Religious scholars have termed modern education imperative for Muslims to contest the challenges of the contemporary world.
During an international seminar organised by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies on Tuesday on the topic of “Emerging challenges and the responsibilities of Islamic scholars,” renowned scholar and Vice-Chancellor University of Peshawar Qibla Ayaz, said that it is unfortunate that in Muslim world education is deemed as spending whereas rest of the world consider it as an investment.
Dr Qibla said, to curb extremism, it is responsibly of intelligentsia and religious scholars to come forward and educate people about celebrating differences and keeping unity despite of differences.
Chairman Islamic Ideological Council, Senator Maulana Mohammad Khan Shirani laid emphasis that in the face of present challenges being confronted by Muslim World, it is imperative for us to stop finding faults in others for our failures and instead should be focusing on serious soul searching to redress the emerging issues.
Maulana Shirani said that there are so many commonalities among the majority of humanity and that need to be highlighted instead of focusing on differences.
It is responsibility of religious scholars to promote peace and tolerance in the society, he noted.
Maulana Shirani also urged United Nations to ensure religious freedom for the follower of every religion.
Religious scholar Nahdatul Ulema Indonesia, Dr. Arif Zamhari, while speaking to first session of the seminar “Challenges on Educational Front and the Way Forward” also termed lack of education and modern knowledge as the biggest challenge in the Muslim world.
Dr. Zamhari said that Muslim lag far behind the other nations in almost every field of modern education and thus, it must be an area of concern for all the Muslims in the world.
Religious scholar and writer from Turkey, Shaikh Mehmet Paksu, said that Muslims should develop a system of education that could cater their religious and spiritual needs as well as the contemporary requirements.
Moulana Yaseen Zafar, Secretary General Wafaq-ul Madaris Al-Salfia, Pakistan emphasized that education needs to carry the objective of serving humanity and not just a means of getting employment.
Earlier, Mohammad Amir Rana, Director PIPS, welcomed the religious scholars from Pakistan and other parts of the world and termed it an remarkable opportunity for sharing ideas pertaining to various issues of the Muslim World and to explore the solutions.