Islamists Concerned at ”Americanisation of Education” in Kuwait : Background, Argument and Possible Reasons

Abstract: Why was there a strong reaction from Islamist MPs about the Americanisation of education in Kuwaiti schools? Which parts of the textbooks were being questioned and which arguments were used? Could there be any reasons to delete particular phrases in textbooks, which may seem to offend people of certain religious denominations? Kuwait as a state has been in earlier conflicts with Iraq, which has led to some Islamists not being in favour of Kuwait, getting support from the USA. The Islamists in these Arab states imply that the war between Kuwait and Iraq was a direct punishment from Allah as Kuwaitis were in close contacts with USA. That USA supported the Kuwaitis in the battle against Iraq is still an irritation subject for some Arab states. At this juncture, I would like the reader to put into consideration that the books in question are written in Arabic hence, the difficulty in translation without an Arabic translator, has made it impossible to use them for this study. Both the verses and the books that are in question were difficult to get hold of. It is therefore difficult to give a vivid description of what it contained for this thesis. My try to get hold of them has been to no results. However, I will continue trying and hopefully get hold of a translated version of them. To summarise the whole issue in a nutshell one can say that the ministry of education said that USA were not pressuring them to make any changes in textbooks which could for that reason be a so-called Americanisation of Education.