ISLAMIC EDUCATION IN ERA 4.0

PROF. HAMIDULLAH MARAZI

(HEAD DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES, CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF KASHMIR SRINAGAR KASHMIR, INDIA)

__Presented at International Seminar Islamic Education in Era Digital 4.0 Islamic University of Jakarta, 23 February 2019__

In our presentation we will concentrate on the following aspects of the subject: We will give a detailed picture of science and modem education in Islamic world so that we understand the biggest challenge before Muslim scholars of present world. Then we will discuss the problematic and the future development of our education in Era 4.0 before talking about the potential of development of Science, humanities and Islamic education in the framework of Integration of knowledge perspective. How can we achieve the excellence in all these fields by searching for the potential of collaboration among the Islamic societies in the world, will be our final focus and focal point of the whole discussion, Insha Allah?

To start with as we know education plays a crucial role in the all-round development of a nation or community. It facilitates the foundation of industrial and economic development. But the educational conditions of Muslims in the whole world are upsetting. In all of the Muslim Majority Countries the rate of female literacy 15 very low in comparison to males. While the literacy rate in USA is 99% in total is same in case of males and females. The population of Muslims is 1.65 billion and Christians being the largest world community comprise 33.39% of the world population while as Muslims 22.74%. Jews are only 14 million and their population is 117.1 times less than Muslims and constitute 0.22% of the world population. But despite this huge population Muslim world has lost tract of the progress due to its backwardness in educational fields and spheres of knowledge, and the results of this situation have appeared in a very ugly form exposing our vulnerabilities in comparison to other communities of the world. The latest research on Current Developmental conditions of Muslims throughout the World present a very hopeless picture of “the best community” which in the words of the Quran was “brought out to lead one and all from darkness” of ignorance and deprivation to light of knowledge and progress.

In the whole Muslim world there are only 2313 universities while USA alone has 2138 universities. Brazil has 1844, Philippines 1321, Japan 692 universities.

Here an interesting fact needs to be noted that though Indonesia, a Muslim Majority country, has 517 universities, and Japan 692 universities. But Japan has 4.9 times smaller land area and 1.9 smaller population than Indonesia. While as Brazil has 1844 universities not with standing the fact that Indonesia has 1.2 times greater population than Brazil.

According to a research, in the top ten universities of the world, there is no representation of any Muslim Majority Country University at all. where as USA has seven and UK has three Universities in this list.

Again in top hundred universities of the world, no university figures in this category in any Muslim Majority Country. In top two hundred universities, USA has 54 universities and UK, Canada, Japan, China have 30, 9, 10, 7 universities individually respectively.

While Muslim Majority Countries all together have only 2 Universities in this group of universities. In the same manner in top four hundred universities USA, UK, Canada, Japan individually have more number of universities than all the Muslim Majority Countries have?

No university of any Muslim Majority Country figures in the top 155 universities of the world. The First Muslim Majority Country University which was spotted in the list is Universiti Malaya (Malaysia) claiming 156^th rank followed by King Saud University (Saudi Arabia) on 197^th position.

In the group of top four hundred universities of the world, Malaysia has five universities, Saudi Arabia has three. Kazakhstan has two, Lebanon, lndonesia, UAE and Egypt have one each.

It implies that out of 49 Muslim Majority Countries only seven have been represented in the Top Four Hundred category in context of the universities of the world. It should be noted that, the top 400 universities were ranked individually from 1^st to 400^th numbers in the order of preference given the academic excellence. Not a single university in the whole Islamic World remotely approaches the stature of European or American universities with reference of imparting the best education and even almost all these universities lack dissemination of knowledge in some important disciplines. Out of 29 subjects there is no representation of Muslim Majority Countries at all in six subjects. Those subjects are History, Medicine, Biological Sciences, Psychology and Law.

In Philosophy, Linguistics, Computer Science and Information System, Physics and Astronomy, Earth and Marine Sciences, Material Science, Statistics and Operational Research, Economics and Econometrics as only one University represents the whole Muslim world in each subject. Only two universities of Muslim Majority Countries acquired positions in top fifty universities in the context of imparting any subject.

These are Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) achieved 29^th rank in Environmental Sciences and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals ranked 34^th in Civil Engineering.

The remaining all Muslim Majority Countries universities lie in below 50 categories. These are Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) achieved 29^th rank in Environmental Sciences and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals ranked 34^th in Civil Engineering. The remaining all MMC universities lie in below 50 categories. Overall Malaysia leads the Muslim Majority Country in the universities having 32 universities followed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran having 24, 9 and 3 universities respectively in this list. Pakistan which is an important Muslim Majority Country has no representation at all in this list while Bangladesh, Kuwait and UAE have one representation each.

Another subject wise ranking prepared by Times Higher Education, for six subjects and the ranking of 50 universities prepared in each subject also depicts the same trend. As not even a single University of any Muslim Majority Country is figuring anywhere in this list. Related to the lack of educational institutions like universities, is the issue of illiteracy. Almost three qualities of the world’s 775 million illiterate adults are found in only in the countries (in descending order, in India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Brazil, Indonesia and Congo), out of the above ten countries, six are Muslim Majority Countries. It should be noted that out of these ten, six are MMCs and one is India which is the second largest Muslim populated country in the world. The number of PhDs produced by all Muslim Majority Countries collectively is 5933 in 2010 whereas Finland alone produced 7722 PhDs. in the same year. China produced 48987 and USA 49096. Moreover China, USA, Finland, Iceland, Denmark are those countries which produced individually more PhDs than all Muslim Majority countries collectively. The same trend seems very glaringly present in the less number of libraries in Muslim countries. The biggest library of the Muslim world is in Makkah where there are 40000, books, and 2000 manuscripts microfilms and periodicals.The largest library of the world is the library of Congress of USA which has 34528,818 volumes. Boston Public Library has 19090261, Harvard University 16,832,92, New York Public Library 16342365, University of Illinois 13,158,748, Yale University 12,787,962, University of California 11,545,418, Columbia University 11,189,03, University of Michigan 10,778,736, University of Texas has 9,990,941 books. One of the indicators of scientific and academic excellence is seen in the reception of noble prizes given to the performers belonging to various denominations worldwide. Here too we find Muslims lagging behind miserably. For example, though the population of Muslims in the whole world is 117 times greater than Jews but in last 105 years Jews won 180 Nobel prizes while Muslims won only 10 noble prizes. Only 9 Muslims have travelled to Space, while as 14 Jews, approximately 487 Christians, 3 Hindus and more than 20 of other faiths including Buddhists etc. Went to space till date The educational backwardness of Muslims has led to very dismal performance by them in other fields also. There is interesting information available on this issue also. For example, the sum total of the GDPs of all Muslim Majority countries in 2012 was 12 trillion US dollars while the GDP of USA in the same year was 15 trillion dollars. The GDP of China is $12.5 trillion, Japan $4.194 India $4.735, and Germany $3.194 in the same year. The sum total of the Exports of all Muslim Majority Countries was $2.190 trillion in 2012 while as China alone exported the goods of worth $2.021 trillion and USA $1.612 trillion in the same year. Hardly 16 percent of Muslim population is involved in industrial production whereas the Christian figure is 60 percent. As a result, the lack of industries etc. has led to the great number of people who have been rendered unemployed in Muslim world. Here are some details of this situation: In Burkina Faso 77%, Turkmenistan 60%, Senegal 48 %, Kosovo 45.3%, Yemen 35% people are unemployed. The percentage of below poority line people in some Muslim countries is appalling. Chad has 80 % Sierra Leon 70.2 %, Nigeria 70% and Comoros 60% people who are included among them. So far as publication of newspapers is concerned here too Muslim countries lack miserably. Turkey has 91 local newspapers, highest number in any Muslim country. But when we compare this number to the print media of western countries, there is a vast difference. UK has 652 newspapers and USA 9712 respectively. In 2012 whole Muslim world produced 3.941.737 vehicles while in the same year South Korea alone produced 4,561,766 vehicles. USA produced 10,328,884 and China Produced 19,271,808 Vehicles. There is no aircraft engine manufacturing industry in the whole Muslim world except in Iran. in the same way no Muslim Majority country has its own space shuttle; aircraft carrier etc. In 2011 whole Muslim world produced 49.1 million tonnes of steel while in the same year Arcelor Mittal SA (a steel company based in Luxembourg) produced 91.8 million tonnes of steel. China produced 716 million tonnes, Japan produced 107 million tonnes and USA produced 88.6 million tonnes of steel in the same year.

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