The state of education in a country often indicates how progressive societies are. In a dysfunction state like Pakistan, the system of education has become a casualty under the Islamists and religious fanatics, who are controlled by the Pakistan military establishment to further their political agenda.
An incident in the terror state of Pakistan has revealed the nature of religious intolerance that exists in the Islamist societies towards ‘non-believers’. Arshad Yousafzai, a Pakistani journalist in his post reported how Pakistan’s education system is itself promoting hatred against people from other religion.
In his tweet, Arshad Yousafzai mentions a recent SSC annual exams that held in Karachi, in which the examiner had asked a question in the exam of Islamic Studies to choose an answer for the worst animal before Allah. The options for the question were donkey, pig, infidels, or monkey.
On Monday in the SSC annual exams being held under the Matric Board Karachi, a controversial question 4rm the question paper of Islamic Studies contained (MCQs) asked the students to make a choice that the worst animal before Allah is: donkey, pig, infidels, or monkey. pic.twitter.com/cQNMfufGw8
— Arshad Yousafzai (@Arshadyousafzay) April 8, 2019
Yousafzai further added that the students appeared before the exams were puzzled to pick the right choice as the examiner who had prepared those question papers believed that the right answer for the question was ‘infidels’, a person who has no religion or a non-believer according to Abrahamic religions.
According to the journalist, the religious scholar who had set the question paper mentioned a verse from Surat Al-Anfal, one of the chapters in the holy book of Quran, which has been used with translation in the textbook of Islamic Studies by Sindh Text Book Board. The verse said, “Indeed, the worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are those who have disbelieved, and they will not [ever] believe”.
Arshad added that the religious scholar also cited a few verses related to the infidels. “Certainly, the worst of beasts in Allah’s sight are those who do not believe and they will not believe,” one of the verses that were quoted by the scholar according to Arshad.
The religious scholar further said that those candidates who have chosen the answer ‘Pig’ will not be awarded any mark while those students who had marked that infidels are the worst animal before Allah would be receiving one mark as it was the right answer.
When the reporter questioned the religious scholar on why don’t they teach and prepare questions as per syllabus, the scholar reportedly admitted his fault and vowed that he will review the question paper next year.
