Hundreds of students from Iran, Syria, Pakistan and other countries have signed up for an online Tel Aviv University course on the history of Islam • "I have returned to my roots", a Syrian student noted
"The course aroused great interest among Muslims"
Photography:
GettyImages - Illustration
Cross-border learning:
In the online course "History of the Arabs and Islam - Tribes to the Empire" of Tel Aviv University, about 20,000 students from 155 countries from all over the world study.
Some of them live in Muslim countries, not all of which have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Among others, 318 students from Pakistan, 301 from Turkey, 205 from Indonesia, 109 from the United Arab Emirates and 86 from Egypt are enrolled in the course.
Other activists there come from many other countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Sudan.
The course is ranked in the list of the top 50 online courses in the world by by the website Central Central, the most recognized body that centers ratings of online courses from a variety of leading platforms and academic institutions in the world.
"Digital space opens up new avenues"
The course facilitator, Prof. Miri Sheffer-Mosenzon from the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, head of the Zvi Yavetz School of History, emphasized that since the outbreak of the Corona crisis, enrollment in the course has increased greatly, as many young people are at home and use their time to enrich their knowledge.
"Many students from the world of Islam join the course because it makes accessible to them the history of the Muslim people in an academic manner and without religious overtones," Prof. Sheffer-Mosenzon explained.
"The course has resonated so much that our students in Pakistan say that this course is considered in their country to be the best course on Islamic history."
She said, "I taught this course for many years in the classroom and usually a few dozen students enrolled each year, naturally all of them were from Israel. The digital space opened us to new avenues, and to our delight the course soon aroused great interest among Muslims from around the world. "Very good about the course. Many students told us that they were very surprised that a Jewish and Israeli woman manages to captivate them and teach them about the history of their people."
One of the students from Syria thanked the lecturer at the end of the course and wrote: "Thanks to the course I returned to my roots. I am a Muslim Syrian and wanted to learn more about our history, which made us who we are today. 'Tribes to Empire' - what a title considering the beautiful journey our people went through."