the education of elementary, middle and secondary schools) with a book to guide the teacher to articles on religious education. I also wrote the scenario for the religious tolerance of the historical reality of what took place in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the Abbasid Age. I also wrote the scenario of a documentary on Egyptians celebrating the birth of the Virgin Mary in the Church of Mostorod ( place east of Cairo), where the majority of the pioneers of the Muslims in reference to the existence of tolerance in the grass-roots Egypt develop it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;">We sent what was written the films that were produced to Al-Azhar, the Church<span style="color:black">,</span><span style="color:#C00000"> </span><span style="color:black">the Ministry of Education, the media, and the People's Council, and invited the thinkers and intellectuals for discussion. Suddenly we were accused <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">of being disbelievers</span>. We did not weaken. The project still in practice, we hosted teachers to discuss the topic, then selected teachers to teach to a selected group of students in different stages during the middle school year holidays. The attacks on us intensified and ended with the arrest warrant against Dr. Saad and the closing down of the Centre. I fled to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>, while the second wave of arrest targeted the Alqra&rsquo;nyeen and who were sentenced to imprisonment for contempt of religion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black">Why do I tell this here? <br />
To cite what happened in our discussions with a group of teachers who accepted to discuss the proposals with us. We booked them in a luxury hotel in Al Ain Sukhna on the <st1:place w:st="on">Suez Canal</st1:place> during the days of the conference. Each received the equivalent of about a month's salary. All their travel expenses were paid from the budget of the project. They also received gifts of books and other materials from the center. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black">They were required to read the proposals and then discuss it together with us to try and find an answer to the important question: Is it possible to actually teach these alternative proposals or not? And are they better than the textbooks that already exist? <br />
Surprisingly, the discussion turned to questioning us in the same manner that as had been reported on the role of the Ibn Khaldoun Center, its objective and the financing of the project; and whether the project was a Western-American conspiracy against Islam and Muslims.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black">I repeatedly told them the following: <br />
1- Funding of the project is not from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> but from the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:place></st1:country-region>; it is not about the ambitions of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black">2- Financing the project was in accordance with the formal agreements and the knowledge of the Egyptian government. Its accounts subject to the scrutiny of the state bodies so that if they wish to find any gap they can use it against the center and its employees. <br style="mso-special-character:line-break" />
<br style="mso-special-character:line-break" />
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black">3- Foreign funding is the policy of the Egyptian government. This is evident by the billions of dollars in American and non-American aid; funding which does not reach the billions of Egyptian people. The funding of the past ten years which has come to all the centers working in human rights, in the defense of the Egyptian people and the advancement of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>, is no more than a half percent of the subsidies received by the Egyptian government in one year. At a time when the rulers of looted billions of dollars, the cents which came to human rights organizations support thousands families who live on the salaried of researchers, activists and ordinary workers who work for a true fit for their community.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;">4- Then you are talking about Western funding, which is claimed to reform and is in the public financing. How about the Saudi funding to support mosques to spread terrorism and the culture of extremism and intolerance? This funding is from unknown sources and is uncontrolled. It has caused <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region> to go back 100 years, scattering discord between Egyptians and igniting sectarian sedition and terrorism. Producing armed movements, which reached a climax in the early nineties, and producing ignorance instead of science, all of which urges the center to treat and fix this problem by implementing this project of educational reform.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;">5- <span style="color:black">So, where is the conspiracy here? Conspiracy is usually in secret, and we do not ever work in secret because the reform is based on openness. We announced of project, sent copies of everything we have done to those responsible and the media, intellectuals and educators, university professors, Al-Azhar and the Church and the Ministry of Education; we asked the opinion of everybody and affirmed the need for discussion. <br />
How can you say, you are plotting, and you yourselves are witnesses to yourselves? You have come of your own free will to us, and we have given you books written by us. And we ask you to hear your discussion, and everything you have read: you did not find anything showing western conspiracy. I am the author of the proposals for the religious education materials, which are derived from the Qur&rsquo;an and show the greatness of Islam and its tolerance. So, do we have the West conspiring to prove that Islam is tolerance, peace and human rights? Then you finally will return home in peace and safety, and spend a happy time and a wonderful picnic and be well paid financially. If this is conspiracy, then what a best conspiracy!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black">6- Then this funding is money come here from the West for us work productively for the benefit of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Why do we not compare the people's money which been stolen by Egyptian rulers and smuggled it to the West? Who conspires here? Who are the thieves? Who is worthy of accountability and punishment? <br style="mso-special-character:line-break" />
<br style="mso-special-character:line-break" />
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:&quot;Courier New&quot;;color:black">7- In the end ... why would <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> conspire against us? <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> may conspire against its competitors or who fight them, but why would <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> be plotting against <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>, which depends on their weapons and food? Without the need for any conspiracy, the Egyptian President is carrying out orders received by telephone from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>. <br />
Can the mayor of your village conspire on a laborer who works for him? If the mayor gives financial aid to one of the laborers, is he now a conspirator? <br />
I am tired of the repetition of these words without any improvement. <br />
Finally, I looked at them with sympathy. These teachers are themselves the victims of bad teaching and a falling culture. <br />
This was in 1999. <br />
Unfortunately, this culture continues to spread.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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