Tariq Nelson

In the story below, they don’t think that many Muslims in India prefer to be ignorant, but it is because they cannot afford it. In other words, if they could afford it, they would do it.

However, in far too many cases here, I have found that - especially amongst Blackamerican Muslims that have thrown themselves into the movement mentality - it seems that it is the opposite. People actually have access to education in these cases, but do not take it seriously at all - as illustrated in these sad comments. 

We have clean water and other blessings, but choose not to use them - sometimes in the name of “piety” - and hurt the children in the process. We become so wrapped up in tired slogans and religious (fiqh) hairsplitting that basic things like children’s education and nutrition take a back seat. Or no seat at all.

Meanwhile, many of those that don’t have access to these things, wish they had it (though I suspect many are mired in the same attitudes that plague us here)

A national commission has laid bare the plight of India’s 150-million Muslim minority: Compared to other segments in the 1.3 billion population, Muslims are poorer, less educated, less employed, less employable, clustered in urban ghettoes and hobbled by official and social discrimination.

Justice Rajindar Sachar, who headed the seven-person commission, has also exposed some myths, especially in the area of education.

“The popular perception that religious conservatism among Muslims is a major factor for not accessing education is incorrect,” he writes.

“As with many Indians, the main reason for educational backwardness of Muslims is abject poverty due to which children are forced to drop out. This is particularly true for girls …

“Poverty and financial constraints are the major causes” holding Muslim girls back, not their religion, says Sachar. He also punctures several assumptions about India’s madrassas (religious schools).

Contrary to popular belief “that Muslim parents have a preference for religious education,” only 4 per cent of Muslim children are enrolled in such schools. And many are there because that’s their “only education option” in the absence of public schools in their areas.

In such cases, madrassas are, in fact, “rendering a useful service” imparting literacy.

Yet such schools are often “looked upon with suspicion. Even though there has been no evidence to suggest that madrassas are producing terrorists, they are constantly under scrutiny. This has a detrimental and traumatic impact on the children studying in them.”

Many madrassas do want to move beyond religious teaching, using state subsidies. But those that do teach sciences, mathematics and other subjects have found teacher salaries not forthcoming, and their students’ credentials not recognized for post-secondary education.

But given the small number of children enrolled in them, even modernized madrassas “cannot be a substitute for mainstream education.”

“There are few good schools in Muslim neighbourhoods.” Schools there have a high teacher-pupil ratio, low quality of teaching and high teacher absenteeism.

[...]

Muslims have tried to set up their own quality educational institutions. But such institutions are often denied accreditation or are approved only on a year-to-year basis.

This contravenes the Indian constitution, which guarantees all minorities the right to their own educational institutions.

The overall effect is that fewer Muslims matriculate — 17 per cent vs. 26 per cent for all Indians. While 7 per cent of Indians graduate or hold diplomas, only 4 per cent of Muslims do. While 6 per cent of women graduate, only 3.6 per cent of Muslim women do.

“The participation of Muslims in engineering and medical courses is particularly low.”

In post-graduate schools, Muslims rank below even the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes — those on the lowest totem pole of Hindu hierarchy.

At the elite Indian Institutes of Management, Muslims constitute only 1.3 per cent of the student body.