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Summary
of Image of Islam and Muslims in History
Schoolbooks
in Italy
Dr.
Salah Ramadan El-Sayed, Faculty of Languages and Translation Al-Azhar University
Muslim
Civilization is taught in history schoolbooks in Italy. These books present it
in a positive manner as a civilization that unified different Arab groups. It
also referred to the Muslim civilization's great renaissance for several
centuries. These books acknowledge the achievements of the Muslim civilization
in engineering, medicine, astronomy and geography. Muslim capitals such as
Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Cordoba were mentioned as lighthouses of science
and culture. These books agree that the Muslim civilization has kept the Greek
and Persian cultural and scientific heritage. It updated this heritage and added
to it.
On
the contrary, the Italian history schoolbooks handle the concept of
"Jihad" and the personality of prophet "Mohamed" in a
negative way. They presented him as a man of war. Jihad is also presented (as a
result of the western media campaign) as a "sacred war" imposed by
Islam on its followers in order to force others to be Muslims. This is clear in
using such idioms like: "scared war — Islamic Expand - Islamic domination
around the world) in the book. We can see that the book taught to second year
primary schools, printed in 1996 has used the following phrase on page 248:
"A Muslim has a duty to spread his religion even by force." And added:
"So, the Arabs began the sacred war." And on page 248, the author
says: "Arabs occupied the Christian Holy places where Christ lived."
In
general, we realized that Italian books of history always merge between history
of The Muslim State and its religion. There is a big difference between both.
The Quran orders the Muslims to be polite when talking to others: "Invite
to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching: and argue with them
in ways that are best and most gracious." (Al-Nahl [The bees] - 125). Those
who are called to be Muslims can accept or refuse. On the other hand, expand of
the Muslim world was due to political thoughts of some Muslim rulers who use
Islam to achieve their political aims. But, Islam calls to respect man and not
to attack him or take his treasure. Islam also strictly forbids imposing Islam
on people. Worship freedom is the right for all human beings. Allah says:
"Let him who will believe and let him who will reject." (Al-Kahf [The
Cave]—29) and says: "Let there be no compulsion in religion."
Mentioning these Quranic verses in their right context conveys their right
meaning to the Italian pupils and helps to merge the two cultures. This also
leads to a cooperation between The Arab World and Italy and realizes a
peaceful coexistence. This also goes with the aims of The Italian school
system.
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