WATANI International
19 April 2009
The Katiba al-Tibiya (The Theban Militia), a cultural, research, and publishing society affiliated to the church of the Holy Virgin in Ezbet al-Nakhl, Cairo, has issued a comprehensive report on the religious discrimination controversy surrounding the education system in Egypt.
Discrimination all around
The report is divided into three sections. The first, which deals with the facts behind the discrimination in schools and colleges, shows that a student’s day begins with small events that build up a bias towards one particular religion, such as travelling on public transport and being bombarded by verses from the Qur’an, standing in rush-hour lines to listen to more verses, followed by students repeating certain calls like “Allahu akbar” (“God is the greatest”), “Bismillah” (“In the name of God”), and “Al-hamdu lillah” (“Thank God”) as well as some hadith, the sayings of the Prophet.
There are other signs of religiosity. In Qalyubiya governorate, for instance, it is mandatory for girls to wear a headscarf as part of their school uniform. The report includes articles that appeared in Watani by its founder, Antoun Sidhom, protesting against the holding of school examinations on Christian feasts and holidays and calling for declaring the five major Christian feast days (Christmas, Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Easter Sunday) as national holidays. Apart from the fact that Coptic Christmas (7 January) is now a national holiday, these issues remain widely unresolved.
Islam as source of all good
The second section of the report deals with the educational curricula, revealing details of certain units of the Arabic curriculum across the board. Most units taught as part of the Arabic course are heavily riddled with verses from the Qur’an. In many instances these verses do not add anything to the lesson itself, thus indirectly turning them into religion lessons. The report cited as example the number of units taught in schools in the first term as 126 units, 52 of which contain religious verses or connotations. All these lessons clearly advocate Islam as the source of all good and Muslims the best people. Islam comes along as the only accepted reference, and stands as the foundation stone of human relations rather than citizenship or humanity. The massage is that Islamic rules and beliefs are to be followed by everyone, including Christians; and the establishment of an Islamic State is imperative. This section also gives several examples of lessons taught to all students from Primary One’s Arabic book, which quotes as part of the fourth lesson on fruit the verse: “God has created for Muslims fields and orchards full of fruit for their consumption.” Primary Three’s includes in the lesson about the telephone, a verse that says, “Extravagant people are siblings of the devil”. Countless other examples of religious verses being irrelevantly jammed into lessons are detailed.
Forced to study
The third section of the report is headed “Actual situations revealing the reality of religious discrimination”. The section opens with an article by Qadri Hifni about the Egyptian University and the influence of the religious establishment. In his article, Dr Hifni discusses incidents and events that have taken place in universities that very clearly go against the principles of citizenship. He cites the situation that led one professor to resign in protest against the refusal of all the other professors to grant a Christian teacher a well-deserved due promotion
Another article by Kamal Mughieth reflects on the amount of Islamic thought crammed in the textbooks assigned to all students, Muslim and Christian alike, by the Ministry of Education. Dr Mughieth names several books such as one for the First Secondary level, “Islamic thought on the environment and the people”, and “The miracle of the Qur’an by Sheikh Mitwalli al-Shaarawi”; the second secondary technical books “Safety in Islam”, and “Selections of Islamic tolerance”. Dr Mughieth wonders at the prejudice against Copts reaching the level of being ignored, discriminated against, and forced to learn Islamic beliefs. He also wonders at the response that Muslims are most likely to receive from Christians as a result.
The report finishes off by offering recommendations that include the elimination of all Qur’anic verses from Arabic curricula as well as changing syllabuses that promote fanaticism.