EGYPT: School curricula inciting extremism to be changed

Egyptian Education Minister Ahmed Zaki Badr has announced that certain Islamic religious teachings, which in some schools have inspired extremism, will be modified in the 2010-2011 school year.

"We have taken this step after we received complaints of deficiencies in religious curriculum taught in schools, as some of them incited extremism and violence," Minister Badr told reporters Monday. "Islam is a religion of forgiveness and love, and its curriculum should not include anything that could be misinterpreted to hate or violence."

In a press conference joined by Egypt's Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, the minister said that all changes will be approved and submitted in accordance between the Ministry of Education and Dar Al Ifta. Badr added that Christian Coptic curricula will by reviewed by Pope Shenouda III of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, who will add his recommendations if they require similar altercations.

LEBANON: Professor condemned for scholarly work with Israeli counterparts

A politically charged uproar has erupted on the campus of a leafy university over the academic collaboration between a local Arab professor and two Israeli counterparts. 

In a town hall at the American University of Beirut  earlier this month, nearly 300 in the crowd castigated Sari Hanafi, a scholar and Palestinian activist, for his role as co-editor of the book, "The Power of Inclusive Exclusion: Anatomy of Israeli Rule in the Occupied Palestinian Territories." 

Hanafi worked on the book with two Israeli scholars from Tel Aviv University, Adi Ophir and Michal Givoni, both of whom publicly oppose the Israeli military presence in the West Bank.

Lebanese law forbids contact between its nationals and Israel. The two countries remain technically at war. There's also an ongoing effort to isolate Israel called the Palestinian Academic Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which many AUB students and faculty support.

“This open collaboration between an Israeli academic and an AUB academic is unprecedented in my 50 years of service at this university," said Tarif Khalidi, professor of Arab and Middle Eastern studies at AUB, who addressed the audience at the March 8 meeting. "I say 'open' because God knows what might be happening under the table. This is especially disturbing in a country like Lebanon, which is still in a state of war with Israel."

LEBANON: Experts argue against 'clash of civilizations' at university forum

 The clash of civilizations between the Islamic world and the West isn’t over -- it never began, according to a group of top-notch scholars gathered in Beirut last week.

The scholars from around the world convened at the American University of Beirut to discuss the future of engagement between the Islamic world and the West in a forum sponsored by the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center.

“It’s more appropriate to talk about a clash of ignorances,” said Ali Asani of Harvard University. “People tend to paint each other with one color, with one brush stroke, as simplistic caricatures in utter humiliation.”

EGYPT: Moderate cleric the front-runner in race to take over powerful Sunni Muslim post

A moderate cleric is in line to assume a powerful post in the Sunni Muslim world.

The sudden death of Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the top cleric at Al Azhar in Cairo, on Wednesday has prompted instant speculation on who will succeed him as head of the world's most influential Sunni Muslim institution.

Tantawi died of a heart attack at age 81 while on a short visit to Saudi Arabia, and Al Azhar insiders have suggested a number of clerics that might well fill the void left by his departure.

Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, one of the main candidates in the running to land the top post, has gained a reputation of combining a powerful personality and firm stands with moderate opinions and calls for integrating Islam with liberal democracy.

IRAN: U.S.-Iranian relations seen through the prism of high school textbooks

 

In 11th grade history classes, Iranian high school students are required to read a textbook that devotes 100 pages to the history between the United States and Iran, citing 32 different sources painstakingly footnoted.

American high school history classes, by contrast, devote little if anything to the history of Iran, said Mohammad Marandi (above center), the head of North American studies at Tehran University, who was in Beirut recently for a conference. 

"History textbooks in the United States are very problematic when it comes to Iran and I would assume that the same is true with other regions of the world where the United States has issues," Marandi told a small crowd of scholars gathered from around the world at American University of Beirut.

IRAN: Intelligence Ministry blacklists Yale and dozens of other Western institutions

Yale University is among 60 "subversive" international organizations stirring up Iran's political discord as part of a plot backed by the United States, Britain and Israel to undermine the Islamic Republic, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security said today, according to the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency and the official Islamic Republic News Agency (in Persian). 

The Ivy League school joins the ranks of news organizations such as the Persian-language Voice of America and BBC Persian as well as Beltway think tanks such as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that have been accused of being part of a "soft war" waged against Iran by its enemies.  

The reports quoted a deputy minister of intelligence for international affairs but cited no name. At a news conference, he reportedly said Iranians should have no contact with such organizations.

"Having any relation, signing any contract with them or receiving any facilities from individuals or legal entities affiliated to those institutions and foundations are illegal and forbidden," he reportedly said. "Similarly it is illegal for political movements, groups and parties to receive any cash and non-cash assistance" from the organizations.

MIDDLE EAST: Will Arabic domain names help censorship, create 'cyber-ghettos'?

Back in October, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, began processing requests for domain names in non-Latin scripts such as Arabic.

In theory, this lowers the barrier for lower-income Arabic-speakers who are unfamiliar with the Latin alphabet to get online.

But for now, at least, registration is limited to official government domains, sparking fears of increased censorship and online "ghettoization."

Egypt, which was among the first Arab countries to apply for a domain names with Arabic letters, is ranked by Global Voices as one of the most repressive countries for bloggers.

Most experts agree that Arabic domain names will not enhance the government's ability to block specific websites. 

But once Egypt is granted its own domain name, local sites that wish to register with the official domain must approach the government authority, which could reject an application from say, an opposition newspaper.

"It's likely that Tunisia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain will strictly limit which sites can be registered in their domain," Jillian York, the project coordinator of the OpenNet Initiative at Harvard University, wrote in an e-mail to The Times.

"Other countries, such as Libya, ... could see it as a financial opportunity," she added.

The popular URL shortening sites bit.ly and ow.ly are registered in Libya.

MIDDLE EAST: Women's status up in Saudi Arabia, down in Syria, says study

The subject of women's rights in the Middle East is contentious. Sensational media coverage of honor killings and child brides equates religious conservatism with gender inequality, incensing Western feminists on the one hand and provoking regional backlashes on the other.

The reality is far more nuanced, according to the the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report released in late October by the World Economic Forum, which ranks countries based on women's economic participation, educational attainment, health and political empowerment.

In Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar -- socially conservative Persian Gulf countries that all rely on some form of Sharia Islamic law -- more women than men enroll in higher education, although they have yet to be fully incorporated into the workforce. 

Syria, on the other hand, which is ruled by a nominally secular regime, has slid in the rankings for the last three years. 

Iran scores low in the fields of economic, educational and health equality, but performs relatively well on political empowerment. 

Saudi Arabia and Egypt still hover near the bottom of the list, but have improved steadily since 2006. 

Yemen remained the lowest-ranked country in the world for the fourth year in a row.

IRAN: Scholarship honoring slain protester Neda Agha-Soltan irks Iranian officials

Iranian officials are up in arms over a decision by The Queen's College at the University of Oxford in Britain to establish a scholarship fund in memory of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 27-year-old Iranian woman whose videotaped June 20 death at the hands of an unknown gunman made her an international symbol of Iran's opposition movement. 

Iran's Embassy in Britain formally condemned the decision.  In a letter to the school's chancellor, the embassy called it a ploy to attract students. 

"It was a politically-motivated move," said the letter, cited in an article on the website of Iran's Press TV. "It seems that Oxford University is involved in a criminal case, which is still under investigation by the Iranian police."

Iranian officials have suggested her death was caused by foreign operatives seeking to sully the image of the Islamic Republic.