A War Against Violence
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

Whilst the Iraqi interior ministry and ministry of defense have been preoccupied with pursuing violent political and religious extremists, Iraq’s ministry of education had waged its own war upon disobedient teachers who are violent towards pupils. This battle is part of the war in Iraq against the culture of violence that spreads in Iraq that is linked to the claim that it is in the natural disposition of this nation to be violent and confrontational.

Iraq, like the rest of the Arab countries, is in the process of building a society and is not only focused upon the pursuing of criminals and terrorists. Establishing a society holds many challenges, the most prominent of which is that of education. This refers not only to the educating of students, but rather of governmental institutions as well as a society of teachers and parents.

The problem can be summarized through the barbarianism of some groups in society. Our Arab societies are experiencing a chaotic stage as they transform quickly from rural society to one of urbanism, a shift that entails compliance and conformity with rules and regulations. Our societies that have shifted from relying on wood as a source of energy to electricity and from camels to cars in a short space of time seeks to skip centuries of civilization, an act that is not easy to carry out.

An excellent op-ed from Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed appears in today’s Asharq Alawsat, the largest circulating Arabic language newspaper.

The piece, while ostensibly directed toward Iraq, is truly aimed at Arab societies–including Saudi Arabia’s. He notes that jumping hundreds of years of social progress is not easily accomplished within a generation or two, but that it must be accomplished.

In many ways Arab society has been violent, especially when it comes to power relationships. While much was managed through a more quiet patron/client relationship by offering or threatening to withhold favor, the threat of violence was always in the background. And in the case of classrooms, not necessarily in the background at all. This, he claims, is where changes are most important and most urgent. Do read the article as an important recognition of problems at the base of society that need resolution.