There are those who still talk about miracles and believe in superstitions such as revelation, Gabriel, divine inspiration, and so on, If what was mentioned—and there is much of it—is superstition, is it reasonable to teach superstition in schools? What are the results of this superstition in education? Isn’t it expected that children and young people will become superstitious in the prime of their lives? Eliminating the teaching of superstition means eliminating the teaching of religious education and replacing it with something useful such as ethics or even sex education!
Canceling the teaching of religious education does not mean eliminating religion from people’s lives, but rather privatizing superstition,Just as religion is a personal matter, it should remain so, The school is a public institution and should not be misused for personal purposes, Whoever wants to educate their children about the unseen aspects of the revelation, Gabriel, and other such things should do so at home, The school, which is committed to and obligated to science, is not qualified to teach religious unseen matters, despite the proximity of atheism to science, The school is also not designated for teaching the subject of atheism.
This demand or demands regarding the school have several contexts that are related to each other. The first context is that staying away from the unseen is a vital necessity, and one of the vital necessities is separating religion from the state, There is no separation between religion and the state without separating religion from the school.
The second context concerns the religion taught in schools, a religion in crisis, because it represents a continuation of a crisis, The eras of the early Muslims were in crisis because they represented a decline based on a backward-looking approach to religious culture—a crisis founded on contrast and contradiction with the present, Religion promotes a heaven that is said to be infallible, but the suspicious thing is that heaven is not always right and is always wrong, If heaven were not wrong, those who act according to its laws and guidance would not be so backward, such as fatalism, dependency, waiting for divine intervention, and practicing the abominations that heaven commands, such as murder, exclusion, enmity, warfare, loyalty and disavowal… and almost everything we see on the socio-political and economic scene in the Arab countries of believers. Secularism is a necessity that most of the world’s peoples have realized, and religion does not want it. Therefore, we cannot want religion, or at least we do not want our children to receive a religious education that gradually distances them from the realities of life. The new, saving religion is secularism!
The third context is the right of the non-religious person not to expose his children, for whom he is responsible, to an upbringing that is destructive to the mind. There are subjects that build the mind, such as the subject of ethics. It cannot be said that teaching religious education is at the same time teaching ethics. Where is religion in relation to ethics?! Are religious peoples who send their children to memorization schools moral or morally superior to the morals of other peoples who do not know memorization schools, or the teaching of religious education? Religious schools or colleges are schools that turn religion into mere rituals separate from ethics and constructive social action, or turn the student in these schools into extremism, radicalism, crime and terrorism. Most of the ISIS members were graduates of religious schools and institutes. These schools produced the distorted human being addicted to practicing takfiri (infidle)violence and destructive sectarian conflict.
Even if canceling the teaching of religious education in schools is mostly symbolic and less practical now, since there are schools that cannot be controlled, such as mosques like Kaftour and Qubaysiyat centers and others, and teaching morals is very difficult in a country drowning in decline and corruption, the cancellation is somewhat symbolic, but its symbolism is very important… all beginnings were symbolic…!
There are those who still talk about miracles and believe in superstitions such as revelation, Gabriel, divine inspiration, and so on, If what was mentioned—and there is much of it—is superstition, is it reasonable to teach superstition in schools? What are the results of this superstition in education? Isn’t it expected that children and young people will become superstitious in the prime of their lives? Eliminating the teaching of superstition means eliminating the teaching of religious education and replacing it with something useful such as ethics or even sex education!