Education first and last mantra for development of Muslims

Patna, June 21 : Muslims, India's largest minority, will have to take initiative themselves to spread education and create awareness among the community instead of depending on government schemes. This was the dominant view expressed by scholars, intellectuals and politicians at a gathering here Saturday.

Most speakers at the Talimi Bedari Conference, attended by hundreds of Muslims, stressed that education was the first and last 'mantra' for overall socio-economic development of Indian Muslims.

“Spread of education can transform the Muslim community that is lagging behind in all respects. People from the community should come forward to open primary schools, especially for the poorest of the poor Muslim children,” said Maulana Syed Nizamuddin, general secretary of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

Former chief justice of Supreme Court A.M. Ahmadi said education will play the key role for the community's success. “Without education, development of the community is not possible,” he said.

He suggested that Muslims should set up more schools, particularly primary and secondary ones, to educate those who have not been able to attend schools.

”Traditional education is necessary but modern and technical education is essential for their livelihood,” Ahmadi said.

“We will have to be a pushing force to implement the Sachar committee report, otherwise it will be delayed,” Ahmadi said in reply to the queries from the audience about the recommendations of a panel formed by the government to assess the socio-economic condition of the community.

K. Rahman Khan, deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha, said Muslims have to get rid of over-dependence on government schemes for education.

“Muslim should be self-dependent in the education sector. There should be strong willpower to create small and big educational institutions,” he said.

Former central minister Mohsina Kidwai underlined the importance of educating Muslim girls and said there was need to introduce modern education in the madrassas.

Rights activist Teesta Setalvad held the government responsible for educational backwardness among Muslims. "Now Muslims have to create awareness for education and to take benefit of government schemes," she said.

Three central ministers including Saifuddin Soze, M.A.A. Fatmi and Akhilesh Singh, said the government was giving special attention to the spread of education among Muslims in view of the Sachar committee report.

They assured that the committee's recommendations will be implemented.

The religious leaders of muslim community should try to undersatand the word IQRA which means READ . It does not qualify for gaining only religious knowledge but knowldge as a whole. There is a Hadith ' Even if u ve to go to CHINA for education ---go " No society can prosper without proper education. As far observing the 5 pillars of ISLAM it's compulsory for every muslim whether educated or NOT. But how can an uneducated muslim understand ISLAM, HADITH be religious and at the same time be benificial to his family members , fellow human being , to the nation and whole world.

F. R.

spread of education is must

Spread of education among muslin community is really needed for the upliftment of the whole society.

Job opportunities should also be provided to them.I have seen most of the muslims engaged in limited unorganised sector, like tailoring, butchering, in leather work..where they do not earn much...

Provding education will be the best way to uplift the muslim society. Some Reservation policies shoul also be started for muslim community.

nasvinet@hotmail.com

It was a pleasure ever to read Bihar times, specially news concerning Bihar Muslims, theme "talimi bedari",(awareness of education) among Muslims was the need of the hour, but why now? Why these Muslims intellectuals who attended the conference were sleeping? Why all of a sudden they gathered under one roof and gave speeches indicating the importance of education , specially among Muslims of Bihar? Was it not a political gimmick of those having a leaning towards the ruling government?

For the Muslims it is a known fact that acquiring knowledge is one of the fundamental principle of Islam, when GOD sent Quran ,( the holy book for Muslims) the very first word was revealed to prophet, Mohammad (pbuh) was " IQRA", meaning being read, "read in the name of thy lord" Since we are losing the very essence of Islamic teachings, lagging behind others is very natural.

The need is that state government should remove obstacles in the way of investments in the development of knowledge-driven economy, ignoring education among Muslims will be a catastrophe for the Muslims as well as for the sate, technical know-how should be distributed evenly among the poor and the rich, and should not be a property of a particular group.

Formation of Sachar commission and promising the implementations of the recommendations of the said commission is another misleading efforts of the congress and the UPA government in the centre, why an educated Muslim like me should believe such an statements of the UPA stalwarts? The government which is unable to count the Muslim heads in the Indian armed forces how it is going to implement those recommendations? A mockery of the democracy! Through your esteemed journal I would like to warn the Muslims of Bihar, don't be misguided by these political gimmicks ,they should stand out alone and remove the obstacles of illiteracy and poverty.

Dr Anwer Ahsan
Dept of pediatric surgery, MCH
DAMMAM, SAUDI ARABIA
Email : drahsan1954@gmail.com