M. Bitar, Ruba Mansour:
It is true to say that the official school is deficient or even inadequate, The official school is a disaster, but the parallel school is even more disastrous, and its message is contrary to the school that people want and that reason and logic want, that is, the school of science, knowledge and useful education.
Arab countries are in a state of regressive development, and this regressive development has many reasons, Here, we will limit ourselves to the school, especially the parallel school, whose platforms are dominated by absolute ignorance, compared to the official school, which also teaches the subject of ignorance and superstition, but to a lesser extent than the parallel school, which perpetuates absolute ignorance, assassinates reason, and spreads superstition, The sheikh of the parallel school explains to the listeners how the Commander of the Faithful was able to rotate the sun and the earth with his finger, and another sheikh confirms the flatness of the earth, and so on with other superstitions, A superstition is an idea that has no basis in truth and lacks scientific evidence and generally indicates a lack of logical knowledge in interpreting worldly life phenomena.
It is impossible to reconcile the internationally recognized scientific, ethical, and educational message of the school with what is preached from the pulpits of parallel schools, such as memorization schools and places of worship, in terms of superstitions, such as: “Beware of eating meat that has been touched by the hand of an infidel,” “Beware of congratulating an infidel on his holidays,” “Beware of showing mercy on the death of a person from another religion.” The list of educational ignorance is much longer than that, and what we have mentioned is only a few simple examples.
What is said and preached from the pulpits of places of worship does not pass unnoticed by people’s minds, What is preached is very important, It is not trivial chatter, but what is said from these pulpits has a great impact on people’s minds, We can almost assert that the impact of the pulpits of places of worship on minds is greater than the impact of official schools by degrees in the Arab region, The pulpits of places of worship clash with the teaching seats in official schools, and the pulpits of superstition dominate the school seats, meaning that rote learning and memorization dominate education and upbringing, And does rote learning have any benefit for the life of the individual or society in any country?
It seems clear that the preachers of the pulpits do not dedicate themselves to the method of persuasion in presenting scientific, educational, and cultural issues, Rather, they dedicate themselves to the method of indoctrination and intimidation with the wrath of God, which is portrayed in different forms according to the orientation of the preacher of the places of worship, to the point that its influence reaches something resembling terrorism, The terrorist is not only the one who carries the rifle and shoots people, hoping that someone else will shoot him so that he may rise to the rank of martyr, This terrorism is limited in its catastrophe and its effects may extend somewhat beyond the victim, unlike the terrorism of the pulpits, which terrifies a much larger segment than the terrorism of the rifle, the knife, or the cleaver, The violation of human rights by inciting one person against another and inciting others against him is more important by degrees than the loss of an individual’s life, Here, the intimidation of the pulpit surpasses the intimidation of the rifle, the knife, and the cleaver,What we see and feel confirms the occurrence of the catastrophe, and confirms the fact that the pulpits are more dangerous than rifles, In fact, rifles do not operate without the approval of the pulpits of the sheikhs, which dedicate themselves to bullets, swords, killing, and violence.
Protecting the citizen, especially his mind, is one of the fundamental duties of the state,The duties of the state are not limited to protecting the citizen’s livelihood and property, but also include protecting the most precious thing that this citizen possesses, which is his mind, Therefore, the state establishes official schools, which are responsible for raising the intellectual, cognitive and educational level of the individual. In contrast, countries in the region allow the establishment of parallel schools that stunt the mind and destroy knowledge and education, Schools that tell the student that the earth is round, and schools that tell him that it is flat, and there are hundreds of similar examples, Is it any wonder that the student is lost and confused between superstition and the unseen and scientific reality, between the unbridled pulpits and the orderly seats of study, between ignorance and knowledge, and between stagnation and openness?
What is the impression of any rational person upon hearing what is said from the pulpits? Here we immediately recall what Ali al-Wardi wrote about the Arab mind that has turned into a farce, and how can nations progress when their minds have turned into a farce? Minds occupied by the rigid patterns of stagnation, the lack of questioning, and the absence of Cartesian-Averroist doubt; minds distorted by sacred dogmatism and absoluteness, negating analysis, understanding, and perception, imprisoned by framing, a single understanding, a single color, and a single orientation, Isn’t all of this enough to explain the backwardness of the peoples of the region from the Atlantic to the Gulf?!
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