Counter terrorism: ‘Arabic to be a compulsory subject’ in Pakistan

[Solomon2]

Considering that Arab countries are beset by terrorism as well, thinking that somehow learning Arabic will make people immune to extremism is quite naive to say the least. The core of the problem is the monopolization of religion that has been done by the Mullahs and unless the government starts controlling them and keeping check on whats being taught at madrassas, the problem simply wont fade away no matter how many fancy foreign language programs are introduced.

Really? I wonder. Consider the experience of Saudi deprogrammers of jihad extremists:

...The idea that there’s a slippery slope from jihad to takfir comes up regularly in discussions with Saudi clerics.

“Some of our young people don’t listen to the right scholars,” Jilani told me. “First they start to think that they have the right to go to jihad at any time. After that, they start to think that we have the right to kill any non-Muslim.

“Then they start to say that our leaders are kuffar, infidels,” the sheik continued. “After that they start to say that our scholars, too, are kuffar. Before long, they’ve declared war against the whole world.”​

There is no easy way, I guess, to study Arabic without studying the Koran. When everyone can be their own Koran scholar, will that really increase terrorism or decrease it? In the West the printing press made the Bible more accessible to the masses, yet it also sparked civil and international wars between Reformed Christians and Roman Catholics.

The West eventually "solved" its religion problem by de-powering religious organizations and education in favor of embracing the universal human values of the Enlightenment. Does the West's experience hold any lessons for Pakistanis?

 

[Sugarcane]

Urdu is more Islamic than Punjabi and Arabic is more Islamic than Urdu. They will learn every language of this world but their own.

Offtopic: Do you belongs to Janjua community?

 

[Dubious]

Because those languages are not foreign to the nations (Israel-Arabic/Hebrew; Europe-Latin)
But here you are imposing foreign culture/language which is not native to Pakistan. Government can set up a committee(with representation from different sects) which can translate Quran into Punjabi/Urdu/Sindhi/English for the whole nation.

Oh you dont see an everyday European conversing in Latin

As for committee....I disagree 1stly, they sit down drink tea and then debate and argue few hrs a day get their pay and leave...Guess what nothing got solved, discussed nor any conclusion so committee is just a confusing term used by politicians to satisfy their extra time...

Translation has not done any wonders look how people "misquote" the Quran every day!

With the language at hand you can actually tell an order from a narration ....Why is it easier for people to crack their head to learn a "foreign language" say German or French for a chance to go there to study but have millions of excuses to learn Quran to get rid of misconception about their very religion and the same misconception their country is currently being painted with?!

Urdu is more Islamic than Punjabi and Arabic is more Islamic than Urdu. They will learn every language of this world but their own.

I dont get your frustration ....Arent the people already learnign Urdu?

Getting admission in the AIT (AlQaeda Institute of Technology) universities will become easier, and this is the only advantage I can foresee.

For your information had half of those "serving" the nutjobs knew that they were serving a satan dressed as a saint ...Had they even understood the basics of the Quran (which talks about brotherhood and humanity) would they still be blindly following...Maybe anger or revenge for the families lost in the drone attacks but not because of lack of understanding...

In 50s and 60s we had Arabic and Persian were there soo many people dying to blow themselves up?

Really? I wonder. Consider the experience of Saudi deprogrammers of jihad extremists:

...The idea that there’s a slippery slope from jihad to takfir comes up regularly in discussions with Saudi clerics.

“Some of our young people don’t listen to the right scholars,” Jilani told me. “First they start to think that they have the right to go to jihad at any time. After that, they start to think that we have the right to kill any non-Muslim.

“Then they start to say that our leaders are kuffar, infidels,” the sheik continued. “After that they start to say that our scholars, too, are kuffar. Before long, they’ve declared war against the whole world.”​

There is no easy way, I guess, to study Arabic without studying the Koran. When everyone can be their own Koran scholar, will that really increase terrorism or decrease it? In the West the printing press made the Bible more accessible to the masses, yet it also sparked civil and international wars between Reformed Christians and Roman Catholics.

The West eventually "solved" its religion problem by de-powering religious organizations and education in favor of embracing the universal human values of the Enlightenment. Does the West's experience hold any lessons for Pakistanis?

Right now everyone is trying to be the Quran scholar....Everyone thinks they understand it better then some Mullah comes along with a "historic background" of generations of saints and everyone goes ga ga over his understanding ....which could have been pulled from a murder novel ...

 

[liall]

@liall I have noticed your posts for a while. How come your posts are not so hate filled?

I request you inject into your body the requisite hate please

=P

It is tough to hate Pakistan when you have good Pakistani friends. yea our countries are not at peace have had wars but it doesn't concern us common people

 

[Sugarcane]

Translation doesnt give you the essence...Who says Quran is not translated it has been but we can also see how people twist these translations for their own meaning...

The problem is not translation but supplementary literature which is held supreme than Quran. You tell someone that what you are saying is wrong, Quran doesn't say this, he/she will bombard you with Hadiths and narratives of different scholars and fatwas of great muftis & mullahs to justify. So, you know Arabic or not It doesn't matter because problem is with ideology. I have studied Arabic up to 8th class as it was part of our course in our times and it didn't made any difference. Anybody still can opt. for Arabic language from matriculation to masters.

 

[t_for_talli]

Translation has not done any wonders look how people "misquote" the Quran every day!

People who want to twist teachings will do so no matter what language the text is written with.
You are blaming language for people's fault {if its in Urdu then people will misquote}. Look at crazy Saudi fatwas/mullahs {so called masters of Arabic Quran}
Tell me would you blame Arabic/Quran for manipulating a man to become a suicide bomber?

 

[Dubious]

The problem is not translation but supplementary literature which is held supreme than Quran. You tell someone that what you are saying is wrong, Quran doesn't say this, he/she will bombard you with Hadiths and narratives of different scholars and fatwas of great muftis & mullahs to justify. So, you know Arabic or not It doesn't matter because problem is with ideology. I have studied Arabic up to 8th class as it was part of our course in our times and it didn't made any difference. Anybody still can opt. for Arabic language from matriculation to masters.

I get that soo often....it is simply shocking how everything else is put before the Quran.....

 

[Chronos]

It is tough to hate Pakistan when you have good Pakistani friends. yea our countries are not at peace have had wars but it doesn't concern us common people

Best of friends outside. Worst of enemies in their countries

 

[Dubious]

People who want to twist teachings will do so no matter what language the text is written with.
You are blaming language for people's fault {if its in Urdu then people will misquote}. Look at crazy Saudi fatwas/mullahs {so called masters of Arabic Quran}
Tell me would you blame Arabic/Quran for manipulating a man to become a suicide bomber?

1st part, Saudi fatwas/ Mullahs all quote hadiths or what their forefathers said...They will read 1 ayat from the Quran which may go as simple as do you not ponder and somehow make a conclusion that it says not to be educated....So if you know what that 1 ayat they read maybe you might not fall for that conclusion


2ndly, why should I blame Arabic or Quran for a bomber who never read it himself but heard a Mullah say it? Had he read the Quran and understood what it said (in context not from a translation) he would never have gone for such things...

Its prob a far shot but why not trying that too since no other approach has been tried when it concerns with making people understand...

Why like the Mullah make a conclusion?

2ndly, if not 100% will listen to you at least 10-20% will listen and hopefully it passes on....

It is Wayyyy better than them referring to any random dari wala!

 

[Sugarcane]

I get that soo often....it is simply shocking how everything else is put before the Quran.....

That's actual root cause of all the evils, Mullahs jumps up & down to make Arabic compulsory subject again but they will label you infidel if you question their ideologies. We are Muslim society and for Muslims learning about Quran & 5 pillars of faith is must thing, why not teach these basic things in schools to Muslim students by qualified teachers (without going into sectarianism), so that people shouldn't have to send their kids to sectarian Mullahs who brainwash kids in disguise of teaching Quran & Hadith - Ban children under 18 to from any kind of sectarian activities. once they are mature they can decide that either they want to join any sect or remain Muslim? But again no Mullah will agree on this as actually this is the thing which will close their shops not Arabic language.

 

[Dubious]

That's actual root cause of all the evils, Mullahs jumps up & down to make Arabic compulsory subject again but they will label you infidel if you question their ideologies. We are Muslim society and for Muslims learning about Quran & 5 pillars of faith is must thing, why not teach these basic things in schools to Muslim students by qualified teachers (without going into sectarianism), so that people shouldn't have to send their kids to sectarian Mullahs who brainwash kids in disguise of teaching Quran & Hadith - Ban children under 18 to from any kind of sectarian activities. once they are mature they can decide that either they want to join any sect or remain Muslim? But again no Mullah will agree on this as actually this is the thing which will close their shops not Arabic language.

Ok that is agreeable...the problem comes to qualified teachers...everyother idiot who has been thought by so and so (some big name) will call himself qualified even if he was the last failed student of that big name...

 

[timetravel]

Conservative Society Scale. (1 least, 100 max.)

1_______10________20__________30_________40_______50________60_______70______80_________90_______100

.................................................Pakistan ------------------------>>>>>>-------------------------------------------------------------->>>>>>Saudi

Saudi has the best interpretation of Quran as they know Arabic best. Seems like a good attempt to make Pakistan become Saudi faster.

 

[Jayanta]

But KRAIT, those who speak English, can barely stand up to those who claim to have mastered Arabic. How about Arabic in English medium schools as well?

In India we have studied our local language, English, Hindi, as well as Sanskrit in the schools. That's about four languages. Don't you think it can be helpful in Pakistan as well?

Might sound silly..but why can't the Quran be translated to any other language? Why it must be in Arabic only...take the Bible for instance...it is available in every language. People all over the world accept it without losing their cultural identity. A Christian in Mizoram reads his Bible in Mizo a Keralian would read it Malayalam and so on..nobody has to learn an alien language to read it. Same goes to their prayers...all Christians pray in their own language.

 

[Sugarcane]

Ok that is agreeable...the problem comes to qualified teachers...everyother idiot who has been thought by so and so (some big name) will call himself qualified even if he was the last failed student of that big name...

What i meant from qualified is that educated non-Mullah, non-Sectarian persons who can read Quran and teach translation and 5 tenants of Islam - If finding this kind of persons is difficult than how we are gonna arrange qualified Arabic teacher (unless we want to fall in trap of Mullahs and let them pollute schools). In my opinion at initial stages focus should be on character building i.e. ethics, morality, speaking and standing for truth, tolerance and rights of people & society etc. - 90% of Quran is filled with this. Sword verses can be left for later stage (i.e. graduation/masters when kids are little mature).

 

[Dubious]

What i meant from qualified is that educated non-Mullah, non-Sectarian persons who can read Quran and teach translation and 5 tenants of Islam - If finding this kind of persons is difficult than how we are gonna arrange qualified Arabic teacher (unless we want to fall in trap of Mullahs and let them pollute schools). In my opinion at initial stages focus should be on character building i.e. ethics, morality, speaking and standing for truth, tolerance and rights of people & society etc. - 90% of Quran is filled with this. Sword verses can be left for later stage (i.e. graduation/masters when kids are little mature).

Agreed!