The Gathbandhan Victory– Celebrating the Defeat

The penmanship of this article might appear to target alliances or mathematical gambits apparently; however, it has a far reaching impact on the polity of India. The mathematical gambit is surreptitiously dangerous for the minorities, and the country at large, in so much that the actual welfare of minorities may always tend to take a backseat when the calculations fail at any point. Not to view this as a biased vision from a minority perspective – the repercussions would be a vicious circle where religious divisiveness, polarization and counter polarization would have large grounds to hold and would tend to take a larger toll on the national polity. It then has all the latency of becoming a hotbed for Rightists in a somewhat politically “immature” democracy, which has witnessed affluent polarization equally from all quarters – by the likes of both Sadhvis and Owaisis. Consequently, development and progress would seldom find place in the election manifestoes, which is not a triumph we would be ready to sanction and witness. Evidently; therefore, even though it marks yet another historical peg in the Indian polity, the victory of the Gathbandhan is eventually the celebration of defeat. However, for now, we can rejoice with the hope that development will follow, now that the communal forces have been kept at bay!

Logical Fallacies of Our Cognitive Thought Process – I

Logical fallacies are errors of reasoning and logical judgments; premises, assumptions, arguments, or statements that appear perfectly fine at first, but contain a logical error. It has been argued that these logical errors may be identified and corrected with prudence. Being entrusted with the job of training young authors of academic and reference books, I have been imparting the concept of logical fallacies to them to ensure that their writing is logically grounded and endowed towards the cognitive development of the learners. The discourse on logical fallacies forms a fundamental ground for logical deduction in writing for academia, and may be extended to the entire cognitive thought process, which may be applicable not only to writing but also to other aspects of problem solving in varied domains. The aspect of cognitive retardation and impedance of the Ummah has been largely debated by most of us. It is seen as a major constriction towards the uplift and empowerment of the Ummah. The interesting aspect to this corollary is that the solutions to the malice that we observe are equally endorsed by the same cognitive retardation and impedance. In other words, the solutions that we see are dowsed with these logical fallacies of our cognitive thought process.

Do We Need Leaders?

By Dr. Wasim Ahmad

We probably do not. Why? In the modernized set-up and the institutions that have developed in the collective life, every organized segment of it – from family to governments – has a leader and an in-charge. This is already in practice, naturally. Beyond this we do not need a leader per se. We only need intuitive individuals who may give ideas and show a different dimension or perspective as per the situations. We may value them as givers of ideas and as individuals. Beyond this we do not need to revere them and gravitate around them for some charisma. This is anathema to Islam, our ideal that we aspire to follow despite all our failings.

A Car as an Example

By Dr. Wasim Ahmad

It is an attempt to illustrate our situation in terms of the educational set-up that we have and which allows the two streams of traditional and modern learning flow separately – perpetuating disdain and self-doubt.

Reservations and What Not…

“Begging is much more difficult than it looks. Contrary to popular belief, it’s a high art form that takes years of dedicated practice to master…”

-      Sol Luckman

Some people have recently been talking vociferously about reservations and what it means to the Muslim Community. To the extent that I recently received a mailer discussing an anticipated discussion by the Cabinet about including non-Hindus in the purview of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, so that Muslims and other religious minorities could also avail the benefits of reservation. People and organizations have gone over to call this decision of the Cabinet as “a turning point in the history of Indian secularism” [as if we have already not reached this turning point – and would probably wait for a few more Babri Masjid and Godhra episodes to happen for the same]. Earlier, some scholars from the Ummah had called out to include the ENTIRE Muslim Indian population in the Other Backward Castes [OBC] category, so that the entire Ummah could reap the benefits of reservation. Before talking about reservation for Muslim Indians, let’s first try to divulge on the essence of reservation.

Islam - History of Islamic Education, Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education

Originally published at http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2133/Islam.html

Islam has, from its inception, placed a high premium on education and has enjoyed a long and rich intellectual tradition. Knowledge ('ilm) occupies a significant position within Islam, as evidenced by the more than 800 references to it in Islam's most revered book, the Koran. The importance of education is repeatedly emphasized in the Koran with frequent injunctions, such as "God will exalt those of you who believe and those who have knowledge to high degrees" (58:11), "O my Lord! Increase me in knowledge" (20:114), and "As God has taught him, so let him write" (2:282). Such verses provide a forceful stimulus for the Islamic community to strive for education and learning.

Rotten Insignia of Our Madāris

“We no longer ask what is the best approach to educating our children, we ask only how we can minimize the flaws in our current approach. We talk always of “reform” and never of rebirth.”

— Andrew J. Coulson, in his work “Delivering Education”

So much is being written, said, debated and talked about Madāris these days that I could not simply elude the temptation to explore the concept. Wikipedia defines Madrasah as “…Arabic word of Semitic origin … for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious (of any religion).” Wikipedia further categorizes Madāris as public school (Madrasah āmah), religious school (Madrasah dīniyyah),university (Madrasah Jāmiah), and so on. Note that this definition does not coagulate to the hitherto insignia of Madāris being considered as schools meant for religious. Unfortunately, Madāris as we know them today have been brandished as religious schools that are outright orthodox and breed extremism. How and why this has happened might be more political than pedagogical in nature. However, it unquestionably calls for looking at how we have treated our Madāris that lead to their predicaments, and what we can do to alter the situations.

On Cognitive Empowerment

“Coming to understand a painting or a symphony in an unfamiliar style, to recognize the work of an artist or school, to see or hear in new ways, is as cognitive an achievement as learning to read or write or add.”

Nelson Goodman

The Muslim Indian community is today plagued with various maladies, including poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, and political insecurity. Perhaps M. A. Jinnah had foreseen and prophesied this state of the Muslim Indian community, and had vehemently demanded the partition of the Indian Subcontinent. Jinnah may or may not have been justified in his demand for a separate state; however, the reality stands to witness that partition has in no way solved these problems; neither in India nor in Pakistan. At the same time, it is cognitively absurd at this juncture to divulge, introspect, and resent on a historical rhetoric beyond our control. We might always be tempted to depart from the metaphorical and embellished thought process of conferring Partition as the root of our present maladies. However, our mental cerebration would almost always stop us from extricating the effect of Partition and its emotional implications on the sorry state we cut today. Why is any thought of the future so hauntingly dismayed by the past? Why cannot our thought process be alienated from this rhetoric impediment? The primary reason is that we acutely lack cognitive empowerment; and love to mix emotions and thinking [aka mixing drinking and driving??].