So They Will Admit Some Things

The head of the Islamic Saudi Academy, a school under ongoing scrutiny for its use of textbooks containing passages inciting hatred against other faiths and extremist religious notions, has pleaded guilty to failing to report a sexual abuse allegation involving one of his students.

Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan was fined $500 for the misdemeanor offense.

But Al-Shabnan and the ISA are less forthcoming about promised changes to his school's textbooks. Separate reports by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the Hudson Institute find passages which justify killing non-Muslims remain in the books two years after a promise to clear out such content. School officials and their defenders say the reports are flawed, but the USCIRF has been frustrated in attempts to collect a complete set of the current textbooks.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has written his third letter on the issue to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice urging State Department action. Wolf, the ranking member of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, which oversees the State Department and other international efforts, has received no response to any of the letters.

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