Reflecting on My Islamic Education with Abdulrahman Bindamnan

Middle East Forum Radio

Abdulrahman Bindamnan spent his childhood studying in Yemen’s Islamic schools. He memorized the Qur'an, a book of 77,000 words, and spent countless hours perfecting his Qur’anic pronunciation. Reflecting on this experience from the vantage point as a graduate student in the United States, he argues that too large a proportion of Muslim children fail to receive a secular education, and instead advance the primacy of revelation over reason. What is the current role of education in the Islamist agenda? What effects do such dogmas have in the West?