Latest Abraham Accords effect: Egypt to teach Judaism in schools

Al-Monitor reports:

The Egyptian parliament recently commended the Ministry of Education on approving a new school subject: common values. The course examines religious values ​and verses that have the same meaning in the three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — in a move that will allow Egyptian students to study verses from the Jewish religion for the first time ever.

Kamal Amer, the head of the parliamentary defense and national security committee, said in parliament Feb. 26, “The Ministry of Education’s approval of the subject of religious values ​​shared between the divine religions expresses the state’s keenness to spread the values ​​of tolerance and fraternity.”

The three religions “include common values ​​that students must study to be able to confront the extremist and takfirist ideas that backward groups are working to spread in society,” Amer said, adding, “President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is keen to teach the youth the values ​​of respect for others, tolerance and rejection of fanaticism and extremism. This is why the Ministry of Education decided to teach the subject of common values ​​in schools.”

On Feb. 14, the Ministry of Education approved the parliament’s proposal on the subject of common values ​​between all the Abrahamic religions and the principles of tolerance, citizenship and coexistence.

Deputy Minister of Education Reda Hegazy said during his Feb. 14 meeting with the defense and national security committee, “Due to its importance, the subject will be factored into students' GPA,” even though religious classes are not counted.

This is yet another major change in the Middle East that would never have happened without the Abraham Accords. It is a recognition that for any Arab country to succeed, it has to be more open to other viewpoints. 

And there was more, nearly as important:

Farid el-Bayadi, a member of the defense and national security committee and author of the proposal, also called for the removal of Islamic religious texts from a number of subjects such as Arabic.

He told parliament on Feb. 14, “Including religious texts in subjects such as Arabic, history and geography is too dangerous.”

“Teaching religious texts through subjects not related to religion leads teachers to interpret such texts in extremist and subversive ways and studies have established a link between this issue and the spread of extremist ideas,” he added.

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