Introductory Post

Assalamo Alaikum

Welcome to our online course on Real Statistics. This course is based on principles I have learned through a lifetime of experience in studying and teaching. It is my hope that this course will initiate a new model for our approach to education throughout the Islamic World. Knowledge is the greatest of the treasures of Allah Subhanahu wa T’aala, and learning is the most exciting of all life-experiences/adventures for which we have been created.

This online course on “Real Statistics: An Islamic approach” is an attempt to reclaim, recapture and recreate our rich Islamic Intellectual heritage. In the process of the “Theft of History”, author Jack Goody explains how Europeans borrowed ideas from other civilizations and claimed them for their own. For instance, the supposedly revolutionary Copernicus was in fact just a copyist of Muslim astronomers – see “Is Science Western in Origin?” by CK Raju.

A heavy set of tasks has been assigned to the groups for the first week. There are three/four tasks of a technical nature, to setup various mailing lists and blog memberships, for use in conducting discussions of the materials in this course. There are three to four main readings. Finally, there are three main pedagogical principles, to learn and to use for the learning process in this course, and in all courses. Details of what needs to be done are specified in outline on the main page of the course website: Real Statistics {Shortlink: bit.do/azrs0}

If there is any confusion about what needs to be done, or how to do it, group should discuss among themselves – it is likely that at least one person in the group has clarity. If no one has clarity, then the group leader should contact me.

Dr. Asad Zaman, Vice Chancellor
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics