Since the recently-formed People’s Assembly, the lower house of Egypt’s Parliament, handed over the parliamentary Education Committee to the Salafi al-Nour Party, liberals have been wary about the hardline Islamist Salafis would handle education in Egypt. ++Watani++ was thus keen to observe the first meeting of the committee which is chaired by the Salafi MP Shaaban Abdel-Alim.
WATANI International
1 February 2012
Translator: Samia / copy editor: Samia
Word count: 289
Since the recently-formed People’s Assembly, the lower house of Egypt’s Parliament, handed over the parliamentary Education Committee to the Salafi al-Nour Party, liberals have been wary about the hardline Islamist Salafis would handle education in Egypt. ++Watani++ was thus keen to observe the first meeting of the committee which is chaired by the Salafi MP Shaaban Abdel-Alim.
For starters, 20 out of the 22 members of the committee are bearded. Each introduced himself in vintage Islamic manner, with long speeches involving ++salams (peace be upon…)++ and ++Allahu Akbars (Allah is the Greatest)++ before declaring the name and title of the member: “Your brother So-and-So”.
When they finally got down to business, the members decided to form seven sub-committees concerned with Azhari Islamic education, pre-university education, university education, private education, technical education, general education, and eradicating illiteracy. A proposal was offered to have another four subcommittees concerned with the teacher, the student, the curriculum, and the school buildings.
MP Ibrahim Zakariya suggested that the laws for the Islamic al-Azhar university and universities in general should be reviewed, while MP Uweiss Yassin proposed tackling the problem of the appointment of instructors in al-Azhar University.
MP Mohamed al-Ezbawi said the first decision of the committee should concern the assignment of marks for the behaviour of students, to be used in their overall assessment.
Dr Abdel-Alim attempted to reassure ++Watani++ that that education was not about Salafi thought. “We will only change the education laws that contradict Islamic ++sharia++,” he said, adding that most of these laws did not contradict ++sharia++.
The consultants chosen to aid the committee, Dr Abdel-Alim said, will not be selected according to their religion. “We will not ignore Coptic consultants, as long as they are competent,” he said.
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