*SAUDI ARABIA REVAMPING EDUCATION*

Saudi Arabia says revamping education to combat ''extremists ideologies'.

SAUDI ARABIA is revamping its education curriculum to eradicate any trace of Muslim Brotherhood influence and will dismiss anyone-

Working in the sector who sympathies with the banned group, the education minister said.

Promoting a more moderate form of Islam is one of the promises made by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman under plans to modernise the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom.

The education ministry is working to combat extremist ideologies by reviewing school curricula and books to ensure they do not reflect the banned Muslim Brotherhoods's agenda,'' Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Isa said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

It would ''ban such books from schools and universities and remove those who sympathise with the group or its ideology from their posts,'' he added.

In September, a large Saudi public university announced it would dismiss employees suspected of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, adding to concerns that the government is clamping down on its critics in academia and beyond.

Earlier this month, Crown Prince Mohammed told CBS in an interview that Saudi schools have been ''invaded'' by elements of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been designated by Saudi Arabia as a terrorist organization along with other militant groups such as aI Qaeda and Islamic State.

Internal Threat
The young crown prince has already taken some steps to loosen Saudi Arabia's ultra-strict social restrictions, scaling back the role of religious morality police, permitting public concerts  and announcing plans to allow women to drive.

The ruling AI Saud family has always regarded Islamist groups as a major internal threat to its rule over a country where appeals to religious sentiment resonate deeply and an aI Qaeda campaign a decade ago killed hundreds.

Since the kingdom's founding, the AI Saud have enjoyed a close alliance with clerics of the ultra-conservative Wahhabi school of Islam who have espoused a political philosophy that demands obedience to the ruler.

By contrast the Brotherhood advances an active political doctrine urging revolutionary action. 

[Agencies]