Following are excerpts from an interview with Saudi journalist Hamoud Abu Taleb, which aired on Al-Daleel TV on April 24, 2009.

Hamoud Abu Taleb: I am not talking specifically about the religious curricula. I am talking about the curricula in general. Do you think that the curricula that were suitable and successful 25 years ago – the same curricula that produced our generation – are necessarily suitable for our times? You tell me, are they necessarily suitable for our times?

Interviewer: But who says that these are the same curricula? I am an educator...

Hamoud Abu Taleb: I accuse the mentality... I protest against the mentality that hinders progress and the modernization of science, the mentality that objects merely for the sake of objection, and believe that everything is sacred, perpetual, and unchangeable.

[...]

Do you, as an educator, believe that a large percentage of our teachers are adequately qualified, and have been trained by the Ministry of Education to be able to teach modern curricula properly?

Interviewer: There have been attempts...

Hamoud Abu Taleb: Attempts! Attempts! For decades, we have been making attempts. How long will we continue with these attempts?