[First installment of continuous topic -- the modern muslim.]
Nero denied the fire even at the end of his fiddling. Adolf Hitler kept planning to take back oil fields in the East even while Mrs. Magda Goebbels was contemplating poisoning her six children. Chief Engineer Joseph Bell was steadfast about Titanic's perfect design even when the bow began to sink. Begum Khaleda Zia condemned newspapers for coining 'Bangla Bhai' story even after the ambassadors spoke out.
History suggests that true victors never claim victory until it is absolute. True losers don't admit to their failure until absolution, either.
Similar is the case with the muslims of today. We are stuck in the first millenium. We can feel the pain of breathing the thinner, cleaner, smoother air of the 21st century. We stumble upon this reality everyday. We deny it everyday, too.
We claim honesty, yet we shift from opinion to opinion when it comes to real matters. We claim tolerance, yet we crave for fanatic glory. We claim fairness, yet fail to discern between a just cause and a nuisance. We claim freedom, yet fail to stand up for what we know as wrong.
Honesty, tolerance, and fairness would be topics of future installments in this series. We start with liberation today. A modern muslim should understand the following to be able to liberate his mind and practise indepent thinking.
a) Liberation is a state of mind, not a strategic poise. Occupying certain pieces of land or topping a certain number of casualties don't determine liberation. It is in being able to stretch your mind vertically as well as horizontally. It is in mobilizing your mind as well as motivating it.
b) You are the religion. Allah and His Prophet (sm) have left the door open for individual revelations of Islam. You own your religion as much as it owns you. Your explanation of Islam is probably just as good as (if not better than) that of a cleric.
c) Instruction is not the purpose of religion. Rather, purpose is the instruction of religion. Religious instructions are meant to lead us to discover our own purposes.
d) Fear is a means, not an end. Fear of hell-fire is supposed to teach you to speak the truth, to love all creation, to prohibit from bad company, to be courteous and gentle, to abstain from addiction and wastage, etc. Fear of punishment is there to help you stay the course until your mind is ready to take care of itself. Do something good only because it is good, not because doing otherwise would earn you some extra hours with Lucifer.
e) Crusades are unique in the sense that these are wars where most of the casualties are self-inflicted. Every blow intended is a blow at your own soul. Every life taken is a death for the soul.
f) Religion is both honored and rejected by the soul. Nothing physical about it. Ever.
Finding these too hard to grasp? Afraid of your mind getting corrupt? If so, please stop to ponder if you're actually thinking your thoughts or those of someone else's.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Monday, April 03, 2006
'Education Reform :: Schedule'
[First installment of continuous topic -- education reform in Bangladesh.]
In the heart of the problems of Bangladesh is a mismatch in timing. Given a swing range of two months, the first semester in BUET starts in mid-February. This needs to be moved to either late-August or mid-January to make the system completely synchronous with the Western system.
My suggestion is to start the semester in mid-September, if possible. This would make sure that the final semester would end at around mid-September. This would give the graduating students a chance to apply for higher education from the following Fall. At present, students have to wait as long as two years in some cases. This only serves to take away the motivation and momentum of students.
A more drastic change would be to shift the academic calender from January to August. I consider that to be too radical and unnecessary. There being no clear distinction between Fall and Spring now-a-days and the culture not being one that fosters seasonal trends, the January-December session can be left the way it is until completion of 10th grade.
The timespan between mid-10th grade to the publishing of HSC results can only be termed as 'A Series of Unfortunate Incidents'!
10th grade classes should end by mid-September. SSC examination should be held in early-January. Results would come in by mid-April. Admission tests for HSC should be administered by late-June and classes should begin by mid-July at the latest.
The 18 months of higher-secondary studies would end in mid-January, according to the proposed calender. HSC exams should be administered in mid-April and results should be published by mid-July. University admission should be completed by mid-August and classes should resume by early-September.
Why all the rush? Why bother revising all the established customs to adjust with some foreign system? What ever happened to the freedom to write our own terms?
Such questions are entirely ideological and require persuasion in a completely different tone. That would be the topic for a future installment in Education Reform.
In the heart of the problems of Bangladesh is a mismatch in timing. Given a swing range of two months, the first semester in BUET starts in mid-February. This needs to be moved to either late-August or mid-January to make the system completely synchronous with the Western system.
My suggestion is to start the semester in mid-September, if possible. This would make sure that the final semester would end at around mid-September. This would give the graduating students a chance to apply for higher education from the following Fall. At present, students have to wait as long as two years in some cases. This only serves to take away the motivation and momentum of students.
A more drastic change would be to shift the academic calender from January to August. I consider that to be too radical and unnecessary. There being no clear distinction between Fall and Spring now-a-days and the culture not being one that fosters seasonal trends, the January-December session can be left the way it is until completion of 10th grade.
The timespan between mid-10th grade to the publishing of HSC results can only be termed as 'A Series of Unfortunate Incidents'!
10th grade classes should end by mid-September. SSC examination should be held in early-January. Results would come in by mid-April. Admission tests for HSC should be administered by late-June and classes should begin by mid-July at the latest.
The 18 months of higher-secondary studies would end in mid-January, according to the proposed calender. HSC exams should be administered in mid-April and results should be published by mid-July. University admission should be completed by mid-August and classes should resume by early-September.
Why all the rush? Why bother revising all the established customs to adjust with some foreign system? What ever happened to the freedom to write our own terms?
Such questions are entirely ideological and require persuasion in a completely different tone. That would be the topic for a future installment in Education Reform.
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