U.S. Copts Association

By Robeir al-Faris

A textbook used by the first-year students at Cairo University’s faculty of arts is the History of the Arab Islamic State , authored by none other than Mohamed Barakat al-Biali who heads the Islamic History Department at the same faculty.
In 308 large-size pages, the book tackles Islamic history from the Mohammedan [prophetic] mission until the fall of the Umayyad State, with the life of the Prophet Mohamed taking up 123 pages. Given that the book is a history textbook taught in a civil-not a religious-university, one would assume it would stick to historical facts. But this is far from the case; the book brims with material that lies strictly within the domain of faith. Christian students must acknowledge in the examinations that the Torah and the Bible currently in use are misquotations of previous versions that included prophesies of the coming of Mohamed and that have consequently been disfigured by ‘Zionists’, and that the only true religion before God is Islam.

Contradiction
Even though Biali contests the credibility of the current Bible, he quotes it to claim that it preached the coming of Mohamed, which has become a widely-held view among Muslims. He quotes Deuteronomy 18: 15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear” , and John 16: 7 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you”, as prophesies for Mohamed. He even uses the verse “For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” from Mathew 23 to the same effect. Biali also discusses such controversial and dogmatic issues as whether the son Abraham had intended to sacrifice was Ishmael—as Muslims believe—or Isaac, as Jews and Christians believe.
The author propagates the idea that the Islamic State which was born at the hands of Mohamed and his followers was an ideal State, since it abided by Islam’s principles and Islamic sharia . Remarkably, this is exactly the basis extremists build upon in their call for a religious State.
So this is History. And we used to think that History was all about incontestable facts, or at least that, if the facts were not clear, the study should include the different versions of the same story.

Approved
Watani talked the matter over with Atef al-Eraqi, professor of philosophy at the faculty of arts at Cairo University. At the outset Dr Eraqi said that matters of faith ought not to be tackled at all in any curriculum other than one concerned with religion. “I attended a conference on tolerance held by the late Pope John Paul II, where all the participants recommended respecting the tenets of faiths of all religions,” he said. “I don’t know to whose benefit is the spread of such fanatical concepts among students”
But how is a non-Muslim student required to answer a related question in the exam? Watani asked. Dr Eraqi said that, beliefs aside, a student ought to answer according to the textbook, unless his or her opinion was demanded.
Gehad Ouda, professor of political science at Helwan University and a member of the influential Policies Committee of the National Democratic Party, said a student may only express an opinion in an exam if the question requires him or her to ‘Explain’, ‘Assess’, or cite an opinion. Otherwise, he said, a student is required to answer according to the textbook even if it goes contrary to his or her belief.
The more important issue, Dr Ouda said, was how that textbook was approved in the first place. “For a textbook to be approved, it must be checked by the department head, the dean, and in some cases the university president,” he said. “So the book in question must have gained the approval of all of them,” he said.