Israel: TV channel claims Al-Azhar curriculum ‘incites hatred’

Israel’s Channel 12 TV has attacked Egypt’s Al-Azhar Foundation and the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, claiming that the curriculum used in the foundation’s schools “incites hatred”. The channel said that in light of reports about relations between Egypt and Israel being at their lowest level in two decades, the explosive situation is also evident within the academic world in Cairo.

According to the Israeli channel, Al-Azhar Foundation in Egypt runs an educational system in which two million students are taught to take a hard line against Israel. The channel also alleged that the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, is in contact with Hamas.

“Over time, the war in Gaza has become a fundamental test of the nature of Israeli-Egyptian relations, which have witnessed many fluctuations since the signing of the peace agreement in 1979,” said Channel 12. “Relations are now tense and have reached the lowest level in two decades, but it is enough to look at the books of the Egyptian Al-Azhar Institute to understand the explosive position against the Jews.”

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The Hebrew-language channel referred to a study conducted by Dr Ofir Winter and Dr Yonatan Negev for the Israeli International Institute for Research and Policy, which analyses textbooks in use around the world. The study concluded that the education system at Al-Azhar, an ancient and influential Sunni Muslim religious authority, includes clear hostility towards Israel.

“The school textbooks explicitly declare their support for the Palestinian intifada and against Israel’s policies in everything related to the Palestinians and Jerusalem,” it added. Israel is not even mentioned by name, it pointed out. It is referred to as “the Zionist entity”. Muslims are called upon to liberate Jerusalem, and normalisation with Israel is rejected. Moreover, the Israel-Egypt peace agreement is not mentioned in Al-Azhar’s textbooks, positively or negatively, despite the religious description given to it during the Sadat era by Al-Azhar scholars.

“At the same time, Al-Azhar’s curriculum appears to reject extremism and is hostile to extremist Islamic movements. Textbooks still promote traditional ideas and limit women’s status in society,” the study claimed. “Jews are often accused in Al-Azhar textbooks of being extremists towards Christian Arabs in the early Islamic context. For example, the Islamic Culture book for the ninth grade teaches about Islam’s tolerance of Christianity, using passages that consider the Jews to be the most hostile of nations to believers.”

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