Islam Online is reporting on plans to build a Saudi school in Dublin, Ireland. According to the report:
Saudi plans to build a school in Ireland to meet the education needs of expatriate Saudis is meeting mixed reactions in the north-western European country. “…..Riyadh has announced plans to build a school in Dublin to serve the Saudi and Muslim community…..There are estimated 15 Saudi families in Ireland in addition to more than 400 Saudi nationals studying in the country. There are two Muslim primary schools in Dublin. Irish Muslims hope that the new school would offer secondary education. (If true, this would achieve) a long-cherished Muslim ambition,” said Ali Selim, an Egyptian-born theologian at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh…But the school plan has sparked concerns in the European country. A Saudi national in Ireland argues that similar Saudi schools in different cities worldwide have caused controversies over alleged intolerant textbooks….Ireland is home to some 33,000 Muslims, making up about 1 percent of the total population, according to the 2006 census.
Previous posts have discussed the controversy surrounding a Saudi-financed Islamic school in Northern Virginia which has used textbooks containing passages were anti-Semitic, intolerant of various Muslim groups, and which advocated violence against those who convert from Islam.The Virginia academy is one of 20 international Saudi schools around the world which are often attended by children of leaders of the global Muslim Brotherhood.
For example, according to German TV reports the King Fahd Academy in Germany, another Saudi financed academy, maintained contact with the local Muslim Brotherhood organization and its registration papers indicated that in the event of its closure, its assets would revert to them. The King Fahd Academy was also accused of various forms of extremism including teaching hatred of Jews and Christians.