As is usual, the AP’s Donna Abu-Nasr has a good piece on Saudi Arabia. The focus of her piece is Saudi summer camps.

It’s not a revelation to state the Saudi Arabia can be pretty damn boring for a young person—starting at around age eight! Outside of family and school, there’s truly not much to do, particularly if you happen to be a girl. In an effort to provide some relief, government-sponsored summer camps have arisen. Some are exemplary; others have proven to be of very questionable merit. Does anyone really believe that a child’s life is enhanced by learning-by-observing how to cleanse the dead for ritual burial, for instance?

Abu-Nasr reports on a newer approach to the camps, with the government’s insisting on moderation and exposure to new ideas. As she notes, this is the work of generations, though, not a quick fix for any particular problem.

She also reports on the efforts to institute a Saudi National Strategy to Counter Radicalization, a program to widen the outlook of the entire Saudi society. That would be an extremely useful program, if it can get past the social censors who believe it’s all been downhill since the 7th C.

Islamic summer camp in Saudi targets extremism
DONNA ABU-NASR (AP)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Young men spray hoses in a car-washing contest and play pool. Children make paper crowns in an art class, while their parents have a picnic. Alongside the fun and games, Muslim clerics answer questions about jihad or give lectures about the proper dress for women.

This is Islamic summer camp, and it’s part of Saudi Arabia’s campaign to eliminate al-Qaida.

Saudi Arabia says it’s waging a “war of minds” against extremist ideology, alongside the fierce security crackdown that has killed or arrested many al-Qaida leaders over the past six years. To do so, the kingdom plans to expand a broad public campaign aimed at preventing young people from being drawn to radicalism.

“We are working on the men of the future,” Abdulrahman Alhadlaq, general director of the Interior Ministry’s Ideological Security Directorate, told The Associated Press.
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