KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — The Muslim world should reform its education systems to be more worldly and less fixated on the afterlife, panellists said at the KL Summit today.
In a special session titled “Why Education is the key of National Development” today, speakers agreed that a paradigm shift was needed in all Muslim countries that lagged the West, especially in the research and scientific pursuits.
Malaysian Education Minister Maszlee Malik, who kicked off the session, said the Muslim world should be able to produce forward-thinking youths who are engaged in material concerns and not purely studying about Jannah (Muslim’s heaven) and how to reach it.
“We should have Greta Thunbergs, those who are 15, 16 who can talk about environmental issues — we should have more from the Muslim world. We need to expand education; it’s not just about going to Jannah but how to turn this world into Jannah,” he said.
Thunberg, the face of a global movement against climate change, was named TIME Magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year.
Sharing the Malaysian experience, Maszlee said the most important thing for universities in the Muslim world is to be recognised for cutting-age research and development (R&D) with the potential to change how the world operates.
He said that Malaysian universities have collaborated in various fields with counterparts in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Qatar, among others.
“For instance, low cost R&D should be made available to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in order to integrate them into a high value-added R&D chain, as it is in Germany and Japan.
“This will help SMEs escape the lower-end of the value chain, and find opportunities to grow bigger or produce more innovations. Young researchers must also be encouraged and supported to be part of internationally recognised teams,” he said.
Secretary-general of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Ali Muhyealdin Al Quradaghi, reminded Muslim universities to ensure students are encouraged to think logically and taught science-based learning.
He said Islam, since its inception, has always prized knowledge and was not only concerned with religious pursuits, noting that the first world revealed to Prophet Muhammad was “Iqra”, which literally means “read.”
“The Quran first command is not read the Quran, but to read. ‘Iqra’ — read everything. We Muslims should not be left out in all knowledge,” he said.
The other speakers at the sessions are Rabee Hamu, steering committee member of the KL Summit, and Qatari member of the Shura Council, Hend Abd Rahman Al-Muftah.
