The Electronic Network for Arab Western Understanding (ENAWU) - Ignorance as the basis of tolerance: the school system in Egypt

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Ignorance as the basis of tolerance: the school system in Egypt

[image courtesy of USAID website]

A true understanding of Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt requires an analysis of the way each one considers the other. Thus, the education system, because it is one of the major forms of socialization of the youth, seems to hold a crucial position in this process.

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Trying to grasp the basis of the relations between Christians and Muslims in Egypt involves studying the way they consider each other, and more precisely the process of the construction of a representation that characterizes “the other”. In this way, the school system, because it constitutes a major method of socialization of the youth, seems to hold a crucial position in this process. Moreover, there are numerous arguments hinged on the issues of Egyptian textbooks and religious studies’ curricula as well as history or Arabic ones. These textbooks are often described as carrying an important identity source and leading to a school system that is considered to be a new lair of sectarianism.

A religious distinction still exists in the Egyptian school system that manifests itself by the existence of religious classes that separate Christians and Muslims, according to the mention of the pupil’s religion on their official documents, with all the difficulties related to this issue, exemplified by the recent case of the twins Mario and Andrew. Nevertheless, it seems that a real ongoing effort is being organized by the government to inhibit any potential sectarianism. Along this line the government’s will to purge the teaching profession of its extremist facet is noticeable. Thus it would appear that the current textbooks on Islam are exemplary in their consideration of the Christian minority in Egypt. However, the range of this kind of tolerance appears to be deeply limited by the fact that it is precisely based on the ignorance of Christianity’s substance, its theology, as well as its form, the worship and the church’s organization. So, although Christianity is described as an authentic form of God’s word, and so deserves tolerance, it appears nonetheless as a distorted message, according to Islam, and that is the reason why it is totally unnecessary to teach the Muslim pupils about the tenets of Christianity because they are imbued with misapprehension.

This ambiguity also appears in history textbooks where the same conception of tolerance is developed based on the ignorance of the specific characteristics of the Christian group. Thus, although these textbooks study the birth and growth of Christianity in Egypt, there is a very little about the Coptic civilization after 640 and the conquest of Egypt by Muslims. Furthermore, nothing is said about the contemporary Coptic group, except that it only remains nowadays as the remains of a civilization which used to be flourish but is now extinct, and whose cultural symbols, for example the monasteries, constitute today mainly tourist sites. Thus, this appeal to a tolerance based on the ignorance of the reality of the Coptic group in Egypt is reinforced, the latter appearing as a kind of elusive entity for Muslim pupils, precisely because Christianity is described neither in its substance nor in its form. In the same way, Christian textbooks, even if they cannot deny the Muslim presence in Egypt, also tend to ignore the theological details of Islam, because they are considered mistaken in the eyes of the Christian interpretation of God’s word.

Moreover, beyond this quarrel about the identity affirmation, whose corollary is the negation, or at least the denial of the other’s specificities, Egyptian pedagogy itself is often questioned. The Egyptian education system is based on rote-learning and memorization and hinders the pupil’s development of any critical-thought and so any potential reconsideration of this learning.

Finally, in order to conclude on education’s role in the formation of religious identities in Egypt, and even if a more detailed study is necessary to tackle all the facets of such a complex issue, it seems important to emphasize the ambiguity characterizing this kind of tolerance, which is not based on the recognition and knowledge of the other, but rather on the denial and ignorance of his specificities. Such a reciprocal ignorance appears to be difficult position to hold, because of the social as well as religious visibility of both communities, the majority Muslim group, of course, but also the minority Coptic one. And in this way sometimes interreligious rows appear when the ignorance of the other is not possible any more, whereas it is the basis of the notion of tolerance instilled by the Egyptian school system.