Islamic education

By Kamrul Hasan, BUET
28 August 2005, 18:00 PM
. PHOTO: AFP
Many religious Muslims of our country send their children to madrassahs as they can learn Deen-e-Elm. Islam is a complete code of life-- so it's impossible to comprehend the teaching of Islam without the teaching of social, political, geographical and scientific knowledge. In our madrassahs students are taught various Islamic books written in Arabic, Persian and Urdu but as they are deprived of the knowledge of their surroundings it's very natural for them to misinterpret Islam. As a result when their teachers or leaders show them the way of being a Mujaheed by killing innocent people or by creating anarchy in the society- it's hard for them to understand what is right.

In the wake of the investigation of the recent bomb blasts across the country all the newspapers have concurred that the militants held till now have failed to trace their mastermind.

So we still don't know the apex of their hierarchical chain. It's hard to believe that organisations like Jamaatul Mujahedeen or JMB which mostly consist of students of madrassahs have the ability to carry out well-planned and well-disciplined bombings like this all over the country at a time. I think they are only the puppets, behind the curtain there was somebody well trained and professional.

Did the bomb blasts do any good to Islam or give the westerners another chance to claim that Bangladesh is a country of Islamic fundamentalists?

We must remember that Laden or Taliban, though being Islamic extremists, are the Frankenstein created by the US. We for the last few years have been watching various influential western media making an attempt to prove Bangladesh as a failed state or a prospective country for Islamic Revolution. So it might not have been impossible for the international agencies to stage this heinous drama using the bigots of the country.