BENGALURU: Islamic Information Center (IIC), a non-governmental organisation, has launched a six-month spoken English course for Islamic scholars to help them prevent misguided and frustrated youth from the community in urban areas from taking to extremism. Zuhed Khan, president of IIC, said without the knowledge of English, many Islamic scholars are unable to answer questions on religious matters raised by the youth from the community living in cities and towns. Hence, the course has been designed to help them.
“Several international extremist organisations are misguiding the youth from the community in the name of religion through social media platforms. They target educated youth and attempts are being made to brainwash them. As scholars are the ones who take religion, literature and culture to the people, it is important that they know the language better to ensure that they preach the right knowledge.
The idea is to prevent the youth from the community from falling prey to extremist organisations. The scholars will be taught to speak English fluently. Twenty-five scholars attended classes last Friday,” Khan said. Fifty scholars have enrolled for the course. Scholars from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have evinced interest in the course, he said.
The course is being offered to scholars from madrasas and masjids at DJ Halli, Shivajinagar and other areas in the city. Apart from them, merchants and businessmen from the community are also being encouraged to seek admission. IIC is ready to offer the course online if the number of scholars and others seeking admission goes up, he said.
Abdul Raheem, who teaches Arabic to children at Masjid-E-Ghani at DJ Halli, said, “I have been teaching Arabic for four years and wanted to learn English. This course will help me reach Islamic literature and culture to children and clear their doubts over religious matters.”