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The Islamic State Bans Teaching Math to Students

posted by n1 on Thursday September 18 2014, @09:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the 1+1=blasphemy dept.

Hugh Pickens writes:

Newsweek reports that ISIS has announced a new curriculum banning the study of math for students in areas of Iraq and Syria it controls. Also banned will be the teaching of music, social studies (especially anything about elections or democracy), and sports. Books cannot include any reference to evolution and teachers must say that the laws of physics and chemistry "are due to Allah's rules and laws." Students will instead learn all about "belonging to Islam," and how to "denounce infidelity and infidels." Teachers who break the rules "will be punished," according to fliers posted in ISIS-controlled territory.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by monster on Friday September 19 2014, @07:41AM

    by monster (1260) on Friday September 19 2014, @07:41AM (#95388) Journal

    Quran is quite clear about allowing "peoples of the book" (christians and jews) to keep their faiths and customs unmolested, as long as they don't proselitize on the faithful. What is punished is converting to islam and then abandoning it, or falsely converting. In the first century of its existence, there were a lot of conversions, but they also conquered a lot of countries where the people who decided to keep their faiths could do so without problems, like with Armenia, Syria or Al-Andalus. That part of the book was respected, no matter what. However, there was also a non-religious reason to convert: Quran forbids taxing their believers, taxes can only be applied to peoples of other religions, so by converting people gained a "tax free" status and (later*) also better options to achieve social status.

    That people can choose to ignore certain parts of a doctrine to achieve their goals is neither new nor exclusive to islam. How can christians find compatible the mandate to "put the other cheek" with warring and crusading is shocking. Same with judaism and "Thou shall not kill".

    *For some generations, administrative and gubernative posts in islam were exclusively for arabs.

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