Do you have any hard data showing trends on such funding since 9/11? Is it going up or down?
I believe that it could be described as maintained at an unacceptable and threatening level.
From Feb 2005 http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2384
Freedom House's Muslim volunteers went to 15 prominent mosques from New York to San Diego and collected more than 200 books and other publications disseminated by Saudi Arabia (some 90% in Arabic) in mosque libraries, publication racks, and bookstores.
What they found can only be described as horrifying. These writings - each and every one of them sponsored by the kingdom - espouse an anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, misogynist, jihadist, and supremacist outlook. For example, they:
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Reject Christianity as a valid faith: Any Muslim who believes "that churches are houses of God and that God is worshiped therein is an infidel."
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Insist that Islamic law be applied: On a range of issues, from women (who must be veiled) to apostates from Islam ("should be killed"), the Saudi publications insist on full enforcement of Shariah in America.
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See non-Muslims as the enemy: "Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law."
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See America as hostile territory: "It is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country governed by infidels because this is a means of acquiescing to their infidelity and accepting all their erroneous ways."
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Prepare for war against America: "To be true Muslims, we must prepare and be ready for jihad in Allah's way. It is the duty of the citizen and the government."
Given this content and events happening in London and India, I think the burden of proof is on the other side. Where is the evidence that the State Department takes this seriously?
And this ties to your statement that we are the lone superpower. Our superpower status does not make us immune to the presence of this poisonous foreign influence (see London) and the acknowledged 'big money' influence that the Saudi's clearly have.
Saudi Ambassador responds to Freedom House editorial
[Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt] – The following statement was issued today by Saudi Ambassador Prince Turki Al-Faisal in response to an editorial by Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House, published in The Washington Post on May 21, 2006:
The Saudi government has worked diligently during the last five years to overhaul its education system, which includes textbooks, teacher training, and the introduction of new teaching methods. To ensure optimal results, the planning, implementation and assessment of these changes are being conducted with assistance from consulting firms and national governmental and non-governmental educational institutes. All of this has been done in the public setting, with debate and open discourse taking place in National Dialogues, the Kingdom’s Consultative Council, and throughout the Ministry of Information. Freedom House neglects to mention these facts.
Overhauling an educational system is a massive undertaking. There are hundreds of books that are being revised to comply with the new requirements, and the process remains ongoing. The report submitted by the Embassy of Saudi Arabia to Congress earlier this year on textbook revision is by no means a final report, and was never presented as such. Again, Freedom House does not mention this fact.
Moreover, the materials used in the Saudi education system are in the public domain, and are provided to students free of charge. These texts can be obtained at schools and other institutions throughout Saudi Arabia, and do need not be “smuggled” or “slipped out” of the Kingdom. As with previous reports, Freedom House continues to exhibit a disregard for presenting an accurate picture of the reality that exists in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi position on education reform has been clearly articulated by the Kingdom’s political and religious leaders. The objective of the educational system is to fight intolerance and to prepare Saudi youth with the skills and knowledge to compete in the global economy