WATANI International
11 January 2009
I was shocked by the angry rejection of the call to allow Christian students to enrol in the non-theological schools of al-Azhar University. Al-Azhar, which has remained since the 10th century the topmost authority on Sunni Islam, was thoroughly modernised in the 1960s, becoming a 20th-century university that includes colleges for medicine, engineering, agriculture and suchlike. Even though the university was modernised and is financed by taxpayer money—which, of course, includes Coptic taxpayers—Copts are banned form joining any of the modern Azhar colleges.
Even though the opinions raised against the enrolment of Copts at al-Azhar seemed to stress educational or cultural arguments, they could not conceal that the real problem lies in the intolerant mentality which does not accept the other.
Open doors
The first argument stresses that al-Azhar University is an Islamic educational establishment in a country with a Muslim majority, and is concerned with spreading Islamic religion and culture. This argument disregards the fact that the university is financed by Egyptian taxpayers regardless of their religion, and hence ought to open its doors to any student regardless of religious identity. So what if it teaches Islamic faith and religion, or if a non-Muslim were to study such courses? Surely there could be no harm done to Islam. This actually used to happen in the golden days of Islam, and history tells us of no Islamic wrath at non-Muslims studying Islam, nor does it tell us of any attempt by Muslims to isolate or cocoon themselves.
The second argument says that al-Azhar University was established to instruct in the Islamic sciences and jurisprudence, but this does not hold true as far as modern sciences and technology are concerned. Modern science has no religion. There is no difference between the curricula of medicine, engineering and pharmacy, for instance, taught in the United States, China or Saudi Arabia, despite the obvious difference in the cultures. Besides, the sciences taught at al-Azhar University are not the exclusive discovery of Muslims, but are actually the epitome of modern western—non-Muslim—civilisation. As such, these sciences are, in a sense, imported, and are taught in an ‘imported’ language, English. So where is the excuse for banning non-Muslims from studying such courses at al-Azhar?
One of our own
As for the third argument, this claims that Muslim students are not allowed in Christian seminaries, so why should Christians be allowed at al-Azhar? And why should Copts not establish a university of their own? It must be borne in mind, however, that Muslims are not barred from studying Christian sciences; they may merely be discouraged from doing so by adverse social taboos. Muslims and Christians should in fact be free to study each others’ religions. As for recommending a Coptic university, and apart from the question of whether this would be from Muslim taxpayer money, the establishment of such a university would be the epitome of segregation. We cannot fight segregation at al-Azhar by further segregation through an all-Coptic university.
To sum it all up, tolerance means openness, nothing but.
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