[lit-ideas] Blind Leading the Not-so Blind
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2006 14:45:12 -0500
Since we're talking about education....
What's With All the Blind Clerics?
Vision and the Muslim world.
By Daniel Engber
The Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri denied
preaching racial hatred in a British courtroom on
Thursday. Al-Masri has been linked to the would-be
shoe-bomber Richard Reid and stands accused of
starting a terrorist training camp in Oregon. Most
news reports also mention that al-Masri has only
one eye and no hands. It seems like we're always
hearing about blind or half-blind Muslim
clerics—what's the deal?
There is a pattern of the blind leading the
not-blind in modern Islam. A traditional Muslim
education in some ways favors the blind, since it
proceeds largely through the repetition and
memorization of sacred texts. Children chant
Quranic verses until they know them by heart;
those who learn the whole book often receive
advanced religious training. Blind kids—who often
make up for their disability with a finely tuned
sense of hearing—tend to do quite well at this.
More at: http://www.slate.com/id/2134506/fr/rss/
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