Peace is the core value of 21st Century Education.?

 ?“In the name of God and of everything stated thus far; Al-Azhar al-Sharif and the Muslims of the East and West, together with the Catholic Church and the Catholics of the East and West, declare the adoption of a culture of ?dialogue as the path; mutual cooperation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard.” ?

?“His Holiness Pope Francis &the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayyeb”??

Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019?

The release of the document:” Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living ?Together” following the apostolic journey of his holiness Pope Francis to the United Arab ?Emirates (3-5 February 2019), proves once again that “Peace” is not only one of the religious ?leaders of the world & UNESCO’s educational priorities but one also for the leaders of the ?world as well as the architects of international policy and world economy. ?

Al-Azhar and the Catholic Church ask that this document becomes the object of ?research and reflection in all schools, universities and institutes of formation, thus helping to ?educate new generations to bring goodness and peace to others, and to be defenders ?everywhere of the rights of the oppressed and of the least of our brothers and sisters.?[1]

Given what is happening in our world today, the international community is urged ?to define actions to rediscover the values of peace, justice, goodness, beauty, human fraternity ?and coexistence in order to confirm the importance of these values as anchors of salvation for ?all, and to promote them everywhere. This means every active citizen is urged to promote ?peace, well-being, prosperity and sustainability and prepare learners for the challenges of the ??21st century.?Well in the Muslim world, the issue is more crucial and urgent especially with all the Islamophobia raging across many parts of the planet. The challenge is even bigger and more complex and as such, the solutions should be more creative and focused. In order to achieve tolerance and respect regardless of color, race or creed we need to instill and really believe that every human being is worthy of respect. We need to belong and feel that we are similar not only as human beings but as members and citizens of this global world and definitely as Muslims across the world. That is why we should adopt and scale up the children story books "The Night Before Eid el Fitre & Ramadan M’barak” and disseminate them it across the globe.

What is the idea?

The general idea is about identifying a character from the Islamic heritage, which Muslim children can associate and bond with in order to celebrate Ramadan and be able to relate to other children from different religions in a globally inclusive manner. In order to ensure its relevance in different geographical and socio-cultural context, the character of the Mussaharati,(Bou Tbayla,Tabbal…) was drawn from the Arab and Islamic culture across the MENA region and the Muslim World. His role dates back to the prophet’s days when he used to wake up people at dawn, reminding them to eat (Souhour) so that they can fast the whole day. The idea is first to brand the Mussaharaty by building up his image through stories, clothes, the tent, the drum, the lyrics, etc…and second to scale it up using a pluralism approach such as using municipalities and public areas to set up tents, decorate and have pictures taken in addition to holding art sessions for children, competitions to reinforce the good values of Islam …..This will all lead to:

• Muslim children will have a sense of belonging to a common humanity, sharing values and responsibilities,
• Muslim children around the world will appreciate their heritage, develop attitudes of empathy, solidarity and develop the skills they need for living in an increasingly diverse world in addition to developing motivation and willingness to take necessary actions in a world where truly Global Citizenship prevails!.
• Children from other cultures will recognize and appreciate difference and multiple identities, e.g. Culture, language, religion, gender and develop respect for differences and diversity.

Why? Scientific background

According to Eric Eriksson’s, “To develop trust, confidence, competence initiating and learn from mistakes, we need safe and happy environments, opportunities to understand and express our feelings, and space to create and take risks.”[2] To the layman, this means that to adapt to change we need to be flexible, we need to be creative in solving problems, to respect our selfness, and be proud of our heritage. Scientific evidence[3] has shown that in order to adapt to change we need to be flexible, and in order to succeed we need to be creative and in order to be creative we need to have a rich and stimulating environment. To compete with this ever increasing complex world, our children need to be flexible in their thinking and be able to use a variety of problem solving techniques to better communicate, as such in order to better communicate they need to understand other cultures and embrace diversity.[4]

Going back to children: 

As children mature, their view of the world changes, what they know at any given point will depend on the first-hand experience they have had. The tradition of children receiving gifts during or at the end of any cultural or religious celebration is relatively the same no matter where you go in the world, but the character that brings the gifts can vary quite a bit from country to country. Every culture has its own tradition or ways of celebrating a festivity, however with children a character is always involved because of their intellectual development and because they still learn by association. Many countries still celebrate their own unique festivities characters ranging from dragons, rascally gnomes, to friendly witches, cavemen and other characters such as: Santa in America and Canada and most parts of the world. All of these are now more commercially valued but at the same time instill the values of their religion especially for the younger ones.

How can the character of the Mussaharty or Tabbal help?

• Having a similar character similar to Santa Claus, Epihita, the bunny rabbit….etc will enhance the feelings of cultural equality: Muslim children can associate and bond with each other and be able to relate to other children from different religions in a globally inclusive manner.
• Muslim children will have a sense of belonging to a common humanity sharing values and responsibilities. The will become more reflective by developing attitudes of empathy , solidarity and respect for differences and diversity which will build their tolerance and their level of understanding and embracing diversity and thus limits fanatic minds..
• The idea is of the Mussaharati, (Bou Tbayla,Tabbal…) is holistically integrated: It is HI will develop their emotional development by making them happy, build their confidence and social skills, their morals and their language and be proud of their heritage, by letting them interact and feel part of a society.
• It will also develop their motivation and willingness to take necessary actions in a world where global citizenship prevail.. All in all it will build their true understanding of the values of Islam where the 21st century skills (4Cs) are actually embedded.

         It is hoped that as the idea and the character develop and become more mainstreamed, children around the world will recognize and appreciate difference and multiple identities, e.g. culture, language, religion, gender and develop the skills they need for living in an increasingly diverse world in addition to developing motivation and willingness to take necessary actions in a world where truly Global Citizenship prevails!.

The books were written and illustrated by children of a small nursery school: “Children INN”. They were field tested in Beirut with children aged 2-9 years for the last 10 years, they have generated an unprecedented enthusiasm and positive anticipation amongst children and adults.

How can we and Global Citizens benefit from this innovative idea that has been under the shelf since 2004?

·       Well, my suggestion is to form a forum or a committee with members from national and international NGO’s that are involved in Multiculturalism, Dialogues for Peace…to devise different Launching strategies and identify distribution channels. 

·       This should be accompanied by an awareness campaign where national competitions on children writing and illustrations would be hosted, In return, the NGO's/Schools would incorporate the book into their Social Studies curriculum, host an appearance of the Mussaharati along with display of the storybook.

References

1.     Apostolic journey of his holiness Pope Francis to the United Arab Emirates (2019,February 3-5). Libreria Editrice Vaticana

2.     McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 03). Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

3.     Kohlberg, Lawrence (1981). Essays on Moral Development, Vol. I: The Philosophy of Moral Development. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. 

4.     Crain, William C. (1985). Theories of Development(2Rev ed.). Prentice-Hall. 

5.     Piaget, Jean (1932). The Moral Judgment of the Child. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co.

[1] Apostolic journey of his holiness Pope Francis to the United Arab Emirates (2019,February 3-5). Libreria Editrice Vaticana

[2] McLeod, S. A. (2018, May 03). Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

[3] Kohlberg, Lawrence (1981). Essays on Moral Development, Vol. I: The Philosophy of Moral Development. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row

[4] Piaget, Jean (1932). The Moral Judgment of the Child. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co.