Qatari schools teach antisemitic beliefs, hatred against Jews to students
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Roshan Amiri
- . August 28, 2020
- . Update: August 28, 2020 2:46 pm
Students in Qatar are being taught antisemitic portrayals of Jews and praises for violent jihadi movements are from the age of 6 till high school graduation, a new report revealed recently. A review of the Qatari school curriculum from 2016-2020 was carried out by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) – an Israel-based NGO that assesses school curricula in the Middle East.
The organization examined more than 230 textbooks published between the academic year 2016-2020 for teaching students from grades 1-12 in Qatar.In its interim report titled “Understanding Qatari Ambition, the institution has found out that hatred against Jews and Israel is a “central problem” for Qatar’s curriculum.
“Israel is demonized. Textbooks teach that Jews control and manipulate world powers and markets,” the report states. Furthermore, Qatar’s school textbooks also teach that Jews exploited the first World War to control world governments and the global economy and that hatred and persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany is justified. In addition, Zionism, associated with a Jewish ambition to rule the world, has been demonized as a racist movement.
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While some sections of the recent curricula have been changed, a 2017 textbook quoted the myths of the Elders of Zion as fact. The protocols of Elders of Zion is a previously debunked antisemitic conspiracy theory. An excerpt from Qatar’s Grade 12 textbook from 2017 reads: “It says in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: We must win the woman, in the day she reaches out to us, and we won the case. Therefore, the Jews succeeded in directing Western public opinion, when they took hold of the [Muslim] women through media and through money.”
Significantly, the report has noted that references to the Protocols have been removed from recent textbooks. Speaking over the development, Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se has stated that hatred against Jews has been a key element in Qatari education in which students are taught that Jews are treacherous and killers of prophets.
Christians are also criticized in the textbooks regarding them as infidels (kafirun) expecting them to go to hell. The curriculum has also encouraged Jihad and martyrdom considering it as a masculine duty. For women, traditionalist beliefs supersede empowerment as they are taught to be brave, serve their families and homeland, havemany children and encourage them to engage in Jihad.
In global discourse, Qatar has displayed itself as a modern Arab state where education is heavily influenced by Western educators. It is important to note that Qatar has been investing in billions for collaboration with elite US universities in recent years. Reportedly, seven US universities including, Northwestern, Weill-Cornell Medical College, and Texas A&M have established full-time campuses in Qatar.
Last month, Northwestern University’s journalism program accepted hundreds of millions in funding from the Qatar government and an organization with links to terror groups. As of now, an investigation has been underway to probe if Northwestern University has fully revealed details of donations coming from the Qatari government for many years. Around $340 million in donations have been accepted by the university since 2012. As per media reports, the money was channeled through the Qatar Foundation, a nonprofit group with links to terror-financing.
