Islamizing
Egyptian Education
Unsteady
Egypt

Middle East Quarterly
Summer
2009, pp. 76-77

http://www.meforum.org/2414/islamizing-egyptian-education

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USAID/Egypt has provided
nearly $10 million for technology and training to fourteen Egyptian
schools. However, Egypt continues to include Islamist religious
indoctrination throughout the ostensibly secular Arabic language
curriculum.

Egypt, with more than 80
million people, is the most populous Arab country and the third largest
recipient of U.S. aid after Iraq and Israel. It also purports to be a
pillar of moderation—the first Arab country to establish diplomatic
relations with Israel. The birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the
1980s and the 1990s, Egypt also suffered Islamist insurgency, leading many
Western officials to believe that their Egyptian counterparts share their
concern about the rise of Islamist ideology.

A recent study by Adel Guindy published in
the Coptic weekly Watani[1]
shows that rather than being a pole of opposition to Islamism, the
Egyptian government has Islamized its curriculum, perhaps to accommodate
Egypt's growing Islamist base, which has hitherto provided some support
for the Muslim Brotherhood. Guindy, writing through a prism of rights for
Coptic children, demonstrates Islamist religious indoctrination throughout
much of the ostensibly secular Arabic language curriculum and provides
examples of lessons encouraging students to limit friendship to
co-religionists and assigning students to search for hadith (the
sayings of and anecdotes about the Prophet Muhammad) and Qur'anic verses.
A small sample is provided here.[2] —
The Editors.

Grade 4: "You and Your
Friend—Friendship"

Information and enriching activities:

Among prominent quotations on the importance of friendship:
God's Messenger said, "Man's religion is according to his friend's
religion. Everybody shall examine with whom he has friendship!"
'Ali ibn Abi-Talib[3] said, "Man
is known by his friends."
Exercises: 9): Write a noble hadith that shows the importance of
friendship on a large panel and post it in your class.

Grade 6: "Our Society—Work
Proficiency"

A poem by Ahmad Shawqi.[4]

Information and enriching activities:

Go to the library and look for Qur'anic verses, noble
hadiths, or poems that emphasize the value of work; record them
to show to your colleagues.
Exercise 4: Mention the poetic verses that would conform to the
following:
- The Messenger [Muhammad] said: "God is pleased when someone does
  something and does it well."
- The Most High said: "We leave not to waste the wage of him who
  does good works." Qur'an, 18:30
- The Most High said: "And whosoever fears God, He will appoint for
  him a way out." Qur'an, 65:2

Grade 6: "My Health—Obedience to God Is
a Duty"

God, may He be exalted, calls upon all people
to beware of Satan and to steer clear of his path, for it is the path of
evil and corruption, as Satan is an enemy to man and carefully watches and
entices him to corruption, with all the means at his disposal.

The Most High has said: "O believers, wine and
arrow-shuffling, idols and divining-arrows are an abomination, some of
Satan's work; so avoid it; haply so you will prosper. Satan only desires
to precipitate enmity and hatred between you in regard to wine and
arrow-shuffling, and to bar you from the remembrance of God, and from
prayer. Will you then desist? And obey God and obey the Messenger, and
beware; but if you turn your backs, then know that it is only for Our
Messenger to deliver the Message Manifest." Qur'an, 5:90-92.

Objectives of the lesson: Pupils should be able
to:

Recite the Qur'anic verses in a correct and expressive way … and to
extract what the text means.

What should they learn?

Satan is the enemy of man.
Alcohol and gambling are among the corrupting influences.
God forgives whomever He wills all his sins.
Obedience to God is mandatory.

Explanations:

"O ye who have believed" is a call that shows God's love of the
believers.
"Obey God and obey the Messenger": an expression denoting the
truthfulness of the Messenger and the necessity of obeying his orders.

Information

When God prohibits something, it is only because this is for man's
good.

Enriching activities:

Go to the computer room in the school and collect Qur'anic verses
that denote whatever God, may He be exalted, has made illicit, and post
it on the school's bulletin board.

[1] "Al-fashiya
ad-diniya wa talbanat al-ta'lim al-misri" [Religious fascism and the
Talibanization of Egyptian education], Watani (Cairo), Dec. 2007
and Jan. 2008.
[2] Translations from
Egyptian curriculum are by Adel Guindy. Translation of Qur'anic verses are
drawn from A.J. Arberry, ed. The
Koran Interpreted: A Translation (New York: Touchstone,
1996).
[3] For Sunni Muslims, the
fourth caliph (r. 656-61 CE).
[4] A
famous Egyptian poet (1868-1932).

Related Topics: Egypt

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