"REAL PEOPLE TOUR": STUDENTS PROVIDE TOUR OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JEDDAH 000099 SIPDIS SIPDIS RIYADH, PLEASE PASS TO DHAHRAN; PARIS FOR ZEYA; LONDON FOR TSOU; DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP; DEPARTMENT FOR PDAS CHENEY SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/15/2016 TAGS: KISL CVIS PTER SCUL PREL SA SUBJECT: "REAL PEOPLE TOUR": STUDENTS PROVIDE TOUR OF ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY REF: A. JEDDAH 64 ¶B. JEDDAH 67 ¶C. JEDDAH 84 Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL TATIANA C. GFOELLER FOR REASONS 1.4 (b) AND (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. As Post previously reported, Poloff visited on January 22 the central campus of Um al-Qura University, known as a center of Islamic learning in the Kingdom, in the heart of the Islamic holy city of Mecca and met with University Rector Dr. Nasir A. al-Saleh and several administrators and members of the faculty (Ref. A). After the visit, Poloff called a student acquaintance who urged Poloff to return the following week so he could provide Poloff with a "real people tour" of the university. Poloff subsequently visited the "new campus" of Um al-Qura on January 30, with students showing off a modern campus with excellent facilities and a student body decidedly more religious than Jeddah's major colleges like King Abdulaziz University (KAAU),the College of Business Administration (CBA),Arab Open University, Effat College, and Dar al-Hekma. END SUMMARY. "THE REAL TOUR" AT NEW CAMPUS ¶2. (C) Mecca's Um al-Qura University is one of the Western Region's largest universities, with over 27,000 students (approximately 60% of whom are male). The school has three campuses: 1) the "old campus" in the center of Mecca, which Poloff visited on January 22 (Ref. A); 2) the "girls' campus"; and 3) the "new campus," a modern facility which Poloff visited on January 30 built on a freeway adjacent to the Hajj site of Arafat outside Mecca. The university is well-known in Saudi Arabia, and across the Muslim world, as a center of Islamic learning, enhanced by its location in the Islamic holy city. ¶3. (C) Meeting an undergraduate acquaintance and his Jeddawi friend at the "new campus" on January 30, the students showed Poloff a modern campus with excellent facilities. One of the young men explained that the campus was built in the last few years. Arriving at the library during the afternoon "asr" prayer, the young men took a break from the tour to perform the prayers with other students studying in the library. The young men showed Poloff several sections of books, most of ;which were in Arabic but which also included English language legal and engineering books. A tour of various classrooms in the engineering building and the "sharia" (Islamic law) building revealed modern lecture halls replete with multi-media equipment. The Um al-Qura student's Jeddawi friend, who attends a Jeddah college, jokingly role-played a Saudi professor. "Look, this is a Saudi professor," he declared at the front of the empty classroom. "Everyone sit down! The late ones get out! I don't want to see you!" the young man barked in jest. Pretending to take a call on his cellular phone, he added: "Oh, there will be girls there? I am coming. Students, I need to go for an important emergency," he said to laughter. STUDENTS KNOWN FOR RELIGIOSITY ¶4. (C) While Saudi students have consistently told Poloff that "all Saudi universities are Islamic," Um al-Qura, with its reputation as a center of Islamic learning, is known for approaching education from a distinctly religious perspective, more so than Jeddah's major colleges. The young men told Poloff that Um al-Qura students are known for their religious nature, a sentiment Poloff has often heard from young Jeddawis (NOTE: For example, speaking at the Consulate on January 30 with a 27-year-old Um al-Qura graduate named Hassan who is applying to participate in an international visitors exchange program, the young man stressed the "Islamic nature" of Um al-Qura. "It depends on the department you are in, but everything we study there stresses religion and the religious viewpoint," he said. END NOTE). "Look around you, everyone is wearing a thobe. You don't see jeans here," the Jeddawi student said. The Um al-Qura undergraduate, who is studying engineering, agreed: "This is true. If you wear jeans here, the people running the school and the professors can get upset and talk to you about it." ¶5. (C) The young men met several friends on the campus. The undergraduate asked his friends if they have received their grades yet, which they can access on-line, from recently JEDDAH 00000099 002 OF 002 concluded examinations. "We are all happy. We are getting B at the worst, so far," the young man said cheerfully. After one young man sporting an unkept beard approached the Jeddawi student and exchanged greetings, the Jeddawi young man told Poloff: "This is a neighbor of mine from Jeddah. Do you see that long beard? I am going to remember his face, and maybe one day we will see his face in the newspaper as a terrorist. These people are extremists, it's not good," he said earnestly. Poloff saw significantly more students walking around Um al-Qura with unkept beards and with a Saudi headdress foregoing the "iqal" (black circular ring worn with Saudi male headdress),a look that many Jeddawis associate with religious extremists, than at Jeddah's major colleges. YOUNG MEN ATTACK DENMARK ¶6. (C) Throughout the campus, Poloff saw signs in Arabic encouraging students to boycott Danish products, in response to the ongoing controversy over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that ran in a Danish newspaper last fall (Refs. B & C). One sheet of paper posted on a door stated the amount of money Danish companies are allegedly losing through boycotts each day in Mecca alone. "What Denmark did is very bad," one young man opined. "And they don't even say sorry. (Egyptian President) Hosni Mubarak tried to get them to say sorry, and still they say no. Ya akhee (my brother),why they don't say they are sorry? If they make fun of our religion, we are nothing, because we are nothing without our religion," he concluded. SAUDIS MAKING DECISIONS ¶7. (C) The students were proud of the modern campus, and asked Poloff if it looked like colleges in the US. Taking pictures of each other on the campus, they talked about SAG scholarships to study at American universities and stated they hope they can pursue master's degrees in the US. The young men also spent several minutes arguing over what kind of food they wanted to eat. When one conclusively said "Chinese," his friend laughed. "Allah-ham-dul-ilah (Thank God),a Saudi makes a decision. In the time it takes for a Saudi to make a decision, the Japanese have built a car," he joked. Gfoeller