Madrassas? In Pakistan? Financed by Saudi Arabia? Can’t be.

If you happened to watch Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer last Sunday, you’d have heard some astonishing statements.

It seems that Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the new Saudi ambassador to the US, is unaware of the fact (known to just about everyone else on the planet), that there are Islamic extremists operating in Saudi Arabia.

During his interview, Blitzer asked the Prince about reports that Saudi money was being used to fund SA’s ultraconservative, puritanical brand of Islam, Wahhabism, in madrasas in both SA and Pakistan.

The Prince responded by saying that SA does not fund extremist madrasas.

Which is a flat-out lie. Either that, or the Prince was on something during the Blitzer interview.

In fact, radical madrasas are financed by Saudi Arabia as part of SA’s ongoing export of its official religious ideology and as a means to strengthen the Sunni sect of Islam as against the Shia sect. They are supported not only by official contributions, but also by wealthy members of the business community. Pakistan’s madrasa system has for many decades enjoyed substantial funding from Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States, which is why the number of madrasas in Pakistan has grown from 147 in 1947 to more than 9,000 today.

Undaunted, Blitzer pressed his point to the Prince who simply repeated the lie that SA does not support radical madrasas. Blowing more smoke, the Prince finally made another astonishing statement. He stated that, although he does not know of any extremist madrasas, clerics or mosques in SA, he assured Blitzer, that as soon as he is given names and addresses the SA government will take the proper action.

With no names and addresses, he said, the government of Saudi Arabia was powerless to act. The Prince then went on to tell Blitzer he had met with a US senator, and tried to get such information, but was told that it was "classified" and therefore could not be revealed to him.

Most likely this is simply another lie.

But suppose for a moment, the Prince is telling the truth. Why is it that the names and addresses of radical mosques and schools in SA is classified information?

After all, the US has borne the brunt of attacks organized by Saudi citizens and supported by Saudi clerics. Thousand of US citizens have been killed by Saudi or Saudi-trained terrorists who got their funding and education in part through radical Islamic schools and clerics in Saudi Arabia.

The names, and addresses of schools, seminaries, and institutions of any kind in SA that teach radical Wahhabism and violent Jihad against the West should be made public.

And then shut down.

Punditwalla--