President of Imam University in Riyadh Sheikh Sulaiman Aba Al-Khail said that the university has been going through a steady stage of reform. The university came under fire in the aftermath of 9/11, especially when the Ministry of Interior revealed that nine on its earlier list of the 26 most wanted terror suspects were graduates of the university. “The reform process of curriculum and academic life inside the campus is meant to enhance the sense of loyalty to the country and its leaders and scholars in an attempt to warn against extremism, terrorism and to promote tolerance and flexibility,” he said in an exclusive interview by phone from Riyadh. “Reform at the university has been supported by the university staff and there was no mass resignation in protest to the reform process, he said. A curriculum committee at the university has been working to develop the university curriculum for the last 13 years, he said. New courses on human rights, problems of terrorism and drugs, and other courses related to youth will take priority on the committee's agendas, he said. The current courses introduced to students are safe and do not support any deviant ideologies, he said. It, however, depends upon the discretion of the instructors who teach those textbook, he said. They may deviate from the original objectives of the curriculum, he added. The university does not have ideological blocs among its 2000 teachers, he said. If two of three teachers have formed an ideological bloc, that would not reflect upon the reality and identity of the university, he added. The 62 religious institutions run by the university across the Kingdom have been closely monitored as part of the reform and development process of the university, he said. Nothing suspicious has been noticed in these institutions in terms of types of books taught and instruction preached to students, he said. Those religiously-oriented institutions, which were started some 60 years ago, have now been integrated into the wider national, scientific, and social events in the Kingdom in an attempt to provide a brighter image of these institutions, he said. Okaz/SG __
