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Whatever the flaws of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) – we cannot doubt its tenacity. Week after week, it continues to churn out an obsolete and extreme worldview, to the derision of critics and the exasperation of the government. Had Maulana Sherani and his pet council been powerless, it could have been ignored like the ramblings of the neighbourhood fool – yet it does hold residual power, and it continues to trip up the government’s plans.
The most recent victim of this worldview is the government’s plan to introduce a translated version of the Quran into the syllabus. The objective is to familiarise the students with an accurate and contextualised study of the Quran that focuses on the humanitarian aspects of Islam; that way ignorant youths cannot be misled by a warped interpretation using selected, mistranslated verses.
It is a worthy cause – and the CII accepts that too – yet the books sent to the body by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training were rejected because they had too many unspecified “lacunas”. What are these lacunas, how do they detract from the objective and how they can be fixed is something the learned cleric decided not to share with the rest of the world. Instead he informed the media that the CII will prepare a list of “Madani” verses – those revealed when the Prophet (PBUH) was in Medina – to be included in the syllabus.
The reason behind any of this is absent too – as it usually is in the learned cleric’s statements. What we can anticipate however is the fact that the proposed verses will be a lot more antagonistic, since they focused on a time when Medina was fighting an active war against the non-believers of Makkah.
There go the good intentions of the government – even when they try to teach the Quran they are thwarted by the established cleric class. The government can – and should – simply bypass the defunct council to implement this step, and disband it for good measure to get rid of the sheer bother of having to do this every time.
The cleric wasn’t done -- he also recommended that Pakistan should not sign the Hague convention on Parental Responsibility and Protection of Children, as it contradicted international human rights. Amusing, since he has previously denounced the Human Rights Charter as anti-Shariah.
It would have made for an interesting commentary had he given details on these supposed contradictions – but then again, when it comes to the CII, asking for rationality and reason is hoping for too much. Thankfully their recommendations are not binding; so let's get back to work, GoP. The show's over.