It is cracking down on teachers who use the classroom to spread support of terrorism, says the government of Saudi Arabia.

Gulf News has reported on Thursday that officials said more than 2,000 teachers have been transferred to administrative positions in two years after they were found to be proselytizing for al-Qaida.

Abdul Rahman al-Halaq, an adviser to the assistant interior minister for security, told Okaz, a Saudi daily with close ties to the government, "The teachers were deposed after they were found to be transforming their teaching mission into a mission to spread extremism."

Other steps aimed at defusing hard-line academics include increasing freedom of the press and giving a greater role to the King Abdul Aziz Centre for National Dialogue, officials have said.

Extremists who believe everyone who disagrees with them are infidels, are hurting Saudi Arabia's image, Mohammad al-Zoulfah, a scholar and former member of the Shura or parliament, said. He described the country as being on a course of reform.

He said, "They are singing a different tune from that of the reformist flocks which have two wings: a liberal one and an Islamic one." (With Inputs from Agencies)