Egyptian Scholars Debate Arab and Israeli Curricula

The following are excerpts from a discussion of Arab and Israeli curricula, which aired on Dream 2 TV on July 28, 2005.

Host: Our curricula in Arabic language, history, and geography, and our textbooks - are they really racist curricula, as they are said to be?

Dr. Kamal Mughith, Egyptian professor of education: Not only are they racist, but they are backward as well. With all due respect to Dr. 'Asem and Dr. Ahmad, I believe that from a cultural perspective, education should focus on three main values: First, education to good citizenship, second, education to rationalism and science, and third, education to democracy. In my opinion, our curricula are almost completely devoid of these three values.

I once wrote a study on the religious discourse in education, and I believe that our Arabic language books greatly discriminate between Muslims and Christians in Egypt. Almost half of the Arabic language books are derived from the Arab, and especially the Islamic, tradition, which leads to a some kind of alienation.

As for backwardness, the books, as well as the methodology, are backward. That's why the leaders of terrorism in the world received (this) education, which we assume to be excellent, in the faculties of medicine, engineering, commerce, and so on. I have examples of this...

Host: You are speaking so decisively. Give us some examples of racism or backwardness.

Mughith: At some point, the children had to study two books by Sheik Al-Sha'rawi. They had to analyze these books. Although Sheikh Al-Sha'rawi dealt with very serious issues, this was done in the 9th grade. How can it be that in the 9th grade we talk about the Koran being the true book of Allah, whereas the New Testament is Allah's book that was forged, and Muslim and Christian children are supposed to discuss such things? This was a very serious matter.

Another example is the writing booklets. I have one with me. You will see that it derives from the religion. For instance, it says that the proclamation "There is no god but Allah" is the most important condition set by Islam. For example, in Islam, the greeting is: "Salam Aleikum, Allah's mercy and blessings upon you." Things like this, which all stem from the hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad and from Koranic verses... I have no problem with this. I have no problem with this. But why can't we say that there are also verses in the New Testament that promote loving one's neighbor, one's homeland, and so on? No one agrees to that, and so it does not exist.

Host: You want the writing booklet to teach writing, and that's it.

Mughith: Yes. Our esteemed teachers say that these writing exercises foster national unity, and do not alienate Coptic children at school.

I'd like to tell you that there are three main characteristics of the racist personality that later becomes a radical or terrorist personality. The first is that he exalts his own beliefs and scorns the beliefs of others. He is not satisified with exalting his belief. I'm a Muslim and proud of my Islam, but I do not scorn the Christian, the Jew as a Jew, the Buddhist, the Hindu, or anyone else.

[...]

Safa 'Abd Al-Aal, Egyptian researcher: You will not find the words "Zionist enemy" in the curricula. Those two words, on which we were brought up, are no longer there. Nowadays, none of the curricula use "Zionist enemy".

Mughith: They are there...

Al-Aal: I won't listen to empty words. Tell me which year...

Mughith: The 9th grade history book...

Al-Aal: It says "Zionist enemy"?

Mughith: Yes, "Zionist enemy" and "Israeli enemy".

Al-Aal: You won't find the expression "Zionist enemy".

Mughith: No, it's there. But let's get back to our topic. I'd like to respond to my teacher, Dr. Ahmad Al-Mahdi. He asks why terrorism committed by others is not called Christian terrorism. That's because they themselves don't call it Christian terrorism. America is not occupying Iraq in the name of the New Testament or in the name of the Protestant Church. It occupies Iraq in the name of economic interests and oil. Our problem is that we are the ones who claim this. The Koranic verses are written and the "soldiers of Muhammad"... That's what one sees in the world today. If you open the internet, you see someone being slaughtered and hear "In the name of Allah the Merciful the Compassionate and in the name of the soldiers of Muhammad". It is us, not them, who say this. We say that the Muslims are terrorists.

[...]

The truth is that we are subject to a bedouin Saudi cultural invasion. I believe that is what happened.

[...]

Al-Aal: First, I'd like to respond to Dr. Kamal. Our curricula are backward, but not racist. If we study the Israeli curricula - which I have analyzed, from 2nd to 6th grade, the main stage of education, which has great importance for the child's development, in terms of his conscience, social skills, and so on... They foster racism in that child. They foster racism through contempt for the other. Whoever does not belong to the Jews is worthy of contempt. They teach the Israeli child from a young age - I did not deal with the first year of elementary school or with kindergarten, but only from 2nd to 6th grade - they teach Jewish children that Arabs are terrorists and thieves. Every word and every description that they attribute to Arabs must be preceded by the word "thieves": "The thieving terrorist Arabs." "The conspiring thieving Arabs." "The treacherous thieving Arabs." "The thieving Arabs are highway bandits." These things are taught in the first grade. I translated each paragraph... If they said the Arabs are terrorists, highway bandits, and vile, I translated it next to the paragraph in Hebrew.

Do we in Egypt or in any Arab country have a paragraph stating that the Jews are dogs, terrorists, thieves, highway bandits, and so on? Do we say in our curricula that they are cockroaches, pigs, and so on? We have no racism. On the contrary.

[...]

Host: As a matter of fact, I said these things... You said (there is no racism), but there are many texts in the curricula of Arab and Muslim countries that refer to the Jews as the offspring of apes and pigs, based on the Sunna. So these exist one way or another.

Al-Aal: But does it exist in Egypt?

Host: As a matter of fact, it exists in the curricula of many of the Arab and Islamic countries.

Al-Aal: I am talking about Egypt. Is it in the Egyptian curricula? I was never educated this way. Did they describe the Jews as dogs, thieves, terrorists, highway bandits, robbers? Does such a text exist? I'm not just making things up.

Host: There are such texts, and I am sure of this. In Arab countries, I didn't say Egypt, but I am sure of this.

[...]

Al-Aal: I'd like to clarify one point. When they say we must change the curricula... I am talking about Egypt. I am talking about history and religion. Regarding history, they want to omit a certain period in our Egyptian history. They want there to be no mention of any war against Israel in which Egypt participated, whether the 1956 war or the 1967 war or the 1973 war... Regarding the 1967 war, they are very happy with the great victories accomplished by Israel. But as for the 1973 war, they would like to erase its existence. So when they say "change your curricula, because your curricula are..." they don't mean all this talk about Islamic extremism and all that stuff. All they want is to erase the 1973 episode from our Egyptian history. The proof of this is that every time we celebrate any Egyptian holiday, a terror attack takes place. In October of last year, it was the Taba operation. This year, the day before the July 23 celebrations, the Sharm Al-Sheikh operation occurred. This is in regard to history.

As for religion, they don't want any mention of Jews and how they betray agreements and treaties, in our religion. These are things that Allah told us in the Koran. They want these things to be erased from our Islamic history as well. They want to cut up our Egyptian curricula with Zionist scissors.

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Mughith: There are only two types of education in the world. One is education to modernism, to the future, and to sciences, and the other is the type that produces terrorists, as Dr. 'Asem has said. The first type is the kind that teaches the pupils from the start to question, investigate, think, and analyze. The other kind breeds terrorists, as my teacher said: memorize, recite, and write down what you memorized.