The Ruling on Sending Students to Eastern and Western Countries

Question:
Your Eminence, you mentioned communism and its danger. As for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it sends people abroad, whether to America or elsewhere, and they are more cursed and more wicked than communism. We know that they bring in non-Islamic ideas, and yet they occupy principal positions. They are believers in Western ideas. I say, as King Faisal (may Allah have mercy on him) said, that Zionism is the offspring of communism?

Answer:
As you have heard, the West and the East share in fighting Islam, eliminating Islam, harming the people of Islam, and plotting against the people of Islam. They share in this, but not as you said. The West is not more cursed than the East. No, the East is more cursed than the West.
The East does not believe in Allah or in the Last Day. They are communists. They are more cursed and more disbelieving. As for the West, they are of the kind of the Christians. Their kind believes in Allah, that there is a Lord, that there is Paradise, that there is Hellfire, that there is a resurrection, and that there is a raising up and a scattering. This is Christianity. The Jews also believe in this, but they lied about Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and did not believe in Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). The Jews did not believe in 'Isa (Jesus), so by this they became disbelievers, along with the other disbelief they fell into afterwards.
So the Christians have their state, the Jews have their state, and the communists have their state. The communists are more cursed, more disbelieving, and more astray because of their lack of belief in Allah and the Last Day, and because of their oppression of the servants of Allah, and their tyranny over everything they are able to control. The Christians are cursed, astray disbelievers. Allah has led them astray and cursed them, but their disbelief is less than the disbelief of the communists.
It is not permissible to send students to these people or to those people. It is not permissible to send students to these people or to those people. Because if a student goes to them, he is raised by what he sees there of corruption and evil in the West and the East... and his teacher, his methodology, and his environment are all evil for him. Not in the East or the West, but in the East, like the People's Republic of China, it is more severe, more cursed, and more wicked. In the West, there is the presence of unlawful sexual intercourse, the presence of intoxicants, and the presence of corrupt environments. But there is a reputation for belief in Allah and the Last Day. There are those who speak of Allah and the Last Day, and the call to the truth from Muslims, from Islamic centers, and from good students. This exists, unlike the Soviets and unlike China, where these people do not allow anyone to speak of the call to Allah, nor the display of Islam at all. May Allah fight them. How are they turned away?
It is not permissible to send people to these people or to those people. The state has recognized this and has approved not sending people to the West. And it is, praise be to Allah, not sending people to the East. It is not permissible to send to these people or to those people, except if one is sent who has known his religion from among the people of knowledge and faith who have studied at the College of Sharia, in the principles of religion, and have known what is required, and who are of noble morals, balanced intellect, knowledge, and virtue. If they are sent to call to Allah in Europe or elsewhere to represent Islam and call to Islam, then there is no harm. But sending them to study there, the sons of middle school, or the sons of high school, or the sons of colleges that have not committed to Islam and have not known the rulings of Islam, this is dangerous for them.
The state continues to decide not to send these people. And even if it sends some people, it is obligatory that no one be sent. The people of knowledge advise the state not to send anyone to these wicked countries as much as possible. It is obligatory that the need be present in our groups, and that one who knows it be brought to them if there is a need that is not found in the groups.
As for replacing these poor students who have not been certain of the reality of Islam, have not known it, and have not been known for uprightness, firmness of morals, and good creed, sending them is a great danger. Not to the East, not to the West, but to all disbelieving countries. They are never to be sent. Rather, it is not permissible to send them even to some Arab countries because of the great corruption, evil, and serious danger that has spread in them. Their education should be here, and they should be protected, and effort should be made to reduce and minimize evil as much as possible, and to distance every element whose evil is feared in this land. So that its goodness, its rectitude, its declaration of Islam, its uprightness upon it, and its implementation of its Sharia remain. We ask Allah for steadfastness upon that and safety from the opposite of that.