خلاصة:
What are the major pillars of education today? The International
Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century focused
on this question in its report to the premier United Nations agency
in education: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). In its report, “Learning: The Treasure
Within,” the commission stated that life-long education is based
upon four pillars: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live
together, and learning to be
ملخص الجهاز:
In this essay, I will use this cultural-functional framework to discuss and then link the seven functions of Islam in Africa with the UN Alliance of Civi lizations (UNAOC) and UNESCO reports to underline the need for modern well-educated Africans to learn about Islam in Africa.
Guinea Morocco# Angola Côte d’Ivoire Guinea-Bissau* Mozambique Benin DR Congo Kenya Namibia Botswana Djibouti Lesotho Niger Burkina Faso Egypt* Liberia Nigeria Burundi Equat.
* Gabon Mali Senegal Chad Gambia Mauritania Seychelles Comoros Ghana Mauritius Sierra Leone Source: Websites of the African Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation However, OIC membership alone is not a sufficient indicator of Islam’s importance in Africa.
Even in those countries in which Islam is the predominant religion, Muslims must know its complete, complex, and contextual history; (2) recognizes that this knowledge must be balanced with a “knowledge of global issues and an understanding and appreciation of other societies and cultures,” an imperative that is especially true for Africans, given Islam’s significant presence both on the continent and the world stage; and (3) appears to treat history as a potential academic vehicle to learn about re ligion without necessarily excluding other subjects.
In the next section I will utilize Mazrui’s framework of the seven functions of culture, examine the seven func tions of Islam in Africa, and consider their implications for the four pillars of education described in the UNESCO report.
For African non-Muslims, particularly if they are the majority, learning to live together would also imply education about Islam to enable them to under stand its differences and commonalities with their own religions.