A formidable new study be the Hudson Institute shows that our “ally” Saudi Arabia continues to distribute elementary and secondary textbooks which, despite promised reforms, still teach students to “hate the infidels.” The books maintain that that it’s “permissible” for a Muslim to kill an “apostate,” an “adulterer,” and a “homosexual,” as well as non-Muslims practicing “polytheism” or Christianity, and they glorify martyrdom in the service of jihad.

And many hate-steeped graduates of Saudi schools enroll at U.S. campuses, notes Investor’s Business Daily, “thanks to a post-9/11 ‘good will’ gesture by the White House to reward more than 20,000 young Saudi men with student visas. King Abdullah had asked for the deal and got it — in part because he promised to reform the textbooks.”

The Hudson report says the arrangement threatens our security, pointing out that “some Saudis themselves have linked the kingdom’s educational curriculum to patterns of violence in young Saudi men.” Otherwise stated, by IBD: “Trained as they are to hate America from an early age, there is a good chance some Saudi students will lash out at their gracious host like the 15 Saudi hijackers before them.”

Is it too much to ask that President Bush and the State Department to finally face up to this dangerous and foolish deal and take action to protect us?