Agha Pooya's "Fundamentalsof Islam" may...

Agha Pooya's "Fundamentalsof Islam" may, perhaps serve a far better purpose than the classes conducted by religious teachers whose scholastic credentials are suspect and whose own knowledge is strictly limited, and who, more often than not, are so hide-bound in their approach that they generate more heat than light in the course of the discussions and discourses.

Lest I am misunderstood, I may clarify that I am all for selection and appointment of really learned and competent teachers of religious principles and doctrinces, in the true sense of the term, who can inculcate and develop a taste and kindle a yearning for religion in their pupils and not merely teach as a fulfilment of their professional duty during the appointed hours; persons who can clear mental cobwebs and aberrations by encourag- ing questions and arguments and not stifle them by snubs and scorn, persons who, like Tennyson, feel: There is more truth in honest doubts Believe me, than in all your creeds.

My genuine apprehension is that such dedicated persons are so rare and difficult to find that, instead of searching for them far and wide, we may compromise by settling for and…