Download AshmawiArab

Paper prepared for the workshop
“Learning about the Other and Teaching for Tolerance in Muslim Majority
Societies”
organised by
Center for Values Education, Istanbul
The Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Oslo
10-12 November 2005
Istanbul, Turkey
Dr. Fawzia AL ASHMAWI
University of Geneva
31, rue Le Corbusier-1208 Geneva- Switzerland
Tel :004122/830 10 61-Fax :004122/ 830 03 33
e-mail:Ashmawi7@ yahoo.com
Biographical Note
Dr. Fawzia AL ASHMAWI, Egyptian and Swiss, has been working since 1979 as a lecturer in Arabic and
Islamic civilisation at The University of Geneva, Switzerland. She was awarded a PHD in Arabic Literature
and Islamic Studies from The University of Geneva in 1983. She has worked as Senior Researcher for
UNESCO, for the European Commission and for ISESCO. Her main research interests are the image of the
other in textbooks, the status of Muslim women, human rights in Islam and inter-religious dialogue. She is
the founder of the “European Forum for Muslim Women”, which aims to promote human rights for Muslim
women in European countries. She is an Egyptian novelist and has published several novels and short
stories in Arabic since 1990. She has also contributed several articles to journals of repute in Egypt, in
France and in Switzerland.
Dr. Fawzia AL ASHMAWI (University of Geneva):
REVISION OF TEXTBOOKS WITH RESPECT TO THE IMAGE OF
THE OTHER (CHRISTIANS AND JEWS)
IN SOME ARAB AND MUSLIM COUNTRIES (EGYPT, JORDAN
AND SYRIA)
Today people around the world remain divided based on religious differences that are
passed on from generation to generation and written into history textbooks, perpetuated
in discussions between teachers and their students and between parents and their children.
These differences of belief have contributed to violence, armed conflits, and wars
throughout the centuries. Nevertheless, a real potential for change exists and we have to
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promote a culture of peace that leads the way towards the development of curricula which
uphold principles of tolerance among young people and adults.
For this noble purpose, we conducted ten years ago a “Comparative study of the
image of the “other” in history textbooks in some Mediterranean countries” , under
the auspices of UNESCO. The study covered four countries from the southern coast of
the Mediterranean (Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Lebanon) and three from the northen coast
(France, Spain and Greece); it aimed at shedding light on the negative factors affecting
the way the “other” is perceived by children in the primary classes on the two shores of
the Mediterranean. In countries to the north of the Mediterranean, the other is the Muslim
Arab and in countries of the south the other is the Christian European. Here we continue
our researches into the same field, this time under the auspices of ISESCO, and extend
our study to cover other countries.
We have encountered in history books a mixture of false judgements, unverified
or erroneous information, stereotypical portraits, distorted caricatures, as well as several
illustrations, some of which are very old, badly chosen and not representative of either
present-day realities or of historical facts. We have established that history as is it taught
to European children is totally different from that which is taught to Muslim Arab
children. Needless to say, every country gives priority to its national history , but we
believe that this principle should not be exploited to justify the practice of totally or
partially ignoring the history of other civilizations, or the wide differences between the
presentation of historical events which relate to our own culture and those which relate to
the civilization of the “other”. A quantitative balance must therefore be achieved. This
indifference towards the history of “ the other” in fact reflects a conscious rejection of the
“other” and a myopic view of history. We have observed that most history textbooks in
Europe depict Europe as the epicentre of important historical events and the axis around
which the historical events of the Middle East and of the rest of the countries of the world
revolve . Thus the history of civilizations and peoples to the south of the Mediterranean is
presented as no more than a footnote to world history, which revolves around Europe. A
blind eye is turned completely to important historical events that are regarded as
landmarks in the history of the Arabs and Islamic nations. On the other hand, the history
of the Arab and Muslim countries revolves around the bygone glory of Muslim
civilization.
We have noted that European textbooks have been written specifically for
children of European culture, based on a judeo-christian conception of life. As a matter of
fact, twenty years ago, Muslim children in European schools were very rare: no more
perhaps than two or three pupils in a classroom. But nowadays, classrooms in some
European countries have more Muslim children than Christian or Jewish. This is the case
in French and Swiss schools.Therefore, this fact must be taken into consideration when
writing new European textbooks. The authors must respect the Muslim presence in
European schools and not write things which are offensive to or hurt the sensitivity of
muslim children.
We have pointed out some general observations at the end of this revision of
European Mediterranean textbooks. The most important are:
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The European Curricula tend to depict Islam and its founder, Muhammad,
within a Judeo-Christian perspective, including negative connotations, and contain
information which, to say the least, is injurious to the feelings of Muslims.
Almost all these textbooks begin with the presentation of Islam’s fast
expansion and the fast conquests realized by its founder and successors are presented
in a stereotyped way as having been achieved by Arab conquerors regarded as savage
and invincible invaders.
An important chapter of the European books is that concerning the
Crusades, in which it is claimed that the fundamental objectives of the Crusades was
to liberate Jerusalem from the infidels (the Muslims).
The European books either maintain a complete silence or deliberately
ignore the extensive sense of tolerance shown by the Muslims following the recapture
of Jerusalem in the year 1187, when the Muslim commander, Salahuddin, declared a
general amnesty for all the inhabitants of the holy city. Needless to say, the motive
behind such a deliberate omission of historical facts is to distort the image of Muslims
in the minds of schoolchildren by falsifying the past.
An example of the phenomena of deliberate disregard by European authors
can be seen in the failure of the European textbooks to recognize the contribution
made by Arab-Muslim philosophers and scientists to the European Renaissance in the
15th century.
Another example of deliberate distortion of reality is the presentation of the
Prophet of Islam Muhammad. The Prophet Muhammad is never presented as a
Prophet or as the Prophet of Muslims, but as a “ camel-driver” or “ a poet “ or a
man who saw some visions”. The Qur’an is presented as the work of Muhammad.
Thus a link is suggested intentionally between the Qur’an and the Prophet
Muhammad rather than between the Qur’an and God. The purpose of this connection
is to bring influence to bear on childrens’ minds that the Prophet Muhammad is the
author of the Qur’an and that there is no connection between the Qur’an and God. In
this way, the children are being convinced that the Qur’an is not a holy book which
contains the words of God as Muslims believe, but an ordinary book written by a
simple man, Muhammad. The authors of the history books add some sentences that
confirm those allegations, such as “Muhammad said in the Qur’an…” or “
Muhammad wrote in the Quar’an” or Muhammad gave order to women in the
Qur’an to be veiled” and so on. We think that it would be better to use neutral
expressions in textbooks, and to replace these sentences by “It is said in the
Qur’an” or “in the Qur’an, order is given to women to wear the veil” or some
similar objective expressions which do not hurt Muslim sensitivities.
Since 11 September 2001, the European curricula of secondary schools are
mainly concerned with contemporary Islam: they point out the widespread religious
trend, including elaborate commentary on “fundamentalism, fanaticism and the
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danger of intolerance”. The term “Jihad” is commonly translated by holy war and
not by a spiritual or nonviolent physical struggle over evil; the term “martyrdom “ is
associated with terrorism and suicide bombers and both are used frequently to imply
that Islam rejects European modernity and peaceful co-existence. Some authors only
began to seek information on those concepts in the wake of the Sept.11 terrorist
attacks on The U.S. by Muslim extremists.
The Image of the other (Christians and Jews) in Arab Muslim countries
It is very important to draw attention here to the fact that the driving force behind
education in the islamic countries is the Arab Islamic culture, whose dynamic is Arabic,
the language of the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book. This unity of islamic culture based on
the Qur’an’s prescriptions is the prime dynamic for intellectual, cultural and spritual life
in these countries. It goes without saying that the history textbooks in those countries
magnify and exagerate their evaluation of historical events in order to highlight the glory
and greatness of Muslims in the golden age of Islam. This method aims at reviving
religious and national feelings in the hearts of muslim children, in order to make them
feel proud of their glorious past and to sow hope in their souls that one day they will be
able to restore this glory and take their revenge on the west.
As for the Arabo-Islamic presentation of Europe’s Christian and Jewish culture, it
corresponds to Islam’s view of Christianity and Jewish faith as displayed in the Qur’an.
In most of the history books, Christianity is described as a monotheistic world religion
but no elements of its historical or dogmatic content are mentioned. Its representation is
confined to superficial descriptions of the external characteristics: we can find the most
important concepts of Judaism and Christianity, such as the concept of Moses and his
miracles, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, his miracles and his Ascension; but these concepts are
presented according to Islam’s dogma and explained in terms of what is in the Qur’an.
Sometimes Qur’anic verses are quoted in confirmation of the concepts mentioned in the
history textbooks.
In Egyptian books, the emphasis is put on the flight of the Virgin Mary and Jesus
to Egypt:
“The Messiah was born in Bethlehem south of Jerusalem. As the Romans were
persecuting the population of Palestine and were killing their children, Mary
afraid for her son, had to take him and flee to Egypt. Once calm had returned, she
returned to Palestine and lived with her son in Nazareth. At the age of thirty,
Jesus began to preach a new religion, Christianity… The apostle St Mark
advocated Christianity in Egypt which was well received by Egyptians desirous of
freeing themselves from Roman servitude and from no longer worshipping the
Roman emperor.”(Egypt, Social Sciences,ed.1989).
Note that the authors of this Egyptian book avoid speaking about “ the holy
family” and do not mention St. Joseph who, according to the Christian version,
accompanied the Virgin Mary and her son, Jesus, on their journey to Egypt.
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In Jordanian books, we can see from the following extracts that their
interpretation of the dogmas of Christianity come much closer to that of the Quranic
conception:
“When God wanted to create Issa (Jesus) *may peace be on him*, He sent the
Holy spirit, which is no other than Jibril *may peace be on him* to Mary, in
human form. Mary was very afraid when she saw him and asked him who he was
and what he wanted. He replied:I am the Holy spirit, my God has sent me to you
to offer you a boy, a gift from God… The Holy spirit created the word of God in
Mary “is”, she became pregnant with the permission of God… Mary gives birth
to Jesus”.
It goes without saying that this version of the birth of Jesus is that of Qur’an, chapter of
Mary.
It would be desirable that Christianity be portrayed in Muslim history books not
simply from a traditional islamic perspective but from a Christian point of view also. We
think that this would help young pupils to conceive of the idea of difference, even if they
do not yet succeed in assimilating it. With age and in the company of Europeans friends,
they would be able to tolerate the existence of the “other”. The most important thing is to
sow the seed of tolerance in their young minds as well in their hearts.
Among the techniques used in Muslim history textbooks is that of exagerating,
magnifying and embellishing the scientific discoveries of Arab Muslim scholars and
philosophers, praising the golden age of Islam and focussing on the difference between
the enlightenment of the golden age of Islam and the darkness in which westerners were
living in the Middle Ages. While European authors of history textbooks use omission and
neglect as weapons in order to mask historical truth, the Muslim authors of history
textbooks make use of an emphatic terminology and overvalue historical facts in order to
stress the Muslims’s past glory.
The Crusades constitute an important chapter in these books. We have remarked
that the authors of Islamic texbooks strive to present the Crusaders as uncivilized people
dominated by their violence, while European countries show Muslims as raiders knowing
nothing of civilization and failing to accept progress. The majority of Muslim books
portray the Crusaders who seized Jerusalem in 1099 as uncivilized people who did not
recognize the inviolability of sacred places and of civilians.
These same books paint a glorious portrait of the Muslims, highlighting their
magnanimity and generosity towards Christians and Jews when the Muslims liberated
Jerusalem under Salah Al Din Al Ayouki (Saladin), 88 years after it was seized by the
Christians. These books point out that the Muslims did not try to tale revenge on the
Christians for the tragic massacres which the Christians had committed by slaughtering
civilian inhabitants of the holy city, Muslims Christians and Jews alike, when they had
seized jerusalem earlier on. The Egyptian books give a sad description of those historical
events:
“When Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Crusaders, the Muslims of the city took
refuge in the Mosque; but the Crusaders did not respect its holy nature, they
invaded it, cutting the throats of the Muslim refugees without sparing any, not
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women, not children not old people, not religious people… They decided to
exterminate all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the number of which rose to 60
thousands… the genocide lasted a week, no-one was spared, not women, not
children nor old people.” (Egypt, Social Scviences, 5th primary, ed.1989, p.50)
These books do their best to present evidence for the defeat of the Crusaders and the
glorious victory of the Muslims. We can read in Jordanian books:
“The Crusades ended with the flight of the Francs who eventually left the Muslim
East after two centuries of war and violence. The victory of the Muslims over the
Crusaders is due to their unified word and their concerted efforts which gave
them a formidable power over the Europeans.” (Jordan, History of the Arab and
Muslims, 5th primary, ed.1992, p.56)
In Egyptian history textbooks, we find examples of these glorious portrayals. The
Egyptian history books magnify the leading role played by Egypt during the last crusade
led by King Louis IX of France. The Egyptians defeated him and imprisoned him in the
city of Mansoura, whose name derives from that victory. This victory is depicted as the
symbol of the leadership by Egypt of the Arab and Islamic world during its struggle
against the Crusaders:
“Toran Shah led the last battle against the Crusaders and conquered them at
Mansoura… and held the king of France, Louis IX, prisoner in Mansoura…Thus
an honourable page in the history of Muslim Egypt was turned which defended
the Muslim world against invaders.” (Egypt, Social Sciences, same edition, p.57)
In the chapters on the contemporary history of Egypt, the Christian Coptic culture and
history, which are integral parts of Egyptian history, are either grossly underrepresented
or not represented at all. There have been complaints from some civilian and human
rights organizations, which demand the inclusion into the curricula of notions about
Coptic architecture, famous monasteries and the important role played in the
independence movement by famous Coptic personalities alongside Muslim personalities
during the struggle against British Colonialism .
Another sensitive issue in those books is the omission of certain historical events
and the presentation of the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel: despite the Camp
David Agreement between Egypt and Israel, 25 years ago, there are no mention of the
name of Israel in the text or on the maps of the Middle-East region. The Egyptian books
use the term “Jewish state”, for Israel, but the name of Palestine is used throughout the
text and on the maps (according to a study by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of
Peace, in march 2004).
In Syrian history textbooks, we can find the same tendency to ignore Israel as a
state. Accordingly, Israel’s name does not appear on any map. The maps refer to the
whole region as Palestine and the Palestinian authority is referred to as an independent
state. Jerusalem is presented as an exclusively Arab city and as the capital of the state of
Palestine. We can read in one Syrian book:
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“Jerusalem is Arab and our forefathers lived there for thousands of years. But the
Zionist aggressors have occupied the city of Jerusalem and killed and expelled
many of its people… The capital of Arab Palestine shall not return to her original
owners except by soul and blood, and that is a trust tied to our necks” (Reader
and Literary, Grade 3, pt.2,p.25)
The religious connection of the Jewish people with Palestine is never mentionned and the
Jews are never mentioned as inhabitants of this land neither in the past nor in the present;
the relations between Muslims and Christians are the only ones to be mentioned. Thus
only the Muslim and Christian holy places and events are mentioned, not the Jewish ones.
We read in the same Syrian book:
“It is the pure city (Jerusalem) that God has blessed… Christ lived there… and
Muhammad went in his midnight journey (isra’, according to Muslim belief)… AlAqsa Mosque is there, as well as the Dome of the Rock and the holy sepulchre
(Reader and Literature, Grade 3, pt.2.p.24).
There is no mention of Jewish holy places in the text.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that we have different faiths, we share common values and common
objectives which focus on peace. Peaceful co-existence as well as the desire for a
comprehensive peace and justice in the world make it incumbent upon us to review our
history textbooks. It is obvious that one of the keys to creating peaceful socities is the
development of curricula that teach young pupils to respect differences between peoples
and to appreciate common values which can help them to overcome prejudices.
For the presentation of Islam and Muslims, the authors of European history
textbooks must take into consideration the cultural specificities of Muslim children and
respect their rights to be different, including those of eating differently or dressing
differently, the right to express themselves differently than the other children; the right of
difference is among the fondamental human rights (Article 18) of the Universal
Declaration of human rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, in
December 1948. According to this fundamental human right, those responsible for
European educational programmes must take into consideration the rights of Muslim
children to be different while being treated as equals of the Christian or Jewish children.
In their presentation of European and Judeo-Christian culture and concepts, the
authors of history terxtbooks in Arab and Muslim countries must bear in mind that the
European countries have adopted the principle of separation between church and state,
and that they have became secular, relegating religions to the private sphere. Therefore
there is no religious education in the majority of European schools; instead one merely
finds some religious facts or events which do not play an important role in the education
of children. The Muslim presntation of Europeans must be more positive and must not
focus on critical and negative views of Western culture, including sexual libertarianism,
broken families, marriage of homosexuals .. etc. This negative presentation gives false
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ideas to Muslim children about European socities, which are not “broken societies” as
they are generally presented in Muslim textbooks.
May one hope that the day will come when a “true history” can be created, written
objectively without looking to glorify one’s own nation and distorting the image of the
“other”. It is time to recognise the right of the “other” to be different and to give him, in
the history schoolbooks taught to young children both in the European countries and in
the Arab and Muslim countries, an image which has not been altered or denigrated, an
image which reflects the truth of the “other” and not our representation of the “other”.
This mutual recognition of the “other”, without seeking either to tarnish his image
or to denigrate it, should establish a solid basis for the elaboration of the history and
civic education programmes destined for young pupils around the world.
Suggestions:
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Revise all textbooks with a view to remove from them all stereotypes and
preconceived ideas that reflect a negative view of the “other”.
-
Promote a spirit of impartiality, objectivity and rationality among the
authors of the curricula.
-
Put forward proposals for rewriting the curricula with a view to rectify the
preconceived ideas and the traditional misconceptions, so as to achieve a
better understanding of the “other”.
-
Promote the study of the sacred texts in search of shared values that students
could adopt in everyday life.
-
Promote inter-religious education which encourages respect for other faiths
and prepares students to cast aside barriers of prejudice and intolerance, and
to recognize the “other”as an equal and not as an opponent.
-
Foster a culture of peace which prevents violence and promotes conflictresolution and peace- building in the curricula.
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Strive for improvement of the international education system, by fostering
the cultivation of knowledge, of critical thinking and of global awarness
among young students.
-
Increase the degree of cooperation between international institutions serving
in the fields of education and culture for peace.
-
Organize more symposia and conferences on the importance of education
and curricula as tools for peace.
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