Jordan to educate schoolchildren about terrorism

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=377312&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

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"Jordan is revamping school curricula for next year to help children distinguish between "terrorism" and legitimate resistance, an education official said on Monday.

The announcement came a day after Kuwait said it was revising textbooks used in state schools to remove references that could encourage religious extremism.

That decision followed an agreement between Gulf states to combat the roots of Islamic militancy in a region that has suffered a spate of attacks believed to be linked to Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida network.

Fawaz Jaradat, head of textbooks and curricula at the Education Ministry, said Jordan was working with the UN cultural agency UNESCO to introduce human rights and peace concepts into schools to promote tolerance based on Islamic teachings, Arab-Islamic heritage and international law."

in a positive direction are welcome. The influence of teachers, family and other role models is of greater importance in education, however, than text books alone.

"Most Jordanians view the Palestinian uprising for a state as legitimate resistance against Israeli occupation."
I don't imagine zionists will be pleased with the
new curriculum.

opposed to blowing up school buses...

I have it on good authority that the "zionists" are pleased with any steps taken toward "introducing human rights and peace concepts into schools to promote tolerance"...

they are a bit unpleased about this though -

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1023716554752

Virulent anti-Semitism, calls for Jihad and support for the elimination of Israel are entrenched in every level of Syria's school system, according to a study released by B'nai Brith International of 68 Syrian school textbooks spanning grades 1-12.

Conducted by the New York-based Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, the 30-page study titled, "Jihad, Jews and Anti-Semitism in Syrian School Texts," found that Syrian children are taught to hate Jews and Israel with such ferocity that genuine reconciliation between the two peoples appears unlikely in the near future.

...

Among the many examples of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment provided in the study, which looked at government-funded texts only, is an excerpt from a 10th grade social studies text that describes Zionism as "a racist-imperialist-colonialist-aggressive-expansionist political movement." In an 11th grade reader, Zionism is termed the "new Nazism" and a "model of racist evil."

Eighth-graders are taught that, "It is known that the Jews of today do not have any connection to Palestine," and sixth-graders learn that "The Prophet knew about the treacherous intention harbored in the Jews' souls."
By age 15, Syrian children are read in their Islamic studies textbooks that Jews deserve to be liquidated: "Co-existence with them or having them as neighbors, is an enormous danger that threatens Islamic and Arab existence with destruction and extinction Their criminal intention should be turned against them by way of their elimination."

Calls for "martyrdom" and terrorism are also tracked in the study. An Islamic studies text for grade-5 students describes praises Palestinian youth for "rushing towards death, trying to reach it ahead of one another," and 6th-graders learn: "There is neither excuse nor forgiveness for the one who refrains from Jihad for the cause of God, for the purification of Palestine of the Jews."

...

that Israeli kids learn only positive things about Palestinians and are not subjected to any kind of hatred toqards Palestinians/Arabs/Muslims...

Sooner or later, people are going to have to stop pointing to the other's bad behavior to gloss over their own. Being a hard old pagan it is not my habit much to quote scripture, but Ezekiel's "I say to you, each man shall die for his own sin!" has some aptness here.

Calls for extermination, and rooting of present hatreds in ancient sacred texts, have no place in schoolbooks anywhere: they must operate to warp the minds of children, and to press them into a conflict that might readily be resolved without such extraordinary beliefs.

If each side, rather than using bad behavior by the other to excuse its own, sought to shame the other by contrast with its own good behavior, this situation could be quickly transformed for the better, profoundly.

It's just I have a problem at pointing and singling out one side only as though the other is not guilty of many sins, including promoting religious hatred (in Israel) and other kinds of bigotry towards Palestinians...

...to be sure. It is the truth that Israeli school children are not taught to hate Arab neighbors.

The hatred demonstrated toward Israelis is enough of an education.

it isn't only the Israeli Army that teaches hatred of Arabs and peace activists?

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would have been so happy to hear this.

http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/000152.html

kids, women and other non combatants killed by the IDF Don? What would they think?

The Jordanians didn't seem to view "Palestinian uprising for a state as legitimate resistance" that well when the Palestinian uprising was against them.

Or did you forget the greatest killer of Palestinians in their short history was the Jordanian Army in the "Black September" uprising?

Define "zionist" for me.

The Jordanian view can be enlightened through education. That is the purpose of the policy, isn't it? Are suicide attacks legitimate resistance? Will the UNESCO people endorse that? Of course, the answer is no.

Edit: UN agency name

Beginning with September 1970.

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the "victim" has offered 5 peace plans from 1948 to 1994. Only one, Oslo, was accepted and ratified by the Palestinian side, only to be met with "resistance". Each peace plan since then has met with more "resistance". The more autonomy they get, the greater the terrorist organizations become. The latest invention: mass slaughter with suicide bomber homicide attacks on innocent men, women and children, infants and elderly people. Of course, "the jewish people suffered only 60 years ago."

The Kuwaiti Government has decided to revise the school curriculum and text books to promote religious tolerance.

...

"Books should not encourage pupils to hate other people and religions," he told a Kuwaiti newspaper.

Last week Gulf states agreed on educational reform as a way to combat religious extremism among Muslims.

...

The Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, last week concluded their two-day annual summit by agreeing to combat the roots of Islamic militancy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3354315.stm