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Proposed Measures to Immunize Arab Youth against Hostile Currents: A Field Study on the Education Qualification Diploma Students at the Faculty of Education, University of Damascus
Place of publication | Year of publication | Collation: 
Damascus, Syria | 2008 | p. 249-294
Author: 
كنعان، أحمد علي
Corporate author: 
Damascus University
Region: 
Arab States

This study aimed at exploring the hostile currents that target Arab youth in the 21st century and identifying their main channels and approaches in influencing their  principles, values, behaviour and personalities and the extent to which Arab youth and their behaviour are influenced by these currents. A special questionnaire of seven parameters was designed and used  with 200 male and female  students of the qualification diploma in education,  all of whom were  graduate students, both arts and sciences faculties, of 2004/2005. The results showed that the media came in first place among the channels through which hostile curents reach out to our Arab Nation. Imitating, social copying, the wish to change, resenting their reality and rebelling against it came first among the reasons behind allowing  youth to be influenced by hostile currents, while moving away from all that is Arab came as the last reason. The values carried by hostile currents were ranked as follows: lying, hypocracy,secterianism, classicism, arrogance, lack of self confidence and dependency. The negative impact on the youth reflects itself in practices that show: deviation in moral behaviour, imitating the West in clothing and eating in addition to imitating Western ways in talking and language while ignoring the values and principles of religion. Results also show that the negative effects on the personalities of the youth include duplicity, dependency and alienation and that the ways of providing them with immunity against those currents  include synergizing the efforts of the educational, media, religious and social institutions against those currents.

Resource Type: 
Research papers / journal articles
Theme: 
Civic / Citizenship / Democracy
Diversity / cultural literacy / inclusive
Level of education: 
Primary education
Secondary education