Push to remove Quran from Egyptian textbooks faces backlash
Egypt’s parliamentary Defense and National Security Committee is discussing a plan to remove Quranic verses from the general curriculum and limit them to religious courses, part of a plan to fight extremism.
Egypt’s parliamentary Defense and National Security Committee, chaired by Maj. Gen. Kamal Amer, discussed during a Feb. 14 meeting a plan by the ministries of culture, religious endowments and education to remove Quranic verses and hadiths (the prophet's sayings) from textbooks, and limit their inclusion to books for religion courses.
The meeting was held upon the request of the committee’s member Farid el-Bayadi, who put forward the plan aimed to counter extremism, and in the presence of Deputy Minister of Education Reda Hegazy.
During the meeting, Hegazy approved a proposal to teach the subject of religion in a book that covers interfaith shared values, the principles of tolerance, citizenship and coexistence. He noted that this subject would be added to the curriculum during the next academic year given its utmost importance.
Commenting on the presence of religious texts in nonreligious academic books, Hegazy said there are new government instructions to limit religious texts to the subject of religion.
