Education vital for Muslims to stay dynamic

2008/05/31

PM: Education vital for Muslims to stay dynamic

KUALA LUMPUR: Emphasis must be placed on education to ensure that Muslims remain dynamic and vigilant in the defence of truth.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that education was the vehicle through which human capital development could have a positive impact on the development of Muslim civilisation.

He said Muslim rulers had always insisted that mistakes be understood as examples that should not be repeated.

"Sadly, however, we still find ourselves mired in confusion and ignorance which have left an indelible imprint of difficulty and despair over much of the Muslim world."

Abdullah said this when launching The Encyclopedia of Islam and Iran: Dynamics of Culture and The Living Civilisation, written by Dr Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser in international affairs to Iran's Supreme Leader, at the Islamic Arts Museum here.

Abdullah said history had showed that human capital development was an integral element in the rise and fall of civilisations.

"Whenever individual thought has been threatened by corruption and decay, so too has civilisation.

"The same is true for institutionalised thought. Whenever the institutions of thought become weak and insignificant, the dependent civilisation also suffers a similar fate."

The encyclopedia, published by MPH Group Publishing, provides a comprehensive reference to the history of Islamic civilisation and its contribution to science, literature, technology and cultural practices.

Ali, who served as Iran's foreign minister between 1981 and 1997, also discusses the relevance of Islamic civilisation and the revival of Islamic culture in the book.

Also present were Abdullah's wife Datin Paduka Seri Jeanne Abdullah, Iranian ambassador to Malaysia Mahdi Khandagh Abadi, Yayasan Albukhary chairman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary and its executive vice-chairman, Datuk Ismail Yusof.