Teaching intolerence in Pakistan- cont'd
Unenlightened worldview
SHAHID ANWAR
Supposedly, the institutions of higher education provide intellectual leadership to a society. They are the torchbearers of enlightenment and instrument of progressive change. Do we have enough courage to see the realities on ground? Just look at a few examples.
Those who have been exposed to un-academic environment of the largest university of Pakistan — The University of the Punjab — know very well about the level of academic freedom available to its students. To get an idea of dominant thinking pattern at the university, one just needs to join the Friday prayer and listen to the sermon and Dua at the end of prayer. One could find little difference between an ignorant mullah’s worldview and the views of highly educated Khateeb who is at the faculty of the university.
The (dis)credit of this decay goes to General Zia’s two pronged policy of Islamisation and Afghan Jihad. Education in general and the social sciences in particular suffered very badly due to the policies mentioned above. Zia never concealed his antipathy for social sciences. While addressing a convocation at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, he once pronounced that Pakistani society did not need studying social sciences. Cleansing college libraries by destroying un-Islamic books, and recruiting teachers for their piousness, suffocated the academic environment for times to come.
Without any academic pretence they just transmitted their faith-based likings and dislikings about ideas and personalities to the extent of blurring any distinction between a political activist and academician. To the utter dismay of the participants, the academy badly lacked an academic paradigm, and seemed working as mouthpiece of the MMA.
To cite a few examples of political messaging, it seems unavoidable to quote from some of the sermons. A well-known scholar denounces President for his anti-Islamic policies. He further opines, ‘While the Kashmir issue can only be resolved through a threat of war, the President is pathetically displaying cowardice vis-à-vis India’. Another statement goes on to say, ‘The West is against us, because we are Muslims. They do not let us do anything good for ourselves through their stooges, imposed on us’. Are these not the often-heard words and known views of clergy? The political Mullahs and the prayer leaders are used to blast in the same manner.
SHAHID ANWAR
Supposedly, the institutions of higher education provide intellectual leadership to a society. They are the torchbearers of enlightenment and instrument of progressive change. Do we have enough courage to see the realities on ground? Just look at a few examples.
Those who have been exposed to un-academic environment of the largest university of Pakistan — The University of the Punjab — know very well about the level of academic freedom available to its students. To get an idea of dominant thinking pattern at the university, one just needs to join the Friday prayer and listen to the sermon and Dua at the end of prayer. One could find little difference between an ignorant mullah’s worldview and the views of highly educated Khateeb who is at the faculty of the university.
The (dis)credit of this decay goes to General Zia’s two pronged policy of Islamisation and Afghan Jihad. Education in general and the social sciences in particular suffered very badly due to the policies mentioned above. Zia never concealed his antipathy for social sciences. While addressing a convocation at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, he once pronounced that Pakistani society did not need studying social sciences. Cleansing college libraries by destroying un-Islamic books, and recruiting teachers for their piousness, suffocated the academic environment for times to come.
Without any academic pretence they just transmitted their faith-based likings and dislikings about ideas and personalities to the extent of blurring any distinction between a political activist and academician. To the utter dismay of the participants, the academy badly lacked an academic paradigm, and seemed working as mouthpiece of the MMA.
To cite a few examples of political messaging, it seems unavoidable to quote from some of the sermons. A well-known scholar denounces President for his anti-Islamic policies. He further opines, ‘While the Kashmir issue can only be resolved through a threat of war, the President is pathetically displaying cowardice vis-à-vis India’. Another statement goes on to say, ‘The West is against us, because we are Muslims. They do not let us do anything good for ourselves through their stooges, imposed on us’. Are these not the often-heard words and known views of clergy? The political Mullahs and the prayer leaders are used to blast in the same manner.
posted by India News Watch at 5:05 PM
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