Doaa El-Bey finds that Egypt's role in the Palestinian-Israeli talks is still vital, while Rasha Saad looks at the reaction of the Florida pastor who threatened to burn copies of the Quran Preparations for schools and universities, which will start early next week, are in full swing in most Egyptian households. Al-Akhbar 's banner read, "17 million students start schools and universities on Saturday", while Al-Ahram published statements from the ministers of education and higher education in which the former stated the guidelines for the new year, emphasising that the decision to take higher royalties from publishers of supplementary books would not be reversed. Abdel-Nasser Salama focussed on the problem of school text books published by the Ministry of Education versus supplementary books that most students prefer to study from. He started by thanking the ministry and the state for producing good quality and relatively cheap books. But strangely enough, he wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram that although the school book costs the government millions of pounds every year, it would be thrown in the bin from the first school day or left untouched because the students prefer supplementary books. Salama added it would have been better to combat the spread of supplementary books at the expense of the school book by making the latter more attractive and informative to students. "But, keeping the school book as it is and raising the royalties on supplementary books would raise the price of the latter and constitute a further burden on the Egyptian family." The start of the second round of direct Palestinian- Israeli negotiations in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh next Tuesday, 21 September, was the focus of attention of many writers. Eissa Morshed wrote that the choice of Sharm El-Sheikh as the venue for the second round of talks came as an appreciation of the Egyptian role and an acknowledgment of its historical responsibility in supporting the legitimate rights of the Palestinians. While Morshed wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar that there was a good opportunity to return to the peace process and reach a settlement, he called on all the parties to seize the moment. He called on the Israeli government to put a complete stop to its settlement activities, on the US to press on Israel to fulfil it commitments to peace and on the Palestinians to unite ranks and talk to the world with a united voice. "The parties to the direct negotiations realise that the region cannot tolerate any more intransigence and that the track to peace is clear. Any intransigence would take the region to a worse state," Morshed concluded. The ninth anniversary of 9/11 revealed the racist trend that is spreading in many places in the world against Islam and Muslims. A bishop in Florida declared that he would burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of 9/11. Ali Abul-Kheir wrote that whether he set fire to the holy book or not, his declaration indicated that many men of the cloth believe that their faith imposes on them to declare war against those who differ in religion, sect or race. The call to burn the Quran came within that concept. "The American bishop wanted to smear Islam as a religion because of a small group of radical extremists who attacked the Twin Towers and killed innocent people," Abul-Kheir wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom. The bishop, Abul-Kheir explained, did not bother to read about Islam or look at the conduct of the majority of moderate Muslims. He also failed to realise that Al-Qaeda and all other armed groups kill Muslims before they kill followers of other religions. Thus, he called on Muslim men of religion as well as politicians to warn all Muslims that the bishop does not represent all Americans or Christianity, and that the best response to his calls is to spread the tolerant teachings of Islam. Nabil Zaki looked at the effects of 9/11 after nine years. He wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Al-Wafd Party, that the attack caused the spread of evil and aggression which moved to occupy Islamic and Arab countries on the pretext of combating terrorism. It also gave way to campaigns of hatred and religious radicalism and attempts to tarnish the picture of Islam. And instead of removing the factors that led to 9/ 11 and creating a new world order based on a respect of the independence and sovereignty of people, the US resorted to launching wars. By so doing, "it ignored the fact that wars and well equipped armies are not successful in combating terrorism. Effective international cooperation to dry up the sources of terrorism is a much more efficient tool," he added. The race for November's parliamentary elections started earlier than expected. Fatma Baraka, who began her column in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yom by wishing the reader a blessed Eid Al-Fitr, wrote that the holy month of Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr were an opportunity for candidates to meet their voters. Candidates for the ruling National Democratic Party have started holding meetings and visiting members of their constituencies. On the other hand, Baraka added, opposition parties and independent candidates started a similar move to take the pulse of the Egyptian street. However, she called on voters to respect themselves and respect the responsibility assumed to them by choosing the candidate most capable of serving his constituency and representing them in parliament. Salah Qabadaya wished the reader a happy Eid in the same newspaper. He wrote that Eid this year brought with it three reasons for joy: our ability to fast the holy month of Ramadan, the morning tea and breakfast anew, and the end of Ramadan TV serials and soaps especially those which provided viewers with historical fallacies.
