Teaching Against Extremist Ideologies Through Evidence Obtained from the Holy Quran

Abstract

Without proper religious education, the Muslim youth continue to be targeted for destructive, deviant and straying ideas by terrorist groups that may lead to extreme ideologies far from the moderate nature of Islam, and therefore the consequences may be disastrous and could lead to acts of terrorism. The absence of the true understanding of Islamic teaching leaves a catastrophic impact on the Islamic nation and the world; hence it is worth noting that learning how to counter these deviated ideologies through evidence obtained from Quranic texts is crucial to eliminate the ongoing threats, as this knowledge responds to falsehood, refutes it, and invalidates it. The religious information given in conventional education is insufficient for Muslim students to face the growing challenges in the environment around them, especially in an era where there is a lot of confusion, distortion of facts, intolerance, and intellectual and behavioral extremism. Therefore, this study calls for the reconsideration of the role of educational institutions, and to transfer conventional education from indoctrination, memorization, and recitation, to teaching students thinking skills. There are many examples in Quran that show how to use the rational approach and critical thinking in order to remove false ideas. It is crucial to develop educational curricula and teaching methods by adding the method of mental and logical reasoning based on evidence obtained from Quran in order to emphasize Islamic principles of justice, tolerance, security and coexistence

Keywords: Education, Extremism, Quran, Thinking Skills.

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-13-13

Publication date:May 31^st 2020