The Menace of Education Mr. Hoodbhoy, I wonder how much effect writing this convincing piece will have on the people who control change in Pakistan. Wouldn`t some sort of citizens movement, demanding specific (rather than the highly general changes you suggest) and urgent change, be a more fruitful channel for protest.

To take a tip from the biggest douche in the universe - Bush Jr. - I think it`s necessary for intellectuals, students and Pakistanis who care to form a ``coalition of the willing`` and press for educational change and reform collectively. Individually, most of us can only make interesting noises. But if we were to channel and pool our efforts, I cannot help but feel that we would achieve more.

Unless ofcourse most of these noises are meant to be just that - noises.

Universities As Brand Names I would disagree. I think the American model of a liberal arts education is unparalleled in the world even today, though some pathblazing colleges have adopted this system outside North America. I`d like to see anyone challenge me and tell me that the liberal arts system, currently employed by most of America`s best universities (including Harvard, MIT, Yale that are mentioned in replies here) far outperforms the old British and Austrian post WWII systems still in use over the world.

Bush Jr. is an embarassment to Yale - but do understand that top-grade universities reserve a few spots each year for douches like him. This is how they maintain their connections to the ruling class, and to the silver-pocketed.

Not only does a liberal arts system instill critical thinking and cross-disciplinary skills, it also makes you a feeling, rather than simply a thinking, number-crunching machine. Which is what most universities not using a liberal arts system outside North America end up doing.

Metaphysical Obfuscation in the Islamic World You start off this interesting piece Mr. Gill with a Sufi quote. Yet, for all your professed interest in Rumi and al-Ghazali, I don`t think you understand the connections you`re trying to force. Sufism is not metaphysics - it is not philosophy, not an inquiry, nor an explanation. It is not an apology.

There is a good reason why Islam`s best reformers, and most successful leaders, have had strong associations with Sufi ideas. Because they`re beautiful, and as Rumi explains in the very first sentences of his masterpiece - The Mathnawi - these are the ``roots of the roots of the roots of Religion.``

Some of your points are excellent - especially when you deal with Russell and the Greeks. But when you try to compare/contrast/explain/connect them with mystics, your comments betray your lack of understanding.

Rumi and other Sufi poets have consistently pounded and hammered theologians, and critical thinkers - and in that you`re spot on. But Sufism is not about leaving rationality wholesale. It`s about combining it with other sources of knowledge. As Ibn `Arabi explains in his commentaries on the issue - there are 3 sources of knowledge. That which we are passed on, that which we discern (rationality), and that which we experience. Sufism exhorts striking a balance between them, and at the very least acknowledging that they all exist. Rumi, Attar and Ibn` Arabi - arguably the three foremost writers of Sufi literature - keep drawing this distinction, and warning against the same pitfalls that I see in your work.

I think you will learn much more, and grow, by studying the Mathnawi. But then, if you`re as devoid of feeling as you profess, then maybe Betrand Russell is all that you can hope to grapple with. I`m sorry for you.