Unbelievable Saudi Textbooks
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Because they are so clearly designed for the convenience of large testing companies, I had always assumed that multiple choice tests, the bane of any fourth-grader’s existence, were a quintessentially American phenomenon. But apparently I was wrong. According to a report put out by the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom last week, it seems that the Saudi Arabians find them useful too. Here, for example, is a multiple-choice question which appears in a recent edition of a Saudi fourth-grade textbook, “Monotheism and Jurisprudence,” in a section which attempts to teach children to distinguish “true” from “false” belief in God:
Q. Is belief true in the following instances:
A login link has been sent to
Enter your email to read this article.
Get 2 free articles when you subscribe.
