THIS is apropos the news item ‘Senate passes bill making teaching of Arabic compulsory in capital’ (Feb 2). It is heartening to learn that the language will be taught to students of primary and secondary schools in Islamabad.

The big question is: why will such a rich and refined language that is also close to our hearts be taught only in schools of Islamabad, and not in every school across the country?

As a matter of fact, teaching of Arabic should not be restricted to primary and secondary levels alone. It should be compulsory till the master’s level and even beyond.

Unfortunately, some politicians have publicly opined that by teaching Arabic the Arab culture is being imposed on Pakistanis. This is illogical. I lived in Saudi Arabia for quite some time and found all Pakistani expatriates maintaining their distinct Pakistani culture.

Muslims ruled India for a thousand years. Did we adopt the Hindu culture? The Indus valley’s religion was polytheistic and was made up of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Have we taken any of those routes?

Safir Siddiqui

Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2021