The Saudi job market does not need more graduates in Islamic studies, the head of one of Saudi Arabia's newest universities said in remarks published on Sunday.
The comments by Mohammed Ali al-Hazaa, who directs Jazan University in the south, could irritate many in the influential religious establishment. Founded in 2006 by King Abdullah, Jazan University does not have a faculty for religious studies, unlike other universities in the kingdom, the world's biggest oil exporter. "There is no need in the job market for graduates in Sharia (Islamic law) and the foundations of religion. We don't want to increase unemployment and the market is saturated," Hazaa told Okaz newspaper.
But surely the study of Islamic religious literature, religious law and religious history prepares one as well as rabbinic or ministerial studies for a life outside the mosque or the madrassah... oh wait.
Never mind. |
The education ministry has been considering ways of improving education after King Abdullah removed two clerics from top positions in February in what analysts said was an effort to curb the influence of the powerful clerical establishment. Graduates in religious studies work in government, education, the mosques, the courts and in the religious police force.
| Director Hazaa does have a point; professionals tend to be ever so much more effective when they've received a professional education. We wish him and his university luck in achieving this goal. |
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