Cairo -
“Kateeb” (collecting writers with the inclusion of the kaf and the accentuation of the t) is a term used to refer to the Quran memorization centers in Egypt, and it has a prominent historical position, but it was the subject of widespread controversy after Al-Azhar Al-Sharif announced its quest to expand the establishment of the kotatayeb in the recent period under the name “The Children’s Gallery.” For memorizing the Noble Qur’an,” which angered some writers and media professionals, which Al-Azhar and its fans expressed their rejection of.
On May 30, Al-Azhar announced that nearly half a million Egyptian children had applied to join the “Child’s Gallery for the Memorization of the Qur’an,” which was considered by the project’s supervisor, Abdel Moneim Fouad, as a practical response to what he described as “the war on the Book of God,” while Some defended the opposite vision, based on an observed intellectual and political alignment, which has become accustomed to appearing about any event in Egypt, according to what some see.
According to the monitoring of the editor of Al-Jazeera Net, based on 3 studies and reports, the "Katatib" occupied a distinguished position in the educational history in Egypt, and many famous scholars and literature graduated from it, including the late writer Taha Hussein, the late famous preacher Muhammad Metwally Al-Shaarawy, and the great reciters of the Holy Qur'an, including the late Sheikh Abdul Al-Basit Abdul-Samad, next to the current Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb.
Novelist Salwa Bakr says in a televised interview that a child’s reading and memorizing the Qur’an is considered a theft of his childhood because he does not understand its meanings pic.twitter.com/47OtnSWwxy
- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) May 27, 2022
A rich history
In his book “Al-Katatib”, Al-Azhari academic Sayed Mahrous says that the kotatayeb has spread since the Islamic conquest of Egypt (20 AH / 639 AD), in order to memorize the Qur’an, teach the language and principles of arithmetic, and the rich allocate endowments for them to spend on them.
Mahrous points out that in each village there were 6 to 8 Quran memorization houses, stressing that interest in scribes increased during the reigns of the Zangids, Ayyubids, and Mamluks. The scribes and their turnout.
In a study entitled “The Journey of Education in Egypt: From the Kitaab to the International Schools”, the researcher, Radwa Muntasir al-Fiqi, documented the emergence of the kataeb, which passed through several stages, beginning with the early Islamic eras in Egypt, explaining that the mosque was during the periods of the rule of the Umayyads, Abbasids and Fatimids as the cornerstone of education in Egypt, in which the kotatayeb system was nurtured, such as the mosques of Amr ibn al-Aas, Ibn Tulun and al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.
According to Al-Fiqi’s study, during the period of the Ottoman Caliphate (1517-1805 AD), the education of Muslims remained limited to mosques and kotatayeb, while Copts and Jews were taught limited to their own khateeb, and the “Copts’ corps” was relatively different from the Muslims, in which the child learns religion and the Arabic and Coptic language In addition to teaching arithmetic, the Jews had books attached to the synagogues to teach the religion and the Hebrew language.
Al-Azhari preacher Abdullah Rushdi responds to the writer Salwa Bakr after her statements about the headscarf of girls in the preparatory stage pic.twitter.com/ggfi7ak1E1
- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) May 30, 2022
decline then rise
The study indicates that Muhammad Ali (1805-1848 AD), after taking power, confiscated all endowment properties, which negatively affected the basic education represented in the religious schools, mosques, and religious schools, especially with his tendency to establish modern schools, while the British occupation of Egypt expressed concern about the impact of Al-Katatib from the first moment, when he transferred it from the supervision of the Diwan of Endowments to the Diwan of Schools in 1889, so that it would be under its supervision.
And between 1938 and 1945, Egyptian government decisions were issued to integrate all educational styles - including “Kateeb” - into a single educational system, which was called primary education in conjunction with the decision to free compulsory and secondary education, which continued in the post-officers movement periods in 1952 With the development of the primary education system.
On the other hand, the period of the late President Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat (1918 AD - 1981 AD) witnessed interest from religious currents, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, in expanding the "Katatib".
In a study entitled "Katatib: Its Origins, Patterns and Impact on Learning and Teaching the Holy Qur'an... The Kattib in Egypt as a Model", the author Mabrouk Bahy El-Din Al-Dader sees that the kotatayeb in Egypt were attacked and undermined, starting with the French campaign in 1798, and then during the rule of Muhammad Ali, Yet there is still an important place for the kotatayb in the hearts of Egyptians.
After the revolution of January 25, 2011, and with the political rise of the Islamist movement and the assumption of power by the late President Mohamed Morsi, the government, through the Ministry of Awqaf, took care of the religious school system, and began expanding it.
I reject the lawsuit against d.
Salwa Abu Bakr after her statements that the schools should be closed, and I demand that this case be dropped.
But at the same time, I ask an important question: are the catechetical schools really the cause of the backwardness in Egypt?
👇 https://t.co/vbkqU4dEJN via @YouTube
— Taqadum Al-Khatib (@taqadum) May 30, 2022
wide controversy
Despite this history, in recent days, a wide controversial battle has erupted after an attack on Quran memorization centers for children, which was stated by Salwa Bakr, a novelist, in a television interview.
The writer, who is over 70 years old, wondered about the feasibility of teaching a child Quranic verses at a young age and enrolling him in Quran memorization centers, considering that this is a theft of childhood, according to her description.
But Al-Azhar, in turn, criticized this in a sharp official statement.
Al-Azhar International Center for Electronic Fatwas, a center directly affiliated with the Sheikhdom of Al-Azhar, said that the call to keep young people away from the Holy Qur’an and its sublime tolerant teachings is an explicit call to distance them from their religion and values, and cut them off from their language, culture and identity, and it opens the door to destructive ideas and interpretations.
In turn, the supervisor of the Children's Gallery for the memorization of the Qur'an, Abdel Moneim Fouad, confirmed that the turnout of nearly "half a million children" to memorizing the Book of God is a practical response to the calls for "war against the Book of God," as he put it.
In response to the accusation of child theft by teaching the Qur'an in childhood, Fouad said: Why do you encourage children to teach foreign languages when they are young, and they do not know what they want?
Why do we teach them swimming and sports when they are young, isn't this a theft of their childhood?!
And he added, in a statement on his official Facebook page, that the parents saw that learning the Book of God and memorizing it for their children would bring them benefit, intelligence and integrity, as well as being closer to the Lord of the worlds in this world and the hereafter.
He explained that history bears witness to the goodness of the scribes in Egypt, saying that “children who learned the Book of God and memorized it in the scribes were lamps of guidance and guidance and pioneers of renaissance and knowledge, and history bears witness to this and tells the stories of Rafa’ al-Tahtawi, Sheikh Muhammad Abdo, Omar Makram, Ahmed Orabi, Mustafa Kamel, and Sheikh Al-Shaarawy, Dr. Al-Sanhouri, and many others memorized the Book of God from a young age, so did the scribes hijack their childhood, and they became brats in society, or did they become pioneers of a renaissance, leaders of thought and leaders of a nation?
📌#Site_Frankly|
Al-Azhar in response to Youssef Al-Husseini: The call to keep young people away from the Holy Qur’an is an explicit call to keep them away from their religion
Al-Azhar International Center for Electronic Fatwa confirmed that caring for young people and raising them to properly understand the Holy Qur’an is one of the pillars of society’s stability.
pic.twitter.com/jiD6llgG6j
— besraha_website frankly (@besraha_) December 3, 2021
The controversy did not stop at Salwa and symbols in Al-Azhar, but activists and tweeters participated in it, between supporters and opponents.
Recently, Al-Azhar Mosque launched the "Child's Gallery for the Memorization of the Qur'an" project with 507 branches scattered in all governorates of the Republic, in a framework similar to the idea of categorizations.
Al-Azhar announced that Saturday, June 4, will be the date for the start of memorization work at the first level of the Children's Gallery for memorizing the Holy Quran (from the age of 5 to 6 years), with a capacity to accommodate 90 thousand students at the level of the Republic.
In parallel, the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments announced that the number of Quranic reciters in Egypt had reached 319 after opening 107 new Quranic reciters to the public, according to an official statement Monday, May 30.
Salwa Bakr, an Egyptian writer, if you search in Google, you will not find any creativity or literature for her for nearly 20 years, she suddenly woke up and did not find an issue other than harassment of religion and religious people, and she was angry at the children memorizing the Noble Qur’an. Planet, get busy with what benefits people, and wake up your conscience
— Jamal Sultan (@GamalSultan1) May 30, 2022
Salwa Bakr talks about a mosque that "plays the Qur'an" on a loudspeaker half an hour before prayer and half an hour after prayer!
I am from the Minister of Awqaf and I consider what she said an official communication and open an investigation into it!
Certainly, it is Al-Hari, and it is certain that the minister will not do that, because this discourse is supported by the authority's media and protection.
— Selim Azzouz (@selimazouz1) May 28, 2022
The Ministry of Awqaf opened hundreds of new books for children in the summer.
State-sponsored disaster
— magdi abdelhadi (@maegdi) May 31, 2022
The use of falaqa is well-known in the Qur’anic books and it is not something new, especially in popular neighborhoods, and it is a very old method of discipline and forcing students to memorize, but don’t these jurists need training and guidance, for example?
Wasn't the Ministry of Awqaf aware of the existence of this kind of punishment within the Qur'anic books?
— abdelali achernan (@abdelali_ach) June 1, 2022
Ok for the graduates of Al-Kateab and Al-Azhar?
Do you know the opinions of Taha Hussein in the book and in Al-Azhar?
Have you read Muhammed Abdo's words about Al-Azhar Al-Wasat and his ideas?
What is the child under discussion memorizing?
Small surahs as a necessity of prayer, or should they be struck, as one of the famous reciters recently stated, to complete the memorization of the Qur’an?
— Karim Fareed (@karimfareed1987) May 29, 2022
There was a time, for example, that the parents cared that at least they followed their children to the mosques and kotaib and memorized the Qur’an. Now I can’t see anyone even thinking about something like this. The parents are
worried that their son has a mobile like his friends so that he doesn’t feel that he is less than them!
And they already have a time bomb in their hands, a difficult time, may God protect us and avoid temptation
— Aya Muhammed (@ayoyaaaa_94) May 26, 2022
Medicine, with the same crooked logic, is that the children are forced to go to school, and the boy's brother-in-law plays so that we will not spoil his childhood.
And when he grows up and matures, he keeps choosing if he wants to learn or not?!!
Take out your children as atheists, O Jadaan, because Salwa Bakr's death will not be disturbed by you.
pic.twitter.com/3iU5NyKhMD
- C Salama Abdel Hamid (@salamah) May 28, 2022