CII wants jihad verses to be taught in schools

Advisory council sees conspiracy in syllabus preparation

HYDERABAD: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has demanded that verses about jihad should be included in the proposed syllabi for public sector institutions for primary to higher secondary education.

The demand came on Tuesday during the council’s 205 meeting chaired by its Chairman Maulana Muhammad Sheerani in which the proposed syllabus was reviewed.



Last month, the ministry of education and professional training finalised its proposed curriculum for public educational institutions, making a strong pitch for all federating units to introduce teaching of the Holy Quran as a compulsory subject from grade 1 to 12 and sent it to the CII for its input.

On Tuesday, when the CII took up the matter it was found that the ministry did not include the verses about jihad in the proposed syllabus that irked the council which demanded that the government include them immediately.

During the meeting, it was found that the ministry had focused historical incidents of holy prophets in the proposed syllabus which have been mentioned in the Holy Quran but jihad was ignored.

“Some 484 verses related to jihad are mentioned in the Holy Book but not a single verse has been mentioned in the syllabi that showed mala fide intention of the government,” Zahid Mehmood Qasmi, member of the council told The Express Tribune.

According to the proposed draft, recitation from the Holy Quran would be taught from grade 1 to 5 and proper Quranic education with translation would be taught to students of grade 6 to 10 in public schools.

“Within five years, students will be able to recite all of the Holy Quran as it will help reduce the burden of parents who hire a teacher or send their children to religious seminaries for this purpose,” it further said.



However, during its review the council observed that selected material was picked up for the syllabi. Qasmi said he personally raised the objection for not including the verses about jihad in the proposed syllabus.

During the meeting, the members of the council have agreed that the exclusion of verses on jihad from the syllabus is a deliberate attempt so that children could not be aware about jihad.

Dr Noor Ahmed Shahtaz, who is also a member of the council, said the government tried to propose a selected content of the holy book to gain political mileage.

The council will continue its review of the proposed syllabus on Wednesday and then final recommendations will be given to the government, Maulana Sheerani told The Express Tribune.

He said two important drafts — physical torture on children and women protection bill — prepared by the CII will be discussed in next two days.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2016.