Crirical Education and Islamic Culture

Muslim societies throughout the world are undergoing a profound cultural crisis brought about by their adoption at various levels of scale of Western educational patterns in order to acquire modern technology and knowhow for the sake of economic development. The modern school system in Muslim countries is seen to be in an ethical and spiritual vacuum and, at the same time, as a feeble and inefficient copy of Western models. The traditional Islamic system is often considered to be out-of-date, backward-looking and intellectually stagnant. Originally Muslims, by implementing Islamic injunctions in their individual and collective lives, achieved the highest social economic, and political stature in their contemporary world. Some Muslim scholars hold out the view that a synthesis is possible, in which Western scientific thought will be sanitized and rid of its secular and amoral accretions. Modern Western education places an exaggerated emphasis upon reason and rationality and underestimates the value of the spirit.