David G. Littman

In my accompanying article, just published 1, I quoted from Edward Lane's classic description on Jews and Christians, published in 1836. One may ask 170 years later: what is being taught currently to Muslim children in Saudi Arabian and Egyptian schools, specifically on the subject of the "infidels" - especially in relation to concepts like traditional "Jihad and Martyrdom"?

In August - at the 56th session of the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights - the Association for World Education circulated to that body's 26 members, and to many State and NGO observers, two 100 page reports on school textbooks, published by the Jerusalem Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP): The West, Christians and Jews in Saudi Arabian Schoolbooks (2003); and Jews, Christians, War and Peace in Egyptian School Textbooks (2004).2

Need I stress, that school textbooks are one of the most crucial means by which a nation passes on to the younger generation a certain worldview, determined according to parameters set by the educational establishment. As such, they open a window on to what the education system in a specific country wishes to instil in students' minds.

Saudi Arabia: CMIP analysis of 93 school textbooks: most from 1999-2000 & 2001

In regard to school textbooks in Saudi Arabia, the survey includes an outlook on Christianity and the West. There, Islam is presented as the only true religion, while all others are presented as false. Islam leads its followers to paradise, whereas all others lead their believers to destruction in hell. Saudi children are taught that they are superior, as Muslims, in both this world and the next. Christians and Jews are explicitly denounced as infidels, and are also called the enemies of Islam and Muslims. They should not be befriended, nor emulated in any way, as this is strictly forbidden. The West is the source of evil that has afflicted the Muslim world. Western democracy is totally rejected.

As for "the Jews," the report cites religious references to them as a wicked nation - in their relations with Arabs and Muslims, and in the context of world history. Their disappearance is, therefore, desirable. Israel is not recognised as a State, and a Middle East peaceful solution is not advocated. Rather war, Jihad and martyrdom is exhorted as a religious duty. Even the 100-year old fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion is referred to with emphasis as an authentic work

A French edition of CMIP's report on Saudi Arabian schoolbooks has a preface by Antoine Sfeir, director of the Cahiers de l'Orient and author of Dictionnaire mondiale de l'Islamisme in which he gives a warning:

At a time when the Islamist terrorist threat to Europe is becoming clearer, it is urgent to fully understand one of its essential components: the Islamic Wahhabite ideology. This ideology, whose principal target is Western civilization - that is to say, democracy and modernity - is known only to a few specialists. It seems to be largely ignored by the media, as it is by the political class.3

Egypt: CMIP analysis of 103 school textbooks - most from 2002, some 1999-2001
Our Association (The Association for World Education) decided to limit its presentation at the last UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights to the CMIP's report on Egypt alone, while avoiding controversial political issues such as the "Middle East Peace Process," and only addressing one crucial subject: "Jihad & Martyrdom" - taught in Egyptian primary / preparatory / secondary schools text books - the title of our written statement E/CN.4/Sub.2/2004/NGO/17), an official NGO document at the 56th session (26 July-13 Aug. 2004).

A description of Jihad in Grade 11 from an al-Azhar schoolbook makes compelling reading:

[One] of the rules derived by the [religious] scholars from these [Qur'anic] verses is the following: 1. Obligation to fight the infidels with utmost vigor and power until they become weak, their state disappears and they submit to the rule of the law of Islam.

And it is again the al-Azhar teaching curriculum that goes to the root of these bloody lessons, with pious justifications offered to Grade 11 students concerning the reasons for beheading infidels:

When you meet them in order to fight [them], do not be seized by compassion [toward them], but strike the[ir] necks powerfully...Striking the neck means fighting, because killing a person is often done by striking off his head...This expression contains a harshness and emphasis that are not found in the word "kill", because it describes killing in the ugliest manner, "i.e. cutting the neck and making the organ - the head of the body - fly off [the body]."

This was the tragic fate of journalist Daniel Pearl three years ago in Pakistan, beheaded in a traditional Jihad-war tactic that was soon to became 'normal' in Iraq, where about 200 foreigners were abducted as hostages in 2004 - and this Jihad tactic continues in 2005. Thirty civilian hostages have since been slaughtered like sheep (as the Armenians were 100 years ago) twenty of them being ritually beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarkawi, while hooded adepts sanctified the ritual by shouting solemnly before the camera: "Allah u-Akhbar!"

Another school text provides young 'Jihadist martyrs' a justification for these barbarities:

Encouraging the faithful to perform jihad in the path of Allah, to behead the infidels, take them prisoner, break their power, and make their souls humble (...) You see that in His [Muhammad] words: "When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly. Then grant them their freedom or take a ransom from them, until war shall lay down its burdens.

Jihadists and Islamic scholars are aware that beheading the infidel can be, and is often associated by Islamic jurists with a warlike Jihad tactic. The classic text is from al-Mawardi, the renowned 11th century Shafi'i jurist of Baghdad: "the most judicious of Qadis."

Mention of 'Jihad/Martyrdom' at UN: 'Blasphemy' / 'Defamation of Islam'
The inclusion - in our written NGO statement - of this grim example from al-Azhar religious teaching in Egyptian schools was considered "blasphemous" by Sudan's representative at the Sub-Commission. One of the 26 members (Pakistan's Abdul Sattar) even complained in vain on a "point of order," asking the Chairman, Soli Sorabjee (India), to prevent our oral statement on that subject. Later, Faisal Niaz Tirizi (Pakistan's representative) delivered an indignant "right of reply" (10 August 2004) condemning the NGO/17 written text, which he called a "defamation of Islam." He stated that:

"Islam was a religion of peace grouping 1.5 billion people in the world, and it was unacceptable that this religion should be thus despised"
- and that his government would take steps to protect UN organs such as the Sub-Commission from being thus abused. This public calumny - a UN "secular" form of fatwa - was repeated by the representative of Pakistan in an exceptional statement during the concluding meeting three days later, when speaking on behalf of the 56 Members States of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

"Martyrdom," as a result of "Jihad in the path of Allah," is an exalted value in the Egyptian school textbooks. These books define the martyr, talk of his elevated position in Allah's eyes and of his reward in heaven, and provide the students with examples of heroic martyrdom, both in Islamic and modern history, featuring various expressions of readiness for such action.

In this context, it is worth recalling that the motto of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, is a blueprint for "Jihadist Martyrdom":
"Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."

It is identical to article 8 of the Hamas Charter, which states in its article 2 that it is "one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in Palestine." The conclusion of its article 7 on the ultimate fate of the Jews according to a hadith (an alleged "saying" of Muhammad) is both racial and genocidal. I have quoted from this genocidal Charter at UN bodies since 1989 - it also propagates The Protocols of the Elders of Zion - but to no effect, and Hamas has never been condemned at any United Nations body.

To the contrary, a special "meeting" was inaugurated during the 2004 UN Commission on Human Rights in honour of Sheikh Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, who co-drafted its Charter.

The image of the Jews - historically and at present - as portrayed in all the Egyptian school textbooks of the State and religious school systems is very negative. With the exception of Albert Einstein, no Jewish individual is portrayed in positive terms, other than some key biblical figures - considered, traditionally, as Muslims.

Egypt could be an example in the Arab World for Human Rights Education
Egypt's status within the Arab world is unique. It is in a position to set an example for all other Arab countries in the direction of peace and stability in the region. Some of the findings in the textbooks are positive, but much is disappointing, and others are most shocking. In various areas these manuals have failed to meet the recommended UNESCO standard on education that would have been expected from a country in such a special position of influence within UNESCO, in the Middle East and worldwide. School teaching on "Jihad and Martyrdom" and attitudes toward the "other," whether "protected" dhimmi Jews or Christians - or other infidels - that are found in these textbooks whether State or Al-Azhar schools totally contradicts UN standards and the International Bill of Human Rights.

Arab-Muslim voices condemn Jihad ideology and appeal for sweeping reforms
But there are other voices in the Arab world which are speaking out more and more against such inflexible attitudes. Many references are provided in my above-mentioned article, just published.

We have often declared at the UN that "those committing such barbaric acts in the name of Islam gravely blemish its reputation in the eyes of the world" - and called, in vain, to UN bodies to act on this matter. Yet, we should never despair of changing hearts and minds in the quest for democracy, peace and true reconciliation with the 'other' - through education and by speaking out on such issues

One example: Saudi and Egyptian delegates were not pleased when we circulated at the last UN Sub-Commission the two above-mentioned reports on the teaching of hate in their schools, and especially that this subject was raised in our NGO/27 written statement, and also orally. The Egyptian delegate dismissed it all with a customary personal attack, but the Saudi delegate was concerned.
Within a month - perhaps a coincidence - at the beginning of the Saudi Arabian school year, senior officials called upon teachers not to disseminate extremist views among their pupils.

Now is the time to examine systematically the school textbooks used by all States Members of the United Nation, and especially the 53 members of the Commission on Human Rights. In this context, the late High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, courageously recommended a pertinent reform in a 2003 report - reproduced in our article - only a few months before he and twenty-one colleagues were assassinated at their headquarters in Baghdad.

His proposal applied to States like Egypt and Sudan, two of the 53 member countries of the current 61stsession of the UN Commission on Human Rights (2005), and also to some former member States such as Saudi Arabia, and Libya (whose ambassador chaired the 59th session in 2003), and others.

So long as the Commission on Human Rights and other human rights bodies, particularly UNESCO, do not address the blatant misuse of school textbooks in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere for the purpose of teaching a culture of ethnic-religious hate, backed by a religiously-flawed ideology of "Jihad and Martyrdom in the path of Allah," there will be little hope of attaining peace and reconciliation throughout the world among peoples and religions. Ideally, all such systems of teaching hate should give way to a general process of democratization and the observance of the International Bill of Human Rights - not just voting in elections - and respect for human rights and all ethnic and religious minorities: what is called "taking the road to democracy."

In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Winston Churchill's death (24 January 1965), our conclusion is borrowed from his memorable House of Commons speech on 20 August 1940, cherished for his unforgettable homage to Britain's RAF pilots in the victorious Battle of Britain: "Never in the history of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few." And then he ended his fifty minute address by referring to a future blossoming of the English-speaking democracies - Britain and the United States. May that symbolic Churchillian image take shape once that evil, plague-like nemesis - Jihad ideology and "martyrdom bombing" - is swamped by what we all pray, I am sure, will soon become a solid wave of democracy and democratization in the Middle East. Here are his very words:

"Like the Mississippi, it just keeps rolling along. Let it roll. Let it roll on full flood,inexorable, irresistible, benignant, to broader lands and better days." 4
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1. David G. Littman, "A Culture of Hate Based on 'Jihad and Martyrdom': Saudi Arabian and Egyptian Schoolbooks Today," Midstream (New York): February-March 2005, pp. 6-11.
2. Compiled, translated (from Arabic) and edited by Dr. Arnon Groiss (New York & Jerusalem: CMIP / AJC)
3. La démocracie en danger: l'enseignement scolaire saoudien. (Paris: Berg International, 2004), p. 9.
4. Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, Finest Hour. vol. VI, 1939-1941, p.742-43. In the car returning to 10 Downing
Street, Churchill kept humming Paul Robeson's song: "Ole Man River."
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David G. Littman is a historian who has published articles since the 1970s on Jews and Christians under Islam. From 1986 he has been a representative for several NGOs at the United Nations. He currently represents: the Association for World Education and World Union for Progressive Judaism. Several of his previous articles and more recent UN oral and written statements have been published in "Human Rights and Human Wrongs at the United Nation," Part 5 of The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims (ed. Robert Spencer) New York: Prometheus Books, Jan. 2005.