frat boys that will be totally useless to Jihad.
I lived in Riyadh from 81-85. The more Saudis that come to the USA and find out about freedom, the better. Eventually, they will pickup more of our culture that we will of theirs. HOWEVER, we need to screen these people carefully.
And at the redneck level, there are alot more targets at hand after the next big Religon of Peace attack(which is coming, it's only a matter of time).
You don't have much first hand experiance with musloms in school, or anywhere else, do you.
Unfortunately, some of our clueless co-eds will be suckered into Muslim marriages with these pagans. Then we'll get to see them crying on TV that the SOB took their children back to Saudi Arabia, and they have no parental rights. Every parent ought to be watchful of whom their daughters are dating on the campuses mentioned in this article.
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