The Catholic Center for Studies and Media has issued a report which recommends that the school curricula of the Jordanian Ministry of Education be updated. The study states that these curricula contain historical mistakes and fail to mention Christian presence in this homeland.
By Fr. Rif'at Bader
The Catholic Center for Studies and Media (CCSM) issued on August 1 a detailed report titled “The School Curricula in Jordan and their Role in Respecting Religion of Others.” The study reviews and analyzes the school curricula of the Jordanian Ministry of Education from grade 1 to grade 12.
Following are the main points of the 45-page report which has been forwarded to several concerned personalities that failed to give the report minimal attention or care. Owing to the fact that the Ministry of Education is due to shortly hold its general conference, it is the right time to issue the following recommendations:
This study, relevant to the school curricula of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s Ministry of Education, aims at presenting remarks about the contents of these curricula with regards to their abstaining from mentioning the Christian presence in this homeland and to containing historical mistakes--which are mentioned without any review--which lack checking historical facts and considering religious sentiments. Genuine reform starts at home and continues at school through both the school curricula and the way information is conveyed. Both ways need renovation and upgrading.
A seminar was held at the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS) on February 16, 2013 with the participation of the minister of awqaf and Islamic affairs, the mufti of the Kingdom, the minister of education, the director of curricula at the ministry, the RIIFS director, bishops, and a number of priests. The discussions focused on school curricula and whether they are reflect respect for the religion of others.
At the “Conference of Challenges Facing Christian Arabs”, which convened in Amman at the initiative of His Majesty King Abdullah II Ben Al Hussein and under his patronization, and attended by His Royal Highness Prince Ghazi Ben Mohammad, a working paper was presented by the Council of the Heads of Churches in Jordan and read out by Archbishop Maroun Lahham on September 4, 20113. It stated:
“The school curricula: There are historical mistakes in the school curricula particularly with regards to the “General Education” book with reference to the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as the failure to mention the Christian past of Jordan prior to the advent of Islam which gives the impression to Muslim students the impression that the Christian citizens are alien to this land. It also arouses in the Christian students the same feeling of alienation and of being strangers to their history, to their homeland and to their role in the society. This prevalent situation could have been the outcome of having a certain party in Jordan taking over the Ministry of Education at a certain time of Jordan’s modern history.”
This working paper recommended issuing a decree by the concerned parties calling for reviewing some of the loopholes in the educational curricula with regards to the past and present Christian presence in Jordan.
We have followed up the curricula over the scholastic years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 and consequently we have the following reservations. The CCSM hopes, as well as all those with good intentions in this dear country, that the curricula will serve the purpose of cordiality and cooperation among the various components of society, and be free from causing any agitation. The reservations are the following:
1. The curricula considered in this study include history, geography, social and national education, and Arabic language books. The books relevant to religious education were not reviewed due to respect for privacy and for different options followed in teaching religion in every class.
2. We are fully aware that the Arab and Islamic education is the main target of the school curricula since Islam is the religion of the state as stated in the constitution. Yet, this does not give the school curricula being taught to students, regardless of their religions and faiths, the right not to differentiate between teaching “religion” in the “religion class” and studying other sciences. The study shows that several lessons do suit to be included in the religion classes rather than to tackle scientific issues relevant to the universe, history, and geography which the students have to learn.
3. The huge gap the CCSM spotted is that the curricula are totally drifted from the global dialogue initiatives led by Jordan under the wise Hashemite leadership and with the awareness of its dear people. Is it reasonable that the curricula fail to mention the initiatives of Islamic-Christian dialogue which started in Jordan in its capacity as a model and a pioneering country in dialogue among religions? Why there is no reference to "A Common Word" initiative, “the Week of Harmony among Religions” and the “Permanent Catholic-Islamic Forum?” Undoubtedly, the only initiative referred to is the “Amman Message”.
4. The Arab Islamic heritage, the Islamic holy places, and the Arab Islamic identity are the main concerns of the school books being taught. They just ignore mentioning the Christian value of the Holy City.
5. All this leads us regrettably to conclude that our curricula neither call for mutual respect, nor for dialogue and harmony because they only refer to a single history and a single religion. So how do we call for fraternity, dialogue and cordiality at a time when there is no respect or even reference to beautiful plurality that characterizes the Jordanian society?
6. The authors and supervising committees: The grouping of authors and supervising committees do not include a single Christian. Therefore, the information “stuffed’’ in the curricula are single-sided and the world affairs are considered from a single religion’s point of view. This point of view does not include a book or two of geography.
7. Some history books are abounding with “illogical” shifts in eras which led to “deleting” any reference to the Christian presence or Arab Christian presence in the region. For example, the book titled “Modern Arab History and its Current Affairs” (unit 6: Jerusalem history and culture page 69) refers to the period from the history of Jerusalem in 3,000BC-636) to Jerusalem in the Islamic era (636-1516).
8. Some curricula books handle issues relevant to Church history in a superficial and sometimes inaccurate manner, or even sometimes it concentrates on controversial issues by presenting a certain point of view and veiling others, which consequently contradicts the principle of “fairness in history”. From this premise, we call for the elimination of whatever tarnishes a doctrine, history and identity. We call for introducing concepts that concentrate on dialogue and the culture of pluralism. The curricula are void of any reference to the history of the Church in general or to the Arab Christian presence. There is no direct and clear reference to the Christian Arab history.
9. While referring to the Arab history in the Arab region, there is a reference to the “Arab Islamic history” rather than “the Arab and Islamic history”. The inclusion of “and” between “Arab” and “Islamic’’ undoubtedly indicates respect for plurality and recognition of the existence of non-Muslim Arabs, particularly Christians. For example, the grade 9 history book is titled: “The Arab Islamic history”.
10. Too many references were made about “The General Education” book, with explanations made at the end of this report. The Ministry of Education is adamant to maintain it as is, particularly with regards to the chapter referring to Dead Sea Scrolls depicting them as merely paving the way for the advent of Islam and ignoring the fact that they are genuine scripts of the Holy Bible. This whole issue is repeated in the curriculum books of grade 7 and grade 10 history books by listing the same mistakes.
11. The curricula do quote information from false religious books that contradict history, such as the Gospel of Barnabas. This is a fake gospel that contains historical, geographic and religious mistakes.
12. Our enquiry is why the Ministry of Education failed to take a decision that educates students on religious affairs in general and the monotheistic religions, particularly Christianity and Islam, and to call for dialogue among followers of religions such as presenting an explanation about the week of Harmony among religions (February 1) which was unanimously endorsed by the United Nations in response to a Jordanian initiative in 2010?It is to be reiterated that the Jordanian foreign policy is appreciated worldwide at a time when our curricula take a contradictory course.
13. A review should be made in the following nomenclature, namely the Jahiliya era (pre-Islamic era), Christians, dhimmis, missionaries, the Crusades wars, religious minorities, and coexistence ... and replace them with words that are more impressive of the current situations by focusing on equality in rights and duties, human dignity, freedom of worship, and furthermore proceeding to the stage of citizenship in letter and spirit. Instead of talking about minorities, why not talk about the 'components' of the society?
14. Our curricula are void of any reference to the Christian touristic sites, thus failing to promote them and encourage people to visit them. To be fair, from a cultural and historical point of view, some chapters have to be devoted to addressing the most important Christian historical sites, post their photos in books, and propose arranging school trips to them.
15. The major point to be addressed is that our curricula neither comply with the initiatives of His Majesty the King nor steer the society towards further cordiality and harmony. Those who scrutinize the curricula will definitely realize that there is an unwavering endeavor to scrap whatever has nothing to do with the Islamic religion and to abstain from calling for dialogue with followers of religions for the mere fact that other religions do not exist. As these pages of these curricula are stripped of such references, there is not any call for dialogue.
16. We call for adding the historic speech which His Majesty the King made at the conference on the “Challenges Facing Christian Arabs” which he had called for on September 3, 2013, as he said: “We believe that the protection of the rights of Christians is a duty rather than a favor. This requires all of us to focus on education, and the way we bring up our children to protect the generations to come.”
17. There is a deliberate intention to abstain from referring to a “second religion”. While referring to the society facilities, these curricula mention “mosques” and sometimes add the term “other places of worship”. Why the students are not informed that there are churches next to mosques?
18. Our curricula focus on the “Islamic” ethics and values in all walks of life, by referring to the rights of women and children while ignoring the values which Christianity enjoy. Why there is no reference to “human rights and dignity” from a sublime humanitarian perspective by excluding Christian and Islamic point of views? According to the school curricula, ethics are always confined to Islam as it is very frequently mentioned that the Islamic religion is the one that set sound humanitarian bases as if the pre-Islamic era witnessed injustice and violation of human rights in general and of women’s rights in particular.
19. The Arabic language book of grade 7 includes an exercise which lists the Biblical verse “Man shall not live on bread alone.” The question that arises is why are our curricula bereft of such quoted verses? Furthermore, why don’t they inform students that the verse is taken from the Holy Bible as is the case with Koranic verses?
20. When addressing Christian affairs, it is advisable to refer to accredited sources, namely books or qualified people who can fairly provide the required information. A booklet published the Latin Patriarchate years ago titled, “Some Hot Issues in the History of the Church” by late Fr. George Saba sheds light objectively on some thorny issues of the history of the Church.
21. Following are two examples:
a. The first one is taken from grade 5 book of Social and National Education, part one, page 15, 2012. The title is “The religious status (namely in the pre-Islamic era). The book says: “In the pre-Islamic era most of the Arabs worshipped idols such as the Lat, Uzza, Manat and Hubal despite the fact that a small number of the Arabs used to worship the Almighty God such as Hanafis who maintained the pure monotheistic beliefs of Abraham, may peace be upon him.’’ In the next two years, following the remarks posted on Ammon website on September 27, 2012 titled, “The curricula, rote learning and cancellation of others” a change was made but failed to mention the Christian religion. In the year 2013, it was listed as such under the headline, “The religious status (namely in the pre-Islamic era): “Most of the Arabs in the pre-Islamic era worshipped idols such as the Lat, Uzza, Manat and Hubal despite the fact that a small number of the Arabs used to worship the Almighty God.” In other words our curricula feel ashamed to merely mention another religion.
b. The second example is that the Ministry of Education undertook amendments of the curricula of grades 1-3, yet the ministry still instills in the students violence and abuse of religion. An example of this is what is listed in the amended content of the grade 3 Arabic language book, part two. It says: “It is quoted that Omar bin Al Khattab, may God be please with him, said after taking over the caliphate ‘If you find me undertaking a deviant behavior, then do correct me.’ Then a man stood up and said: ‘By God, if we ever notice any deviant behavior by you we would correct it with our swords.’ Then Omar said: ’Thank God that there is in Mohammad’s nation someone who corrects Omar with his sword.” Why do we fail to educate our children on the mentality of “dialogue and exchange of views instead of teaching them that we can resort to the sword in dealing with whoever has an opinion that contravenes with ours?”
Conclusion, His Majesty King Abdullah II Ben Al Hussein said on September 3, 2013 at the Conference of Challenges Facing Christian Arabs:
“Our main concern is that such an entrenched negative perception and the state of isolation between the followers of the different religions might undermine the social fabric. This requires all of us to focus on education, and the way we bring up our children to protect the generations to come. This is the responsibility of families and other educational institutions, as well as mosques and churches.”
So long that the head of the state used the word “churches” alongside the word “mosques’’, so why do the committees in charge of supervising the curricula of the Ministry of Education insist that the world is mono-colored and bereft of sublime plurality?
