Pakistan (Islamic Law or English Law)

During the golden age of the Muslims, they were scholars in science, art, medicine, astrology, physics, chemistry, geography etc.. and had written thousands of books on every subject it is noted that just Cordova had 70 libraries that consisted of more than four hundred thousand volume both religious and non religious books from all over the world, cities like Baghdad and Cordova were the seats of learning and in a period of the dark ages of the West, Islam shone as a bright light, bringing people from all religions to study and learn various subjects. People from all religions, Christians and Jews alike learnt Arabic and studied at the universities in these great lands. There was no such thing as School and the Madrassah was the place where great ideas were discussed and books written. Islamic Philosophy knew no bounds and the books of Ibne Sina (called Avicenna in Europe) and Ibne Rushd (called Averroes) were used in the western universities up to the 16th and 17th centuries. The West today is greatly indebted to Islam for their progress and the advanced state of affairs.

An internet site on YouTube called �Islam in Europe --When Muslims Ruled in Europe� is a must see for all who want to understand the golden period of Islam in Europe. Also an article in the Business Recorder dated 11th August2007 in the weekend section had an article, � Influence of Muslim Philosophy on the West� is some good reading, and here is the website address to access this article,

//www.brecorder.com/index.php?show=detail&id=604536&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=

The conquests of the Europeans over the Muslim world began with a well thought out plan. To uproot the education system of the muslims. Hence when the British entered Sudan there were already a total of 55,000 Madrassah�s within three years of their colonization only 3000 Madrassah survived, the rest were all closed down and hundreds and thousands of learned scholars were put to death or imprisoned. Muslims were forced to learn the language of the foreigners and the new system of schools was put in place, as time went by the schools gained prominence and the Madrassah system stayed stagnant as there was no funding of any sort and most of the learned Muslim scholars were terminated systematically. The new found English education gave prominence to people at the grass root levels hence schools began to flourish. On the other hand Madrassah were restricted to only learning the Quran, and the meaning and interpretation of the Quran and all other knowledge on other subjects that was once part of the Madrassah became extinct.

Now after gaining independence from the colonization and with new found freedom our so called leaders did nothing to revive the old Madrassah system, there was no room for Islam or the Quran in the modern educational system. Hence the Madrassah had to survive on its own therefore turning to educate the poor who could not afford the expenses of the schools. Students at these Madrassah�s turned to teaching and that taught the poor free of cost in return for handouts from the local people thus continued a long circle of the same following. With no funding and no restoration of the old teaching system the Madrassah's gradually became closed to new ideas and imposed strict interpretations of Islam. Education of all sorts needs to be revitalized new research is needed in all fields, new ideas etc which unfortunately has not been the case in Madrassah�s that turned into breeding grounds for a strict interpretation of Islam creating the so called stereotype mullahs.

I at times find it unfortunate to see people opting for western type of governments and democracy when the best forms of governance and rule is the Islamic law. Look at all the Hollywood movies that depict the future or the best of analysts or experts that speak or predict the future, non have been able to be accurate as compared to what the Quran has predicted 1400 years ago that have all proven true without any mistake whatsoever. How can we then accept something that is alien to us and based only on making us into puppets or slaves of the capitalists.

It�s important to do some reading of Islamic history apart from that which is taught in schools and those who are blinded by the western system will see that neither the Islamic system nor the Muslims are inferior.