The Germans paid Sa’ad Al-Din Ibrahim to prepare the minorities’ educational syllabuses. Dr. Tala’at Abd Al-Hamid: Who said that history is taught on religious basis? After hundreds of years, they want to speak about religious persecution.
The Ibn Khaldoun Center takes every opportunity to speak about the existence of a minority in Egypt. This center was the first one to raise this issue when it called for holding the minorities’ conference in Egypt. All national powers refused the idea believing in the unity of this nation. The conference that was held outside Egypt issued several recommendations. The Ibn Khaldoun Center is seeking to apply these recommendations in Egypt in spite of all opposition.
The head of Ibn Khaldoun Center, Dr. Sa’ad Al-Din Ibrahim, chose a new title for the game of considering Copts a minority in Egypt. The title is "A project to make education more sensitive to the problems of minorities." Under this title, the center put forward what it called new educational syllabuses for Egyptian schools. The center considers Copts a minority and that the syllabuses taught in Egyptian schools contain some materials insulting Copts. They created a false concept, believed in it and began to behave according to it. The center, in collaboration with a German organization "E.Z.E.," prepared new syllabuses for history, religious education and reading.
The real danger lies in using the receptiveness and liberality of the Minister of Education Dr. Hussein Baha’ Al-Din and his fight against intellectual extremism. The center forced the name of Dr. Baha’ Al-Din on the project which is based on a big lie saying that the Copts are minority.
The project was presented to the German organization which paid the Ibn Khaldoun Center for writing such nonsense. Those who prepared this project played with words in discussing the issue they raised. The papers of the project mentioned that the new syllabuses were prepared due to the superficial information about Copts in existing syllabuses. The project speaks about a real need to increase the knowledge of Muslims about Coptic doctrines and ceremonies and some concepts in Christianity like matrimony, monasticism and baptism.
We don’t need to say that such speeches are only made for foreigners. Muslims in Egypt, even in villages, know more about Saint Mary, Saint George and Saint Dimiana [a Coptic martyr] than the Ibn Khaldoun Center. Ask Muslims who fast the fast of Saint Mary with Copts. Ask the Muslim simple people who make their vows to Saint Rifqa [a Coptic martyr].
The center claimed that the purpose of the project is making education more sensitive to the different sectors of the Egyptian society. The center called for preparing educational materials and documentary films about the origins of Copts and the role they played in the Egyptian history and culture.
The Ibn Khaldoun Center obtained enough finance for the project. The new syllabuses were prepared. These new syllabuses are based on omitting what they claimed insults of Copts in the existing syllabuses.
Dr. Hussein Baha’ Al-Din went to the Ibn Khaldoun Center to examine the new syllabuses. The center’s administration assumed that the minister’s visit gives legitimacy to the project and demanded that the Ministry approve the new syllabuses.
These syllabuses are suggested educational materials presented by a committee of educationalists and printed by the Ibn Khaldoun Center. The committee presented syllabuses for Islamic education prepared by Dr. Ahmed Sobhy Mansour, syllabuses for history and social students for pre-university education prepared by Dr. Kamal Hamid and Dr. Makary Armenous. These were in addition to suggested materials of religious education for Christians prepared by Dr. Makary Armenous and reading syllabuses prepared by Dr. Ahmed Yousef Khaleel and a researcher Mr. Sameh Fawzy.
I think that no one can argue about a bright title like "Making education more sensitive." But, we need to know how much did the German organization pay for the project. What is its purpose? What is the reason for choosing this time particularly? And who claimed that the educational syllabuses in Egypt contain insults to Copts?
Moreover we have the right to examine the suggested syllabuses which contain dangerous information about a dark history and put salt to old wounds that healed centuries ago.
Rose Al-Yousef asked Dr. Sa’ad Al-Din Ibrahim about the purpose of the project. "We are concerned about the problems of minorities in the Arab World especially Egypt. We perceived that part of the problem lies in being ignorant about other sectors of the society. We found out that the history of Copts doesn’t exist in the syllabuses educated in our schools. This in spite of the fact that the Pharaonic, Islamic and modern history of Egypt is taught to students. There is six hundred years omitted from Egypt history from year 61 to 641. A young Muslim would believe that Copts are not Egyptian although they are the original Egyptians," Dr. Sa’ad Al-Din Ibrahim said.
What Dr. Ibrahim said is really dangerous. It is true that Copts are Egyptian. But original Egyptians are both Muslims and Copts not only Copts. Everyone who has lived in this country, been educated in its schools and received its culture belongs to Egypt.
"We noticed that the existing syllabuses contains much information against Copts and Christians that may cause harm to the relations between Copts and Muslims," Dr. Ibrahim added. Dr. Ibrahim didn’t tell us what are this harmful information was. What is nice is that Dr. Ibrahim mentioned that his approach of tolerance aims at making the Muslim student accustomed to hear Coptic names like Boutros, Reemon and others. It is a real joke and gives the impression that Dr. Ibrahim doesn’t live in Egypt. The young Muslims in Egypt have Coptic friends, go with their Coptic friends to the church sometimes and live with Copts at the same building.
I asked Dr. Sa’ad Al-Din Ibrahim if he thinks that speaking about the Coptic history and the Copt culture could deepen the sectarian trend. "There are already two [religious] sectors in our country. The other option we have is omitting all information about Copts hoping that no strife will take place. This is what we have in the existing syllabuses, but we are raising a different perspective," he said.
Concerning the suggested syllabuses, we prefer to call it by their real name ’the syllabuses of sectarian strife’. These syllabuses are not encouraging religious tolerance at all.
We will begin by the suggested syllabuses for Islamic education prepared by Dr. Ahmed Sobhy Mansour. These syllabuses are very complicated if we take into consideration that they are to be taught in preparatory and secondary schools. For example one of the syllabuses mentions "The people of the conquered nations during the rein of ’Omar Ibn Al-Khataab were robbed during the battles with Muslims. After the Islamic conquer, they were forced to pay the Jizya. They became second and third class citizens. The women and the young of the conquered nations were taken as slaves. The Arabs enjoyed the justice of Omar Ibn Al-Khataab unlike the people of the conquered nations. The followers of the Prophet collected gold by illegitimate ways in the occupied nations through the Jizya and robbery."
There are many other examples. We are not discussing the historical truth of this information. But we cannot figure out the reasons for teaching young students this information. What is the reason for telling young students that Muslims robbed Copts, and that Copts were second class citizens?
In another book for Islamic education entitled "A Perspective on the Teacher’s Guide," on page 60 it reads "The Coptic age was a period of martyrdom. Persecution of Copts didn’t stop after the Arabic invasion. Copts were persecuted by the Ummayyids and the Abbassids who were fanatical supporters of the Arabic race."
Is this the religious tolerance called for by the Ibn Khaldoun Center?
The suggested syllabuses for history include some information about monasticism and some Christian saints. But those saints are those who were in the Byzantine army, and who were then persecuted by the Byzantines when they embraced Christianity. Choosing warrior saints particularly has its own significance.
Rose Al-Yousef asked Dr. Kamal Mogheeth about the reasons behind these syllabuses and whether they may deepen the idea of separation in the Egyptian society. {He said,] "We noticed that the information about Coptic culture and civilization is not enough considering the role Copts played in the Egyptian history. Our main concern was not to deepen the idea of the separation in the Egyptian society.
"We added some materials to the reading syllabuses about some Coptic personalities like Makram Ebeid and Magdy Ya’qoub.
"In ancient history we added a lesson about Coptic months. In Islamic history we referred to some Jewish and Coptic personalities who played important role in the history of Egypt. But we were sensitive towards Egyptian Jews."
I asked Dr. Sa’ad Al-Din Ibrahim concerning this point. He said that the few number of Jews who lived in Egypt prevented him from adding some parts of the Jewish history to his syllabuses of religious tolerance. The researcher Sameh Fawzy who took part in preparing the reading syllabuses said "The project is a response to the recommendations of the conference of minorities. The idea of the project is adding some materials to the existing syllabuses not presenting new syllabuses. Changing the whole syllabuses will not by accepted for some political reasons. We added some information about the Coptic year, the Coptic museums and an article about Christianity in Islam written by Khalid Mohammed Khalid."
Considering Copts a minority isn’t the only mistake of these syllabuses, but there are other mistakes pointed out by educationalists who examined the syllabuses.
Dr. Tala’at Abd Al-Hameed a professor in Educational Principles at Ain Shams University wrote a report about the project of the Ibn Khaldoun Center. He pointed out that the project ignored the several dimensions of the value of tolerance as the project focused on the religious dimension of tolerance only.
The suggested syllabuses of the project make the same mistake of the existing syllabuses. Both are making historical examination on religious bases. This method deepens the religious duplicity instead of searching for common grounds that unify all Egyptians regardless of religion and culture. The Egyptian civilization has combined many elements. These elements are the Coptic, Islamic, Pharaonic, Western, and others. Egyptians changed their religion and language many times through history. This should make us adopt a future view that don’t stop at the duplicity of our history but exceeds it to larger horizons.
Moreover the syllabuses don’t include any topics about the value of the human mind and the importance of knowledge, tolerance, dialogue and cooperation. All these values must be included and supported by religious texts from different religions.
It is not strange that educationalists agreed on secularizing syllabuses instead of adding new religious material to them. Mahmoud Medhat the head of the non-governmental organizations department in the National Center for Children’s Culture wrote a report commenting on the project.
Mr. Mahmoud Medhat best suggestion is replacing the books of Christian and Islamic education with others speaking about the general human values derived from both religions Islam and Christianity. Mr. Mahmoud Medhat objected to the syllabuses of Islamic education for the first three years of primary education. He said that there are religious subjects included in these syllabuses that go against well-known historical facts. One of these subjects titles, "Egyptian men and women" destroy the idea of national unity and the fact that Egypt is combining many races and religions.
Mr. Mahmoud Medhat has also pointed out that the suggested syllabuses for Christian education included a lesson titled "The Christian youth and the contemporary Egyptian society." One of the sentences of this lesson referred to Copts as "the Christian minority". He thinks it is better to replace it with "The Christian Egyptian citizens".
He pointed out another sentence which speaks about "the peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians". The word coexistence can be used to describe the situation of the Serbs and Croats but it is not suitable to describe the close union of the Egyptian people.
