Planes with shaded windows 
Khalaf Al-Harbi | Okaz, klfhrbe@gmail.com 

About half a century ago, Malaysia was a backward, poor and disunited country while Afghanistan was a civilized, rich and united nation. Malaysians and Afghans were known to be very religious. However, religion did not prevent the Malaysians from seeking knowledge, uniting their ranks and opening themselves up to the world.

The Afghans, on the other hand, succumbed to the calls for seclusion and takfir. The country became the target of invaders and a haven for outlaws. We cannot today compare Malaysia with Afghanistan. The disparity between them is the distance between light and darkness.

Amidst the Kingdom's celebrations marking the opening of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) there were some calls which bore the dust of Tora Bora and belittled this gigantic national accomplishment by raising the issue of co-education.

Scholars who made such calls know very well that the mingling of men and women already exists in airports, planes, markets, medical colleges and hospitals, and at Saudi Aramco and other companies. They tried to confuse the public by projecting a distorted picture of this spectacular scientific institution, whose founders are endeavoring to re-establish Muslims as pioneers in science as present-day Muslims have limited themselves to weekend marriages.

This is how some of the sheikhs of misyar and misfar marriages see things. They accept the mingling of the sexes in markets and commercial compounds but reject it in research laboratories, because they believe education is unnecessary. They allow mingling in hospitals but are scared of it in laboratories "because the chemical reactions might intermingle with the ideas of expulsion leading to the outburst of pipes and the spilling of sulfuric acid on thobes."

For how long will the bidding on faith continue? What religious and national interest lies in projecting a distorted and exaggerated picture of this pioneer educational edifice, which has been praised profusely by the Arab and international media as one of the most important educational achievements in the last few years? Is there any country in the world that is keener than Saudi Arabia in honoring the tenets of Islam?

We know that some of these "ideologically closed" minds would prefer the example of the defunct Taleban state. If it were in their hands, they would even separate men and women on aircraft - they would have two separate flights to single destinations: one for men and another "with shaded windows" for women. Such suggestions are unreasonable and do not suit the contemporary age or even the early ages of Islam when Muslims did not have this phobia and when men and women were partners in a thriving Islamic civilization that changed the face of the world.