The minds and psyches of our children are being torn asunder, says Hussein Ahmed Amin* In Berthold Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle, two women are fighting over the custody of a child. The judge orders a chalk circle to be drawn on the ground, places the child in the middle and orders the women to each take hold of one of the child's hands and pull, saying that whichever woman succeeds in pulling the child out of the circle will win custody. As I read through the G8's plan "to support reform in the Greater Middle East and North Africa" -- which details the tasks assigned to each of those eight super-successful countries to supervise the development of our poor "backward" nations, starting with our political and economic structures and ending with our educational systems -- I could not help but pause at a point referring to the intention of the US to finance the translation of books for the children of Egypt and Jordan. I set aside my newspaper and began to ponder what might motivate the G8 to shape the minds of our children. At that very moment, my seven-year-old granddaughter -- who only six months earlier was bright, imaginative and inquisitive -- came into the room. "Do you know what my favourite colour is?" she asked. "No, what?" "Black, because that's the colour of the covering of the Ka'ba. " After a little probing, I learned that her science teacher (one of the many higab -wearing teachers in my granddaughter's school) was the source of this inspiration. Also at the urging of that teacher, my granddaughter told her mother a week ago, "I won't go out of the house with you if you don't wear a higab." Those of our proselytisers who believe that they belong to the "Party of God" and everyone else to the "Party of Satan" have staked their future on the minds of our children. What's learned in youth is as though engraved on stone, as the saying goes. Operating on this adage, they have relegated the task of engraving their beliefs on the minds of our children to the school teachers of their persuasion. Maths teachers, science teachers, physical education instructors -- it makes no difference. Now the US has also subscribed to the adage and is determined to put its weight behind the translation of English children's books into Arabic. The books are certain to be beautifully printed and bound, filled with cheerful and colourful illustrations, and all intended to fight religious extremism, destroy the foundations of terrorism and eliminate hostility towards Israel. Our children have been placed in the middle of a chalk circle. The right hand has been given to the fundamentalists, the left to an American administration determined to uproot Islam in less than half a century. I fear, however, that the loser in the ensuing tug-of-war will not be fundamentalism or terrorism or the arrogance of the US administration or Islam, but rather the lives of our children. The two contestants will pull so hard that they will wrench the arms off, leaving our children in the centre of the chalk circle, motherless and maimed. * The writer is a former ambassador and expert on political and Islamic affairs.
