By Brian Murphy
Associated Press Nov. 28, 05

Editor's note: This is another story in an occasional series examining the fault lines within Islam between the forces of moderation and extremism.

Page after page, the self-appointed hate hunters underline passages in Pakistani school books. They flag hard-edged Muslim views toward other faiths such as describing past efforts by Hindus and Christians to "erase" Muslims. Or note sections that speak of martyrdom, and the duty to battle perceived religious enemies.

"We are fighting for the future of Islam. Children are sometimes being force-fed a diet of hate, anger and intolerance," said Ahmad Salim, leader of a campaign to push Pakistan's education establishment to remove what activists consider extreme language and images from the curriculum.

Salim's group, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, issued a report two years ago calling for broad revisions. Next month, it plans to release an updated review of all Pakistan's text books that reprimands authorities for failing to make serious changes.

It will be the latest example of widening appeals for textbook reform across the Islamic world. Barely a whisper just a few years ago, the demands have begun to draw attention at the highest levels. Educators and activists argue that current battles against Islamic extremism are only superficial without deep revisions of school books - similar to efforts to purge Balkan lessons of ethnic slurs following the wars of the 1990s.

"Schools can be breeding grounds for the future Islamic radicals or they can be beacons of hope for the faith," said Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani human rights leader who serves as the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. "Hard choices must be made."

Rewriting the lessons

In Jordan - the target of triple suicide blasts Nov. 9 claimed by al-Qaida - another overhaul is expected in next year's textbooks in a process that includes making clear distinctions between terrorism and what that nation sees as legitimate struggles, such as the Palestinian intefadah, or uprising. Iraq's post-Saddam school books have dropped their old suspicions of non-Arabs. Even Saudi Arabia has started to rewrite its highly conservative lessons after worries they were encouraging homegrown radicals.

Theologian Reza Aslan, in the latest Harvard Divinity Bulletin, calls it another front in an "Islamic Reformation" trying to break prejudices and insecurities about interaction with the wider world.

But school reforms often pose special complications. They must pass through layers of old guard clerics, entrenched political forces and other self-proclaimed guardians who consider revamping school books a humiliating capitulation to the West or a corruption of Islamic ideals.

Much of the concern among reformers is how students learn about jihad - a concept that encompasses all acts on behalf of Islam. It's clear the phrases in some textbooks pay homage - directly or indirectly - to its violent strains.

"Recognize the importance of jihad in every sphere of life," say the curriculum guidelines for Pakistan's elementary schools. Critics claim the message is often interpreted in malignant ways: strong denunciations of Pakistan's historical Hindu rivals in India or sympathy for Islamic guerrillas in Kashmir and elsewhere.

Pakistan's pro-Western president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, also blamed textbooks for fanning tensions between the majority Sunni branch of Islam and Shiites, who are concentrated in Iran and Iraq. Hundreds have died in sectarian clashes in Pakistan in recent years.

Education must reclaim "the real values of Islam," Musharraf said before the start of the current school year.

But defining these values comes in many forms.

In the Palestinian seventh grade Arabic language book, a 1930s protest poem called "The Martyr" includes the lines: "And the flow of blood gladdens my soul. ... And who asks for a noble death, here it is."

The Palestinian 11th grade "Islamic Culture" book has dozens of appeals for Islamic solidarity to confront "enemies" such as Israel, its allies and Western culture. "The Islamic nation needs to spread the spirit of jihad and the love of self-sacrifice (martyrdom) among its sons," reads one passage.

Fifth graders read: "The martyrs kiss it (the Palestinian flag) with their blood."

Nearly every section of the Palestinian textbooks touches on the intefadah. "Peace with Israel is not mentioned at all," according to a report by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, an Israeli-American group that examines school books throughout the Middle East.

The 10th grade health book, for example, includes an exercise to describe the response to a Palestinian hospital's call for blood following a shelling.

"There is an incredible glorification of jihad (as holy war) throughout the entire Palestinian school curriculum," said Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, a Jerusalem-based group that monitors Palestinian broadcasts and publications.

9/11 and the pressure for change

Israeli textbooks have undergone extensive reforms in the past decade to remove the most overt anti-Arab bias, but Arabs are still widely portrayed as opposed to gestures for peace. Meanwhile, books used by Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jews often give negative impressions of Arabs as shifty and violent.

In Saudi Arabia - the guardian of Islam's holiest sites - textbooks reflect the kingdom's two main pillars: commitment to spread Islam and to follow its austere interpretation of the faith, known as Wahhabism. This puritanical brand of Islam has provided theological footing for the faith's most extreme edges, including al-Qaida and other terrorist cells. The Saudi lessons also spill far beyond its borders since the government funds hundreds of schools around the world.

The Saudi school books have been modified in the past two years to soften the descriptions of non-Muslims, other cultures and different elements in Islam such as the Shiites.

Pressure for change came from two directions. The West, led by the United States, began serious demands for textbook reforms after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. But the overseers of Saudi education - heavily influenced by Wahhabi clerics and scholars - got serious about changes only after the nation's royal leaders stepped in.

Muslim militants, apparently inspired by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, launched attacks on Saudi soil in May 2003 and rattled the kingdom's pro-Western leaders. In a speech last year, then Saudi education minister, Mohammed al-Rasheed, told teachers and administrators to "stay away from extremism and fanaticism."

"They took out the worst of the worst from the texts," said Eleanor Doumato, a visiting professor at Brown University professor and author of an upcoming book examining public school books in 10 Muslim countries. She also noted that Saudi Arabia has introduced new courses, including civics lessons that encourage acts such as community service.

A recent U.S. State Department report on global religious freedom noted Saudi Arabia has "removed some disparaging references to other religious traditions" from school books, but the kingdom was still listed among the most restrictive religious settings.

The Saudi curriculum frames the world along rigid lines.

Religious studies note Islam's historical bonds with Christianity and Judaism, but declare that only Muslims practice the true faith and "other religions destroy their followers." Saudi seventh graders also read that Judaism is a "corrupted religion."

Lessons portray the Muslim world as under constant threat. In ninth grade, geography studies describe centuries of "malice and hatred" toward Muslims, from the Crusades to contemporary conflicts in Kashmir, Chechnya and the intefadah.

"The martyr is the most revered one by God's side," reads the ninth grade Arabic language book

Such phrases were taught in Saudi classes as recently as the 2003-04 school years, according to international monitors. It's unclear whether they will be removed in the ongoing revisions.

"The recent changes in the Saudi textbooks do not offer any real improvement in the level of hatred that the school children are taught," said Logan Barclift, an analyst at the Institute for Gulf Affairs, a Washington-based group that monitors politics and education in the Gulf. "As long as this continues, it will be much harder for a more tolerant view of Islam to take hold in the Arab world."

But major changes are not expected. Saudi education is directed by some of the most conservative forces in the kingdom. One petition, signed by some judges and clerics last year, denounced the reforms as American pressure and aimed to take "the kingdom along the path of infidels."

'Blackmail by the West'

A similar confrontation took place in Kuwait, a solid U.S.-ally that fears domestic radicals could gain strength.

An overhaul of Kuwait's textbooks began last year to tone down references to violent jihad and remove direct condemnations of non-Muslims. Some parliament members denounced the changes as "blackmail" by the West.

The revised texts now note all religions "hate brutality." But the books draw powerful distinctions.

As early as second grade, students are told that "Islam is the only religion that leads to happiness in this world and the afterlife." In the seventh grade, defense of the faith is cast in stark terms.

"Son," a passage reads, "you have to prepare for victory by strengthening your faith ... and to take matters seriously and prepare yourself by training on weapons and marksmanship."

The text ends with a warning: "Your enemies are waiting to attack you, your people and your family. Start taking care now." It does not, however, name the foes.

That's not the case in Kuwait's sixth grade book, "The Arab Nation," in the section on Israel. It describes Zionism as a "political apartheid movement that hides behind religion and that is based on violence, terrorism and expansionism."

But some researchers say that concentrating on the views of jihad and martyrdom gives only a narrow portrait of education.

"There's always an impulse to look at what's wrong with these textbooks," said Brown professor Doumato. "There are texts - Egypt, Turkey and Oman, for example - that bend over backward to show tolerance. And this isn't just post-9/11. It was going on years before."

Jordan has conducted one of the most sweeping revisions of its school books, which were also used by Palestinian children until the 1990s and had contained some of the most direct praise for martyrdom on behalf of Islam.

The current eighth grade religion text asks the class to discuss how "racism, sectarianism or regionalism ... become the source of conflict." It encourages students to "renounce conflicts and their sources through dialogue and discussion."

But the books also include a sura, or chapter, from the Quran that says Jews and followers of polytheistic faiths have the most "enmity" toward Muslims, while Christians are "the nearest in friendship."

In June, Jordan's King Abdullah, whose late father signed a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, convened a gathering of prominent Islamic clerics who condemned violence in the name of Islam.

"We want to instill in (students) positive values of accepting the 'other' and coexisting with other societies," said Jordan's education minister, Khaled Touqan. "It's true that in today's world, the reality may be far off."

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad in Islamabad, Diana Elias in Kuwait City and Jamal Halaby in Amman contributed to this report.

Reforming Islam - Islamic leaders want violent references out of textbooks

A look at school textbook reform in parts of the Islamic world and elsewhere.

PAKISTAN:

A 2003 study by an independent watchdog group listed dozens of examples in textbooks that it said denigrated non-Muslims - particularly Hindus in neighboring India - and left students receptive to "sectarianism and religious intolerance." Pakistani officials have since streamlined portions of the Islamic education material and removed some of harshest phrases, but reforms have been limited, activists claim. An updated report by the monitoring group is expected in December.

EGYPT:

Education minister Kamel Bahaeddin promised last year to remove textbook phrases deemed intolerant or militant. He also pledged to dismiss any teacher encouraging extremist views. Critics say the curriculum has seen few significant changes, including continued use of Quranic references to justify violence against "infidels." But the books also point out the historic bonds between Islam, Christianity and Judaism and pay special attention to Coptic Christians, who comprise about 10 percent of the population. All proposed reforms must be cleared by clerics at Al-Azhar University, the center of Sunni Muslim scholarship, which greatly influences Egyptian education.

IRAQ:

The new textbooks stress democracy as the foundation of civil society and remove the Saddam-era glorification of Iraq as the leading light of pan-Arab nationalism. Also presented is a more balanced view of the 1980-88 war with Iran and the later confrontations, including Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, that led to military showdowns with the West and Arab allies, according to the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

GULF STATES:

The Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation group led by heavyweight Saudi Arabia, has been gradually cutting references that could be considered as slurs against non-Muslims or encouraging extremism. Some members, such as Kuwait, have moved faster with the reforms than other GCC states. The Saudi Education Ministry quoted Abdulilah Al-Mosarraf, director of planning and evaluation at the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States, as saying the revisions are "intended to meet the challenges of the new world order and (are) unrelated to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

SYRIA:

Christians and Jews are often described as sharing religious foundations with Islam. Israel and Israeli Jews, however, are dealt with harshly in the lessons. Israel is described as a country run by "Zionist gangs which threaten our very existence" by occupying the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967. "It is therefore the duty of every Muslim to unite in one rank to take back his land and honor by every means possible," said a ninth-grade text, according to a report by Joshua Landis, a University of Oklahoma history professor who has conducted extensive studies of Syrian education.

ISRAEL:

Israeli school books have undergone sweeping revisions since the 1990s to remove anti-Arab bias and present a more balanced view of Palestinian views and aspirations. But Palestinians are still generally portrayed as unwilling to make the concessions needed for peace. Palestinians also claim that Israeli curriculum ignores Palestinian history before the arrival of the first Jewish immigrants in present-day Israel. School books used by ultra-Orthodox groups often reinforce negative stereotypes about Arabs, according to independent monitors. One story tells of God offering the Commandments to Arabs, but they reject them because of the injunction against stealing. "We do not want the Torah," the story goes. "We are used to stealing things from other people."

UNITED STATES:

American Muslims started building Islamic schools in the 1970s to preserve religious practices and cultural identity. Several of the estimated 400 full-time Muslims schools have been led by teachers from other countries. Some liberal parents have expressed concern that schools could promote traditions that clash with a democratic society, such as relegating women to subordinate roles. The debate has taken on additional urgency as major U.S. Muslim organizations seek to protect young Muslims from any radical interpretations of their faith.