Qazi endorses Kannada medium, independent syllabus in Madrasas

Mangalore, July 26: The madrasas across the state should impart religious education in Kannada, urged V K Aboobaker Musliyar, Sunni Qazi of Athrady.

Addressing the media persons at the office of Karnataka Arabic Education Board at Deralakatte, near here on Monday, he said this is a far cry from the earlier situation, where students had to rely on Muslim clerics explain these texts to them in Malayalam posing additional burden on the students to learn their religious scriptures in a new tongue.

“There are misconceptions about the kind of education that students in madrasas get mainly because of language barrier,” he said.

He said, “We have been following what our brethren from Kerala told us on this issue in the past. It is time to stop doing so and chart our independent course of action.”

Qazi said, tired of accepting the herd mentality of imparting religious education on syllabus and text books prepared by Muslim clerics from Kerala in Malayalam, the Board has given a new impetus to its two year old initiative of imparting education in Kannada for Muslim students in madrasas across Karnataka in general and the three coastal districts in particular.

There are nearly 1,500 madrasas in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district where religion education is imparted by clerics trained in religious schools in Kerala and the medium of instruction is Malayalam, he said.

Darul Bayan

P Aboobaker, Philanthropist cum Businessman who is heading the Board said, the Board has also opened Darul Bayan, an Arabic College at Deralakatte where students learn Arabic, Kannada, Urdu and English. Arrangements have also been made to ensure that these students earn a conventional BA degree, he said.

The board is reaching out to all sections of Muslim community and the leaders of management committees of the Sunni mosques to promote Kannada teaching of religion lessons and madrassas and leaders are responding positively to the overtures, he noted.

He said, majority of Muslim students attend regular school in addition to the madrasas and Kannada is an integral part of their regular education. It therefore makes sense to impart religious education to them in the language they are familiar with and can understand unlike Malayalam that is alien to them. A similar situation confronts student in Uttara Kannada, Hassan, Chikmagalur and Kodagu where Malayalam is the medium, he said.

Text books

Stepping up its efforts at gaining recognition from the state government, the Karnataka Arabic Education Board with the help of Muslim religious scholars presented a set of Kannada textbooks prepared by the board to Mukyamanthri Chandru. “He (Chandru) is pleased with our initiatives to impart religious eduction in Kannada,” said Aboobaker.