KUWAIT CITY, 28 December 2003 — Specialist committees here are rewriting school textbooks in a bid to remove any reference that could be misinterpreted as promoting terror and fanaticism.
“Committees have completed their work (to revise textbooks). New books are being written, taking into account reviewing certain concepts ... because there are new changes like terrorism,” Rasheed Al-Hamad told Al-Rai Al-Aam newspaper. “Our books should take into account ... that what we present of Qur’anic verses, Prophet’s sayings, literature pieces and others should not make the young generation think in a fanatical way, which leads them to take aggressive initiatives.
“They (the books) should not encourage them to hate other people and religions. If these aspects are present (in the current books) we must get rid of them,” Al-Hamad told the Arabic newspaper.
MP Wants Music Banned in Schools
An Islamist lawmaker has said he was working with other MPs to ban music education at schools because it was “anti-Islamic and a waste of time.”
MP Daifallah Buramia Al-Mutairi, in a statement received yesterday by the AFP news agency, said he could submit such a proposal to Parliament, which is due to start a debate on the country’s education policies next week. “Music lessons use up the students’ time without any benefit. Parents do not send their children to learn how to play music,” the MP said.
