THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL REFORM ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN SAUDI ARABIA

In this article, we try to shed light on the reform of religious education policy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has been affected by the political events that stormed the Middle East. Especially the takeover of the Grand Mosque in Makah in 1979, and the Iranian Revolution in the same year, as well as the influx of foreign teachers, many of whom are from a group - The Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt and Syria, who have influenced the Saudi educational system on a practical level, and also as major philosophical force, reshaping the education system and curriculum and transforming the Wahhabi pacification into political activity. Since King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz took over power in the Kingdom in 2015, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called for an end to religious extremism and to return the kingdom to a path of "moderation and tolerance", by accelerating the efforts that King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz began, to eradicate extremist thought and discourse from books and classrooms in the kingdom. The ultimate purpose of reforming the religious education system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a strategic attempt to reduce the huge number of extremist concepts, enable moderate clerics to join the historical approach towards education reform, and promote moderate and humane Islamic concepts, which will help the Saudi political decision-maker to proceed with these events. Changes in response to Vision 2030 to create a more tolerant education system, and to confront the threat of domestic terrorism and extremist ideology.