Education
in combating extremism and terrorism symposium held in the Emirates Centre for
Strategic Studies and Research.
Ministers
of Education: UAE set an anti-terrorism inspiring example of “An education that
meets the requirements of the age”
In the
presence of His Excellency Dr. Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of
Education, His Excellency Dr. Tarek Shawki, Minister of Education and Technical
Education in the Arab Republic of Egypt, His Excellency Dr. Majid bin Ali
Al-Nuaimi, Minister of Education, Chairman of the Higher Education Council in
the Kingdom of Bahrain and a group of intellectuals and educational issues relevant parties,
Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research held “Education in combating
extremism and terrorism symposium” yesterday at Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al
Nahyan Hall.
The
symposium started with a welcoming speech from His Excellency Dr. Jamal Sanad
Al Swuaidi, Director General of the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and
Research (ECSSR), where he stressed the importance of the symposium in shedding
light on a vital and pressing topic which needs to be discussed based on the
quick developments and challenges witnessed by the Arab region and around the
whole world in the last few years. He said that this topic needs an intense,
serious and in depth discussion to keep abreast with the anti-terrorism and
anti-extremism international efforts. He referred to the fact that terrorism
and extremism became a world and crossing-borders threat and pointed that such
discussion will provide the educational system in the UAE and the whole region
with outputs that support the educational sector. He said that such efforts are
intended to make the educational sector an integral, vital and central part of
overcoming the extreme thinking and the scheming evil forces which do not stop
trying to penetrate the educational institutions and sputter their own toxic ideas
on our children’s minds and hearts.
Al
Swuaidi emphasized that the UAE and its sister states keen on combating
terrorism realized the catastrophic consequences resulted from the so-called
“Arab spring” in several countries of the Arab region. The UAE and its sister
states recognized early the attempts of seditive and misleading groups to
exploit education as a platform through which they can mess up the minds of
tomorrow's generations. These groups have started first with distorting the
teachings of Islam and then with implanting the seeds of their poisonous ideas
in a manner that aims at dragging our children and youth into the pools of
extremism and violence.
Al
Swuaidi added that pursuant to the UAE’s awareness of its being a double-edged
sword, the UAE tried to establish a minaret-like education system through which
it can spread awareness and to create an active and effective
instrument that can immunize our youths against destructive ideas, enhance
their sense of belonging and loyalty and instil their pride of their national
identity. He said that this major initiative is lunched under the directives of
His Highness Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and
Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces for enhancing the educational
operation with the “Moral education” subject. He stated that this initiative
had a great and effective role in the development of the educational system and
the creation of an early preventive system that protects our youths from
slipping into the horrors of extremism and terrorism. This presentation
enriched the Emirati experience and created a model to be followed in the
region.
After the welcoming speech, Dr.
Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi gave his foreword where he commended the
Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research for holding this symposium.
He thanked Dr. Jamal Sanad Al Swuaidi, Director General of the ECSSR for his
“relentless efforts in dealing with such key topic which attracted the local,
regional and international intense interest and appreciation”. Al Hammadi dealt
wit the importance of education in achieving the sustainable development and
combating terrorism and extremism. He said that it is established that the set
of moral values prevailing and ideas embedded in the educational system places
this society on the world map. He stated that no one can talk about deeply
rooted and sustainable-based progress, unless we have updated education that
combines the material aspects reflected in the modern sciences and knowledge
and value aspects represented by the quality of education.
His
Excellency underscored that terrorism is the result of intellectual extremism
which is the chief enemy of humanity. He referred to the necessity of having a
development- and education-based comprehensive treatment for such phenomenon,
stressing that education must be inventive and creative.
He
pointed out that the UAE was a pioneer in countering terrorist ideology through
education and alerting to the danger of infiltrating this ideology into the
educational system. He said that this is the stem from which the pioneering
initiative of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of teaching
moral education at schools originated. He referred to that this initiative aims
at instilling positive ethical values based on tolerance, moderation, openness
and coexistence.
Al
Hammadi stressed the importance of this symposium dealing with the role of
education in fighting terrorism, saying that it is an intellectual war at the
first place and explaining that this makes education a fertile land that allows
the forces of extremism to go through such war. He focused on that the
terrorist and extremist groups’ trials to penetrate and infiltrate the
educational field with various means are ongoing.
During
the symposium, he presented some of the terrible scenes which spread on the
social media websites and aroused controversy of the world public opinion,
particularly among those who are interested in the educational field. He showed
a clip where a child holds a knife, goes to slaughter his doll in a nervous and
hysterical manner and gives a promise about more killing until blood covers the
whole earth. He said that such disgusting scenes do no only stir horror, but
also pose several questions about what terrorism is and what the type,
intellectual, religious, political, economic and educational sources are, why
the mental as well as psychological structure of such bloody terrorists is
different and to what mind laundry operation they subject themselves.
HE said
that in certain eras of the history of humanity, the winds of terrorism and
extremism blew for political, ideological, doctrinal and economic reasons in
almost every society. However, the modern history has recently revealed that
religious terrorism has become severer after the brutal attack on the twin
towers on the 11th of September, 2011.
Al
Hammadi added that before these horrors, world witnessed the War in
Afghanistan, the emergence of Al Qaeda, US invasion of Iraq and Al Qaeda move
to Iraq. From the womb of the Afghan and Iraqi events, the giant of terrorism
was set free with the ISIS phenomenon led by the current Caliph, Abu Bakr
Al-Baghdadi. Al Hammadi explained that terrorism manifestations have become
very clear, stating that it is the result of the intellectual extremism which
is the principal enemy of humanity and of the doctrinal vain discourse and mono
and Unilateralism which push youths in particular into the caves of fanaticism,
hatred and cultural, religious and civilizational deterioration.
HE said
that terrorism creeps from one country to the other and from one continent to
the other; from Nice city in France to the Thames River in Britain, distant
Finland and even Barcelona where it has recently posed. Undoubtedly, the
manifestations are the same but the grounds may differ as they are correlated
with various social, economic, cultural and political factors. Such factors are
renewable and dominant in the societies where misery and ignorance dwell and
feed on corruption.
HE said “We
need to get rid of the resources of destructive thought that threats the
country and society. Therefore, it is highly important to identify, unmask,
neutralize and hold accountable those who performed and plan to perform such
terrorist actions against our country. In the light of the circumstances which
prevail the region and the whole world, terrorism is seen as a security,
intellectual and political challenge, the matter which requires the combination
of efforts of the various society institutions, including universities which
are deemed to be intellecual institutions and lighthouses that are capable of
playing a prominent role in fightingg terrorism and extremism and can spread the
values of tolerance, harmonization and constructive communication through the
curricula and conferences. HE said that the social institutions tend to qualify
and protect students against terrorism by presenting an educational discourse
that aims at building a comprehensive character and enhance the values of
citizenship, national identity and civilization values.
HE
finalized his speech with stating that the UAE educational system seeks to
deeply root the sense of national as well as global citizenship; to develop the
awareness of rights, duties and responsibilities and to broaden the knowledge
acquired from the local environemnt and society and their relationship with the
human community. Furthermore, the UAE educational system aims at encouraging
the sense of affiliation to the global society and improving the learners’ knowledge,
skills, values and orientations with the purpose of qualifying them to take
part in the development of our society peacefully and sustainably.
National
Council for Combating Terrorism
In the
second speech, His Excellency Dr. Tarek Shawki talked about the Egyptian
government efforts to promote the educational system in general. HE said that
the Egyptian government has recently outlined a multi-dimensional vision that
combines all the relevant institutions to dry out the material as well as
intellectual sources of terrorism and extremism, referring to the decree issued
by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to establish the “National Council to Combat
Terrorism and Extremism”.
His
Excellency highlighted the importance of cooperation among all of the Arab
societies’ institutions to spread mercy and acceptance of the other and discard
all forms of fanaticism and partisanship. He talked about the most prominent
features of the alternate educational system which the Ministry of Education is
devoted to carry out. He stated that the alternate educational system will be
initiated on September 2018, referring to that it aims at training the youth on
understanding the other and harmonizing the Egyptian identity and openness
towards the other.
His
Excellency pointed that all the celestial religions deny all forms of violence,
extremism and blood shedding. He referred to that ll divine laws agree
unanimously on a wide range of human values and principles, the most important
of which is the preservation of self and maintenance of certain values such as
justice, tolerance, avoidance of violence, acceptance of the other, kindness,
honesty, trust, loyalty, cooperation and discarding treachery or betrayal. He
also referred to the agreement of all the divine laws upon the repellion of
evil with what is better and love, pride and preservation of the homeland.
Dr.
Shawki added that terrorism is misleading. It does not differentiate between
the sons of the same nation. Neither does it discriminate between Muslims and Christians
nor between a mosque and a church. It only claims innocent people dreaming of a
brighter future. It killed our beloved ones and our kins leaving our hearts in
agony and our country in pain.
He
concluded with stating that he believes in that th Arab nation will be able to
overcome any obstacles and will have a brighter tomorrow full of success and
hope, however.
The land
of goodness and benevolence
In the
third speech, His Excellency Majid bin Ali Al-Nuaimi thanked Dr. Jamal Sanad Al
Suwaidi and "The UAE .. The land of goodness and benevolence, the country
of Zayed Al Khair." He said: "The faithful people of Bahrain send you
their acknowledgement, love and respect.” He introduced he Kingdom of Bahrain's
experience in combating terrorism through education. He spoke about four main
axes: a brief of the educational process in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the
terrorist attacks on education since the events of 2011, the experience of
upbringing to citizenship and human rights in the face of terrorist attacks and
the project of schools that support citizenship and human rights.
HE
presented scenes of the terrorist attacks on the educational sector since 2011,
stating that these attacks were directed to Bahrain’s achievements in this
field. He also expressed the efforts made by the state and society to deal with
this phenomenon, indicating the importance of the qualitative and quantitive
developments of the curricula to promote the academic thinking and instil the
values of work, diversity, difference, human rights and discarding all forms of
violence and extremism. He underscored the success stories written by the
Kingdom of Bahrain and acknowledged by several world organizations in this
field.
Al-Nuaimi
expressed that education is no longer remote from such acts of sabotage,
confirming that it has been a major target of such destructive acts and
foggiest notions.
Al-Nuaimi
cited some of the studies carried out by Al-Ittihad newspaper on terrorism,
concluding the most important topics that relate to the idea and the region
with its current situation. He stated that these studies are based on sound
vision for defeating the evil forces and blurry ideas. He said that Al-Ittihad
is a credible, widely read and highly commended newspaper. He pointed to the
volunteers who responded to the call of duty and proceeded with the 180-day
educational crisis which the Kingdom of Bahrain was able to overcome
successfully with the national support and sister countries’ assistance. He
said that the experience of the Kingdom of Bahrain was important and inspiring
indeed.
Role of
education in comating destructive thinking:
The
education in combatting extremism and terrorism symposium addressed to basic
axes: First, “the importance of education in combating extremism and terrorism”
which discussed the role performed by education in building open-minded
generations and educating mindful minds that can face the destructive thinking
emitted by the terrorist and extremist groups.
This
axes was dealt with by Maqsoud Kruse, the Executive Director of the Global
Counter-Terrorism Forum, Violent Extremism (HEDAYAH), who stressed that
countering extremism requires developing and fostering the “positive thinking”
culture, working out the values of tolerance and pluralism and establishing the
moderation principle, the role of women within the family and society and
enhancing the role of family upbringing and parental care.
Dr.
Ammar Ali Hassan, the Egyptian writer and expert in the political
sociology, indicated that education alone is not an ample weapon to defeat
terrorism, suggesting the importance of increasing the “religious content” in
the educational system and the necessity of realizing that education and
culture are inseparable. He also mentioned that it is crucial to revise not
only the curricula, but the teaching methodologies as well.
Both
participants in the symposium requested to correlate school to society, to
activate the school role in the protection of society, reconsider the curricula
and teaching methodologies from an open-minded perspective which is based on in
depth studies of the changes and developments encountered by society and on
giving the country interests and security the top priority.
Both
participants stressed the importance of developing an accurate and deep
understanding of the phenomenon of extremism and violence to be able to
crystallize an integrated strategy and project that aim at uprooting this
phenomenon because violence as an individual or social phenomenon is an
expression of a specific defect.
They
indicated that the various social institutions, including the educational
institutions, must be in charge of exerting the preventive efforts devoted to
deny the youth’s criminal will to practice violence and extremism. The
symposium was chaired by Jassim Al-Hosani from the ECSSR.
Maqsoud
discussed the reasons for the emergence of violence and extremism and the prevetive role of school in countering
terrorism, violence and extremism. He stated that extremism is committing
violence against innocent individuals or properties based on political or
ideological motivations. He emphasized that violence is a multi-dimensional
phenomenon and hence, it requires a multi-dimensional response, a diversity of
methodologies and a combination of efforts.
He referred
to the importance of the preventive educational approach in the framework of a
multi-dimensional strategy that allow student to develop educational skills
that help them to counter extremist ideas. He pointed out to “Abu Dhabi
Memorandum on Good Practices for Education and Countering Violent Extremism”,
stating that this initiative taken by HEDAYAH and the Global Counterterrorism
Forum (GCTF) draws certain guidelines for the politicians, educationalists and
world leaders concerning the role of education in countering violent extremism.
He also
stressed the importance of initiating interventions to combat violent extremism
through education as soon as possible. He explained that the school is the well
from which young people derive their social and cultural values. He said that
if school fails, society loses the second line of defense against crime,
highlighting the importance of the social prevention which takes the social and
economic factors that lead to the emergence of crime and addressing such factors
through learning and education.
Dr.
Ammar Ali Hassan spoke about the impact of school on resisting terrorism,
violence and extremism, wondering whether the current status of school enables
it to have an effective impact on building a peaceful and open-minded
generation that can filter thoughts. He also wondered whether school has the
capacity to perform the role assigned to it in eliminating the criminal will of
the members of society. He highlighted the close and essential relationship
between security and education, saying that the more noble moral values are
instilled in the members of society the more security, tranquility and
stability prevail society.
He
underscored the necessity of broadening dialogue and encouraging openness among
institutions based on the reconsideration of curricula and teaching
methodologies from a perspective that refrains from accepting every new
development and denying every old one with no further investigations.
Development
of curricula as a means to instill moderate thought
The
second axis “Development of curricula as a means to instill moderate thought”
stressed the importance of developing the curricula and of constantly
supporting them with materials that help to disseminate awareness. This is
meant to fill in the gaps through which the terrorist and extremist groups
creep towards the minds of young people. In this context, Dr. Khalifa Ali Al
Suwaidi, the academician and media man in the United Arab Emirates University,
stated that the problem lies in the existence of specific curriculum that
support extremism, referring to the importance of encouraging moderation
through the curricula as well. He said that it can be achieved through
correlating education and the national goals, including strengthening the sense
of affiliation and loyalty and converting the Islamic religion course into a
moral education course that is centered on implanting the seeds of moderation.
He stressed that citizenship and national education should not be confined to
one course and that curricula should generally focus on quality rather than
quantity. He also spoke about the role of the teacher, affirming that it is
important for anyone who wants to work as a teacher to have a teacher’s license
and that private schools should be supervised and monitored.
Dr.
Karima Al Mazrouei, acting Executive Director of the school educational sector
at Abu Dhabi Education Council, referred to how the extremist groups misused
the educational system by trying to attract followers of the loyal teachers and
to prepare curricula that support their ideologies. She pointed the importance
of making use of the best practices that proved to be successful in countering
extremism in other countries such as the supervision of the after-school
activities, development of social skills, preparation social interference
programs, redesign of courses and merging of interreligious dialogue.
They
discussed the role of education in combating violent extremism by adopting a
set of good practices on education and combating violent extremism that will
lay the foundations of training and implementation of new activities and events
so that countries take into account improving the existing educational programs
or developing new ones that help to control violent extremism.
They
demanded to deepen the concept of national loyalty, and to embed the national
education directly into all curricula so that it becomes a part of them, since
it is a behavior that must be related to all curricula. They stated that
teacher and school with its staff must be role models for students.
Al
Suwaidi said that the curriculum is the cornerstone of the educational process
through which the information is provided to the student, pointing out the
necessity of developing a strategic plan for the curriculum, stemming from the
changing needs of the society, so that students graduate with a power to see
through, criticize and do preferable selections in a manner that serves the
public interest.
He
referred to the desired role to be played by school in combating extremism. He
stated that education is an integrated process that depends on the interaction
and relationship between the student, curriculum, teacher and school
environment and that no progress could be attained without improving these
factors altogether.
Dr.
Karima Al Mazrouei said that discussing
the role of school in the face of the radical thought in isolation from the
development of the elements of the educational process, will have no
significant effect on it, emphasizing the importance of focusing on the
educational process main pillar, teacher. She asserted the importance of
abandoning the idea that the student is a mere recipient that has no role in
grasping and researching information, pointing that it makes students more apt
to be easily controlled by certain ideas, and more rigorous in applying such
ideas without thinking or discussing. She said that it makes students easy
catch for intellectual and practical ideologies, while they would not certainly
be so if they are involved in a participatory education.
07/09/2017