Dear Real Statisticians Assalamo Alaikum and a belated Eid Mubarak
The course has been restructured and there is no formal requirement to work in groups. Nonetheless, some groups have chosen to stay intact, and use email correspondence and discussion to increase their learning. Taking into account that not all members are active, I have combined pairs of groups so that there are total of five. This also allows me to cover the groups with five emails instead of ten. Details about the re-structure of the course are given in E4: Restructure.
Currently, we are working of the first module, which is about the Principles of an Islamic Education. Many of the participants expressed a deep interest in statistics. On the other hand, it will take us some time to go through the Islamic Education materials. Instead of delaying the approach to statistics, I am planning to work side-by-side. The linked post on my blog explains the fundamental differences between an Islamic approach and the Western approach. This should answer in much greater depth questions raised earlier by many participants, regarding how an objective and scientific subject could be mixed up with a religious approach. Our religion teaches us to go into depth of matters, and not to be deceived by surface appearances. The linked post below shows how the attempts to measure corruption are based on deception. The interest of the powerful in promoting a particular view, and a particular way of measuring corruption suits them, and that is why corruption is measured as it currently is. When statisticians confine attention to just the numbers, and do not look beyond the numbers to the underlying real world issues which drive the generation and analysis of the numbers, then they become part of the deception.
Please read and discuss current post on Islamic WorldView Blog: Kelvin's Blunder: Measure Everything