Islam adopts to education on the net

PHOTO

High-tech has come to Islamic eduction. [ABC]

Richard Orange, Surat

Last Updated: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:06:00 +1000

An Islamic sect dating back almost 1,000 years has adopted online technology to support its teaching around the world.

The Dawoodi Bohras are members of a branch of Islam based in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

At the well-ordered campus of Al Jamea Tus Saifiyah university, in the ctiy of Surat, teachers use modern technology to help students memorise and recite the holy book, the Koran, and practise making the call to prayer.

The spiritual leader, Syedna Muhammad Burhanuddin, 98, has just welcomed more than 10,000 students who travelled to the university for exams.

The men are distinctive in their golden-embroidered hats and the women in brightly coloured burkha garments.

Respect

But the Islamic branch's respect for education also sets it apart.

Lecturer Yusuf Rangwallah, from England, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia that as well as Islamic studies, students can major in areas such as economics, mathematics and physics.

But it is in study of Islam that high-tech has come into its own.

In older times, trainee reciters of the holy Koran would use a stone water jar to improve the resonance and tone of their chant.

At Al Jamea Tus Saifiyah university, students go into a sound-proof room, to find a curious Arabic-style lectern, with a touch-screen computer and microphones in front of it.

Here, in a professionally designed studio, sound-recording technology helps the recitation students.

They can record and listen to their efforts in bass or higher voices. ""You have to have all the qualities to be a perfect reciter," says Mr Rangwallah.

The Islamic students are forbidden to watch Bollywood films.

But film technology is used to get Koran recitations on the internet to broadcast to students all over the world who cannot get to Gujarat.

There are also live, one-on-one tutorials for international students via the university website.

A thousand people enrolled in online courses.

Some are from Africa; 120 students are in Houston, in the US state of Texas.

The university is pleased that more than 4,000 students, with the help of tecnology, have been able to memorise the entire Koran.

"So now it's globally wide because of the internet," says Mr Rangwallah.