The Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, caused a stir last year by publicly denouncing radical Islam and calling for religious reform. As important as his words may be, writes Samuel Tadros, they will amount to little unless they are followed by changes in policy—and such changes should begin with the schools:
Egypt’s current educational system is an incubator for extremism and radicalization. This radicalization includes increasing intolerance toward non-Muslims and hostility toward the outside world. . . . Values of equality, peace, respect for other opinions, and citizenship must [therefore] be stressed throughout the curriculum. The curriculum should stress that diversity is not only natural but also plays a positive role in a nation’s progress.
The subject of history is an area that needs the most immediate attention. The texts taught in Egyptian schools need to introduce world history—the history of ideas and world religions and cultures. As things stand, students graduate with no knowledge of important world-historical events, with the outside world and its cultures . . . an enigma to them. No information is given on any impact the world, its cultures, and [its] civilizations have had on Egypt beyond colonialism. The void is filled by Islamists, who stuff impressionable minds with falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
Even in studying their own history, students are unaware of the contributions Christians, Jews, and women have made to Egyptian society, making them unable to properly understand the richness of their own heritage. As it now stands, Jews are completely whitewashed from the history curriculum, despite a large Egyptian Jewish community having thrived there in the not-so-distant past.
Read more on American Interest: http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/04/02/a-reform-agenda-for-egypt/