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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Telling our story
By Nadia Abou El-Magd
Are Egyptian children to see their own history through American, pro-Zionist eyes? A US children's encyclopedia, which has recently been translated into Arabic and distributed in Egypt, would have it so. The book on Egypt, entitled The Story of Egypt, abounds with material which disparages almost everything Egyptians hold dear. Thus, a chapter entitled The Republic describes Egypt's national resistance to the British occupation before the 1952 revolution as "demagoguery." In another chapter, called Egypt in a State of War, the book says that in 1973, "Egyptian troops broke into Israeli forces positions on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish Calendar. They took the Jews, who were not ready, by surprise." The book fails to mention that Israel was occupying Egyptian land (the Sinai peninsula), as well as Palestinian, Jordanian and Syrian soil. Neither does it say that Egyptian forces were fighting in the fasting month of Ramadan.
"Egypt's Story is written from a purely American perspective and is full of value judgments. The book ignores important facts and does not take into account the sentiments of Muslims," Hussein Ahmed Amin, a former Egyptian diplomat and a prominent writer, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Amin was asked by Anas El-Fiqi, director of the Egyptian Cultural Group which published the book, to review its historical content. The 160-page book, which covers Egypt's history from the Pharaohs until the present, is part of Child Craft Encyclopedia. According to original plans, the book was to be distributed to primary schools and public libraries. The encyclopedia, however, was rejected by the Education Ministry for being full of political and historical errors and omissions.
Prominent Columnist Salama Ahmed Salama was the first to criticise this controversial book in his daily column in Al-Ahram. He said a colleague bought the 16-book series, entitled Al-Bab Al-Maftuh or Open Door, for his children and, when he skimmed through Egypt's Story, he found that "the book is full of historical mistakes, information that contradicts reality and Western views on our national issues."
An example cited in Salama's column is that, in a chapter entitled The coming of Islam, the book says that Caliph Abu Bakr was responsible for compiling the Qur'an. It was, in fact, Caliph Othman who did so.
Also, in a chapter dealing with the Crusades, the book says that the Vatican Pope called for the Crusades to be launched because "when the Seljuk Turks -- and they were some vulgar Muslims who came from Central Asia -- seized Syria and Lebanon, they prevented Christian pilgrims from entering Palestine and threatened to kill anyone who takes the risk."
A specialist in Egyptian history, Amin said he reviewed the Education Ministry's reservations and corrected the book's historical mistakes. He said the old edition should be withdrawn from the market and replaced by the new, which was accepted by the ministry. According to Salama, the old, as well as the new encyclopedia, are sold on the market for LE1,000.
A few months ago, another children's encyclopedia was withdrawn from the market and a revised edition re-published. The encyclopedia, which came out last year, was published as part of the Reading for All programme. It came under fire for stating that "Jerusalem is the official capital of Israel" and that the Aswan High Dam is "a national catastrophe." This encyclopedia, like the Open Door, was a joint undertaking by the Ministry of Culture, the World Book International editorial staff and the Egyptian Cultural Group.
Samir Sarhan, the encyclopedia's editor and head of the General Egyptian Book Organisation, had asked Amin to review its content. "Sarhan asked me to write 330 Arab and Islamic entries to replace some of the unacceptable material," Amin told the Weekly. "Those who translated the two encyclopedias did not pay any attention to the content of what they translated."
In a letter sent to Salama, El-Fiqi suggested "we should all coordinate to establish an Arab think tank and an Arab database, so there would be no need to translate foreign books."
