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Iraqi Kurdistan schools will teach
religions other than Islam
24.11.2007
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Kurdish provinces exposing students to other faiths
November 24, 2007
SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Judged solely by one of the big, bold words on its
cover, the book that Fadel Mahmoud clutched in his
hands would be considered blasphemous in many parts
of the Muslim world.
Most people in Kurdish northern Iraq believe that
the Quran, the holy book of Islam, is the final word
on religious life.
Mahmoud and other teachers, however, are preaching a
message of religious tolerance in hopes of
preserving the region's relative stability.
The book in his hands is an introduction to Judaism
written by an Arab.
Last month, the Kurdistan Regional Government's
Ministry of Religious Affairs began requiring its 19
campuses, from grade school to college, to broaden
their curriculums by including courses on
comparative religion that better expose students to
other religious thought, including Christianity and
in some cases Judaism.
"We're trying to reach the point where all the
religions can find common ground. We are not
interested in talking about the points of
disagreement," said Mahmoud, an instructor at the
College of Kurdistan in Sulaimaniyah. www.ekurd.net |
Fadel Mahmoud, an instructor at the College of
Kurdistan, holds a textbook in comparative religion
focusing on Judaism. Last month, the Ministry of
Religious Affairs began requiring its 19 campuses,
from grade school to college, to broaden its
curriculum by including courses on comparative
religion that better expose students to other
religious thought, including Christianity -- and in
some cases Judaism. |
A decade ago, the
government of the semiautonomous Kurdistan region
shut down the religious madrasas, or schools, run by
mosques amid unsettling signs that imams, some from
outside the region, were fomenting a brand of Islam
that threatened to undo the fragile peace that
reigned here after a 1991 U.S.-backed uprising
against Saddam Hussein .
Madrasas in Afghanistan and Pakistan that preach a
radical form of Islam have been a huge concern to
the United States , which has accused some of
stoking anti-Americanism among the poor, who attend
for a free education.
"We the Kurdish people, we believe in a peaceful
kind of religion. We want to live in peace. We are
not going to build a foundation for terrorists,"
said Sheik Mohamed, the region's minister of
religious affairs.
Mohamed said the ministry's introduction of a
comparative-religion class was intended to raise
broader awareness of the other religions practiced
by Kurdistan's ethnic minorities, which account for
about 3 percent of the region's roughly 5 million
people.
"Islam obligates Muslims to respect other
religions," said Najim al Dine Kader Raheem , 47,
who's studying at the College of Kurdistan so that
he can lead his own mosque one day. "All of the
prophets come from the same place— ours is Arab— and
we believe in the same God."
Teaching about Jews in a predominantly Muslim
country has its risks, conceded Araz Najmaddin
Abdulla, the general director of curriculum for the
regional Ministry of Education , which runs the
public school system.
A committee formed by the ministry is debating how
far schools should go in teaching about other
religions, Abdulla said.
"There are people who will probably say, 'No, no,
no.' Don't forget that this is still a Muslim area.
Right now, it's still just an idea," he said.
Even Abdulla is of two minds, praising the plan's
inclusiveness— "We don't want people to forget there
are other religions"-- but retreating from the idea
of teaching about Judaism. www.ekurd.net
"It is not me who is proposing it," he said.
Mc.Clatchy.Newspapers
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