KZBlog

I never did get around to posting about the Kazakh student who beat up 2 men in the UK after hearing them make a joke about Borat.

I then failed to post about member of Parliament in Kazakhstan, Bekbolat Tleukhan’s reaction to the attack, mainly that he blames Sascha Baron Cohen because “our students abroad are hurting in their heart,” and believes that some kind of action against Borat should be taken. Many people noted that since the movie came out 5 years ago, it’s a bit late. Incidentally, within Kazakhstan Tleukhan is most famous for allegedly having four wives as per Muslim law. But that’s all just rumours.

Now, Tleukhan wants the education system of Kazakhstan to decide who is right, Darwin or religion. Classes in religion have recently been added to the Kazakhstan school curriculum and although many observers feel these classes are designed to keep students from becoming extremists, according to Tleukhan, they are confusing students who learn in religion class that man is created and then learn in biology that man is a product of evolution: “Let decide once and for all, are we descended from monkeys or made from clay. We either get rid of religious educations or abandon the teachings of Darwin.”

He has asked the Minister of Education to resolve the ages-old contentious debate once and for all. Personally, I am looking forward to hearing the answer from the Minister of Education. I assume if he choses evolution, everyone in the world will finally abandon religion and become scientists. If he choses religion, then we can give up on all secular education. One hopes that someone in the government will then solve the problem of which religion is the one true religion so we can get on with our lives.

The Eurasianet article lists a few of Tleukhan’s other contributions to the education debate such as why notebooks that students use in school have pictures of guns or Dima Bilan on them, and a call to ban a Russian literature book because some of the literary works propagate Christianity and paganism.