Egypt’s Ministry of Education should work to rid schools of religious extremism: MP

Egypt’s Ministry of Education should work to rid schools of religious extremism: MP

In a meeting held by the Egyptian parliament's defence and national security committee this week, MP Freddy El-Baiadi said the Ministry of Education has a lot of work to do to rid school books and lessons from extremist and radical thought.

"Education is a national security issue, and so the Ministry of Education should take greater steps to get rid of school books that spread extremist and radical thoughts," said El-Baiadi, arguing that "when the Muslim Brotherhood was in power in Egypt (2012-2013), it tried its best to spread its extremist ideology among schools and teachers."

"This Brotherhood ideology still exists and it is now up to the Ministry of Education to move to rid school books from this extremist ideology," said El-Baiadi.

El-Baiadi also said that history books in Egypt's in schools still ignore the country's Coptic era.

"This is a very regrettable example of religious intolerance and bias, as this era includes a lot of Coptic characters and figures who contributed a lot to Egypt's history and national life," said El-Baiadi.

El-Baiadi also argued that reform of religious discourse should begin in schools.

"In this respect, I propose that Muslim and Christian students attend lessons that teach