Keep God Out Of Schools: Prayer Idiocy Indoctrinates Impressionable Minds And Benumbs Them

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 4 January 2022 I concur with Mr Ghulam Mohiyuddin that god must be kept out of schools. The great French existentialist and Nobel laureate Albert Camus opined the same. Call it a coincidence, today (Jan 4) is his death anniversary. The most asinine tradition of prayer assembly at schools must immediately be stopped. Whether it's Iqbal's religio-moral Nazm or some mumbo-jumbo from Gita or our 'Father in heaven' (morons don't know that their fathers are in this world!) from the Bible, this prayer idiocy indoctrinates impressionable minds and benumbs them. A few years ago, a 14-yr-old Tamil boy in Sri Lanka, refused to participate in any kind of prayer/s at his school and wrote to the headmaster that it was a sheer religious indoctrination and as a free individual sans any religion and god, he had the right to skip prayer meets. The headmaster had to relent. I never attended prayer assembly when I was in Iran (of course, those were different days) and requested the principal to exempt me from this veritable nightmare. My Shia headmaster allowed me happily as he himself was against this rigmarole of prayers in schools. A child's mind is a clean slate ( Tabula rasa in Latin, coined by the English philosopher John Locke). Don't pollute it with prayers. I used to teach Agams and Sutras at a Jain institute where I'd explain extremely recondite Jain Sutras in Prakrit to the Jain munis. I made it a point that no Navkar Mantra would be recited before, after and during the sessions.The reason being, Jainism, like Buddhism, is an atheistic faith ( though all Jains regardless of their denominations, religiously worship Hindu deities and believe in eating the cake and having it too!) and there were a couple of British students as well who were studying Jainism but were not Jains. I'm not against prayers and those who pray to a higher power. I'm against the imposition of it, esp. when young and unwilling minds are forced to pray in the morning. You cannot make kids/individuals morally upright by subjecting them to heartless prayers either at schools or at homes. You've a coruscating example of Albert Camus as perhaps the greatest moralist and most humane human the world has ever seen. Read his profound essay, ' Reflections on the Guillotine.' He was a pacifist who was rabidly against war and capital punishment. The point is, humans sans any faith can also have moral rectitude. Prayers don't ennoble you. Lastly, one must read Algeria-born Camus' " Underbelly of faith, " in which he condemned clergy and how religious people sexually exploited the gullible followers. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/god-school-prayer-indoctrinates-/d/128797 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism