Minister Qabbani: Common history textbook is a necessary matter
Education Minister Khaled Qabbani said that launching a common history textbook for Lebanese schools is a necessary matter.
“But it requires the existence of an appropriate political climate,” Qabbani told the Lebanese daily As-Safir.
“Such a textbook cannot be launched in the midst of sectarian tension. The political climate is inappropriate,” he added.
Qabbani said that a committee of experts would have to be appointed to establish the history manual away from tensions and disputes.
“The textbooks of history have always reflected the negative image of Lebanon. As if the country was the result of sectarian struggle and civil wars,” Qabbani noted.
“If the whole history of Lebanon is made up of struggles and civil wars, how did we manage to preserve it unity and this Arab and international concern for it?” he wondered.
Minister Qabbani said there was an attempt in 1996 to come up with a common account of history, but said that it failed because of political interference and other factors.
“Ever since I became education minister, I have been considering this matter. But I still think that its achievement is conditioned both to the existence of an appropriate climate and to the existence of mutual trust among the Lebanese,” Qabbani declared.