Kuwait-based cleric Arshad Mohsin on Friday exhorted the Muslims to stop studying arithmetic chemistry and zoology as these subjects taught things against the basic tenets of Islam.Delivering the Friday special speech at the White House Compound Mosque of the town, he said even nursery rhymes should not be taught to the Muslims as the likes of 'Johny Johny Yes Papa, eating sugar no Papa' polluted impressionable young minds and glorified telling a lie.Referring to zoology, the cleric said Darwin's 'Theory of Evolution' negated the Islamic concept of the process through which the universe came into being. Anybody who studied Darwin automatically ceases to be a Muslim, he said.Explaining his opposition to the teaching/learning of chemistry, the cleric said chemical elements like cobalt and titanium derived their nomenclature from idols worshipped in the pre-Islamic era. He said it was part of the larger design to promote idol worship, which is most abhorred by Islam.Islam stood for the negation of idol worship and its continuation through modern education was not acceptable to anybody who believed in the teachings of the prophet Muhammad and contents of the Quran.The cleric also said the Quran contained everything required for success in this world and thereafter. He also exhorted all Muslims to study Arabic and offered his services for its propagation at Gaya A section of the Muslims present there objected to the cleric's sermon and condemned the mosque management for allowing people to deliver sermon without proper scrutiny of their credentials. Such orthodox and regressive views can only push the community further down in the gutter of ignorance and illiteracy, they said.Dr Shakeb Zaman, who was present during the sermon, said the cleric was doing disservice to Islam by denigrating modern education as the prophet himself emphasised the importance of education and exhorted his followers to go to distant China in pursuit of knowledge (China at that time was regarded as a centre of excellence in the field of knowledge).Social activist Sharim Ali also decried Mohsin.When contacted, mosque committee president Qamar Warsi said he did not permit Mohsin to deliver the Friday sermon. Md Seraj, the regular imam, was the authorized cleric to deliver the Friday sermon, said Warsi. He would inquire into how he addressed the gathering and ensure that such controversial statements are not made from the mosque pulpit in future, said Warsi.

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