CAIRO, 8 July 2003 — Since mid-June, six-year-old Mayar has been a regular at Al-Seddiq Mosque, just like 30 other children her age who are using their two-month summer vacation to receive religious instruction.
“I would like my daughter to become familiar with the mosque, to find it normal to spend time there,” explained her mother Iman who declined to give her family name. During the academic year, the vivacious girl with dark brown hair attends a school run by Al-Azhar, the highest institute of learning in Sunni Islam, and studies the Qur’an at home with a personal tutor.
Mayar belongs to a growing number of Egyptian children whose parents are sending them to summer school at mosques.
Demand is so strong for such summer courses that enrolment must be done “at least four months in advance,” according to a woman named Nevine, who hopes her son will benefit from the experience.
Most of the mosques in Cairo have adapted themselves to the trend by not only organizing Qur’anic classes but also hosting traditional summertime activities like drawing lessons, games and excursions. Wearing a traditional Islamic headscarf, but also make-up, Mayar’s mother Iman said tuition is free, but she pays 60 pounds per month ($10) into a Zakat fund, which is an Islamic tax for the poor.
“We are doing a service for our children, while doing a good deed” for society, according to a woman named Mona, whose son learn the Qur’an in an association she declined to name.
Many Egyptian associations conduct their activities without the required permission of the ministry of social affairs, and, as a result, constantly risk being shut down. “All my daughter’s friends who took part in sports or artistic activities last year are spending this summer taking Islamic education classes,” said Rania, a teacher.
“People were seized with panic amid the threats of education reform under US pressure,” she said.
Last December, US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced the US-Middle East Partnership Initiative, which called for educational, political and economic reform in Arab countries. “We will work with parents and educators to strengthen local and parental oversight of school systems,” Powell said, in words interpreted here as an offensive against the teaching of Islam in the schools. On several occasions, Egyptian Education Minister Hussein Bahaeddin has publicly denied Egypt was embarking on a US-inspired reform of the education system.
Egyptian newspapers have run stories that religious education was the main target of the reform.
Meanwhile, in response to a surge in private mosques nationwide, the Minister of Religious Affairs, Hamdi Zakzuk, last week announced a plan to improve the 71,800 mosques under his ministry’s authority. The plan includes the creation of Qur’anic studies departments within those government mosques.