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.
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