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Kuwaiti MPs Oppose ‘Americanizing Textbooks’
Agence France Presse, Arab News
KUWAIT CITY, 31 December 2003 — Kuwaiti lawmakers warned the government yesterday against bowing to US and Western pressure to change school textbooks to omit references seen as promoting terror and extremism, and insisted they would not accept the “Americanization” of education.
Islamist MPs in particular cautioned the government against changing “Islamic fundamentals” in text books, insisting the curricula do not encourage extremism or breed terrorists.
“We warn the (education) minister and other officials against amending textbooks, especially (on) Islamic education” to remove subjects important to Muslims, Islamist MP Abdullah Okash told Parliament.
“Do you have a new religion you want to teach students? Is it the Western religion? Is it the new American religion?” he asked.
The warning came during a debate on Kuwait’s education policy, which was opened Monday by the government when it informed Parliament it was modifying textbooks to promote tolerance and fight violence and extremism.
“Our curricula will remain influenced by Islam and Arab nationalism. Those who don’t like this should leave the country,” Islamist MP Khaled Al-Adwah said.
“We will not accept Americanization and Westernization of our school books. After all, Americans respect the people who respect themselves,” said Adwah, who called for respecting Islamic values.
“I hope the government will not bow to external blackmail and threats... and be forced to delete important sections of Islamic education,” said Shiite MP Hassan Jowhar.
Other MPs insisted that there should be no link between Islam and terrorism because terror is present worldwide.
Jowhar said the decision to rewrite textbooks came despite findings by specialist committees that current editions contain no references calling for violence and fanaticism or encouraging struggle against other religions. The committees found that those books contained sizeable portions focusing on tolerance, brotherhood, equality, passion, cooperation and respect for the rights of non-Muslims, he said.
MP Mohammad Al-Busairi claimed the United States had been pressing Gulf states to change school textbooks since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and rejected accusations that school syllabi in the Gulf breed terrorists.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, concluded a two-day annual summit here last week by approving a charter to reform school curricula.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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