Kuwait-based cleric asks youths not to study maths, chemistry, zoology

From the Times of India

Gaya: (ancient historical city in Bihar) Kuwait-based cleric Arshad Mohsin on Friday exhorted the Muslims to stop studying arithmetic, chemistry and zoology as these subjects taught things against the basic tenets of Islam.

Delivering the Friday special speech at the White House Compound Mosque of the town, he said even nursery rhymes should not be taught to the Muslims as the likes of ‘Johny Johny Yes Papa, eating sugar no Papa’ polluted impressionable young minds and glorified telling a lie.

Referring to zoology, the cleric said Darwin’s ‘Theory of Evolution’ negated the Islamic concept of the process through which the universe came into being. Anybody who studied Darwin automatically ceases to be a Muslim, he said.

Explaining his opposition to the teaching/learning of chemistry, the cleric said chemical elements like cobalt and titanium derived their nomenclature from idols worshipped in the pre-Islamic era. He said it was part of the larger design to promote idol worship, which is most abhorred by Islam.

The cleric also said the Quran contained everything required for success in this world and thereafter. He also exhorted all Muslims to study Arabic and offered his services for its propagation at Gaya.

A section of the Muslims present there objected to the cleric’s sermon and condemned the mosque management for allowing people to deliver sermon without proper scrutiny of their credentials. Such orthodox and regressive views can only push the community further down in the gutter of ignorance and illiteracy, they said. (How far down the gutter do they admit they are they already?)