A prominent cleric in Sokoto State and Chairman of the Jama’atul Izalatul Bid’a Waikamatul Sunnah (JIBWIS) in Wamakko Local Government Area of the state, Sheikh Bakiru Gulma, yesterday called on parents to send their female children to school, stressing that those individuals misleading northerners that western education is forbidden in Islam are ignorant.
Gulma made the assertion at a forum on Almajiri and girl-child education organised by the Voice of America (VOA) in Sokoto, yesterday.
He maintained that those against western education in the North did not understand Islam and as such should be disregarded by the public.
The cleric emphasised that Prophet Muhammad instructed Muslims to engage in the search for knowledge and should go as far as China to acquire education.
According to him, there is no verse in the Quran that forbids Muslims from acquiring education and wondered where the individuals got such misleading information.
“There is nowhere in the holy Quran that forbids women from acquiring western education.
“Life is dynamic and mankind has to adjust through education which provides skills and knowledge. So, people saying that western education is sin are ignorant of Islamic teachings,” the cleric averred.
Gulma asserted that western innovations in science, medicine, mathematics, astronomy as well as algebra originated from Muslim scientists several centuries ago.
He noted that Persian Mathematician Al Khwarizmi wrote the first book on algebra and whose name the word algorithm was derived from.
The cleric said it was Muslims that abandoned the pursuit of education and stressed the need for communities to show serious commitment to the education of the girl-child as a veritable means of moving the society forward.
“There is need for the communities and parents to join hands together to ensure the education of the girl-child with a view to restoring the glory of education in the North,” Gulma added. In a remark, a lecturer at the Department of Education, Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, Dr. Rabi Muhammad Wadata, said it was high time parents and communities in the North rose up to ensure the education of the girl-child.
She opined that marriage was not an impediment to a girl acquiring western education, hence the need for parents to show more commitment to the education of their wards.
Also speaking, the facilitator of the VOA programme, Malam Sahaboo Imam, decried that the North was retrogressing due to the neglect of education as compared to other parts of the country.
He urged traditional and religious leaders to redouble their efforts towards enlightening their communities on the benefits of education.
“We cannot continue to fold our arms while a large number of our children are out of school.
“So, there is an urgent need for traditional and religious leaders to intensify campaign on the need for parents to allow their female children acquire western education,” Imam stressed.
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