‘Neutrality of mind important to study Islamic history’

Karachi
Neutrality and open-mindedness are highly imperative in studying Islamic history. The basic purpose of social sciences is to promote critical and analytical thinking in a society.
Dr Syed Nomanul Haq, professor of the Institute of Business Administration, said this on Thursday while delivering a lecture on, “A study of early Islamic History: Methodology of Research and Teaching in Western Academia.”
The lecture series is organised by the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Karachi.
Dr Haq is a historian, noted especially for his contributions to the fields of Islamic history, Islamic philosophy and literature in Muslim societies. He remained a senior faculty member at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) for several years and subsequently joined the IBA in Karachi as a professor and advisor to steer its social sciences and liberal arts’ initiative.
He has educated at the University College London, as well as Harvard and his works have been published widely and carried by some of the world’s top research journals and prestigious publishers.
The professor said that one must differentiate between conventional and real neutrality and lamented that the Higher Education Commission was discouraging the field of social sciences by curtailing the funding for it, which was not a good omen.
“Some subjects of social sciences like sociology and anthropology are considered “soft” or “feminist” subjects. We must try to prevent such type of a policy followed by the HEC.
He viewed that the Al-Azhar University in Cairo was under political influence so, according to him, it has lost its importance and credibility.
But, he mentioned, there were some distinguished institutions in Iran as far as Islamic studies was concerned which weare doing path breaking research in the field of Islamic history.