Egypt's religious book burning backfires
The Ministry of Education official responsible for burning several books in the yard of a Giza school defended herself to Al-Monitor and asserted that she operated under the direction of the ministry and security agencies.
The Directorate of Education in Giza, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Education, burned 82 mostly religious books in the yard of the Fadl Modern School in the Faisal area of al-Haram, Giza governorate.
The ceremonial burning to the tune of patriotic songs took place on the grounds that the books incite extremism and terrorism and that some of their authors, such as Rajab al-Banna and Mohammad Mohammad al-Madani, belong to the Muslim Brotherhood. The act triggered anger among Egyptian popular and human rights circles.
Al-Monitor spoke with Buthaina Khashak, the first undersecretary of the Ministry of Education in Giza and the “heroine” of the book-burning scene that shook the Egyptian public. She defended herself and asserted that what she did was with the full knowledge of the Ministry of Education and the security agencies.
Khashak added that there is no serious oversight on private schools, especially those affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. “After the June 30 revolution, these schools were taken over by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice. Their names were changed to the 'June 30 schools' and we have been instructed by the Ministry of Education to fulfill our educational role by following up on children within those schools,” she said. The Ministry of Education formed boards of directors to manage these schools, which included the Fadl Modern School owned by Adel Fadl, the brother-in-law of Muslim Brotherhood official Essam al-Erian.
