Critical Thinking (Tafakhur) Education Framework for Preventing/Countering Violent Extremism Using

Abstract

The paper explored the opportunities of introducing critical thinking (Tafakhur) framework in the educational curriculum of Muslim educational institutions. The assumption was that critical thinking education can help young Muslims to interrogate stereotypical nuances that are often used to spread extremist ideologies. In this paper, the curriculum of Islamic education institutions were examined with a view to determine the level of critical thinking content. Relying on secondary data the paper found that most Islamic educational institutions emphasized on memorization and recitation of the Qur’an with little or not critical thinking contents in their curriculum. Several Qur’anic verses that encouraged critical thinking (Tafakhur) among Muslims were highlighted to justify the need to introduce critical thinking framework in the curriculum of Islamic educational institutions. It established that critical thinking has been part of Islamic civilization since the Ottman empire which was responsible for Muslim communities to flourish. The paper therefore argued that critical thinking skillsets be embraced in Islamic educational institutions so as to empower young Muslims to challenge irrational ideologies. It suggested integrated and federating approaches to adopting critical thinking framework in Islamic educational institutions. The central argument of the paper is that critical thinking will pave way for better community engagement and help vulnerable communities to develop resilience in P/CVE.