THE OFFICIAL WEB SITE OF THE MADISON TIMES WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Islam in the classroom

By Kerri Meulemans

The urgency and importance of sharing Islam with non-Muslims in America has become paramount since the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. As there are many Muslim students in public schools throughout the United States, one of the means by which this can be accomplished is by working with public-school teachers and administrators so that they will have a better understanding of Islamic beliefs and how they can best accommodate the rising needs of Muslim students. Public-school teachers are responsible for students for up to eight hours a day, 180 days a year. Their perceptions of Islam directly and indirectly affect the attitudes, self-esteem, and performance of students nationwide.

“Islam in Europe,” a workshop for K-12 teachers interested in broadening their knowledge base of the social, cultural, and religious constructs of Islam, took place recently at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Pyle Center.

Audrey Shabbas, an award-winning teacher and curriculum-development expert from Arab World and Islamic Resources (AWAIR), presented her curriculum "A Medieval Banquet in the Alhambra Palace."Shabbas’ curriculum is designed to be useful for classes in social studies, art, and language arts. Workshop participants were given the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the historical development of Islam and of contemporary issues and concerns surrounding Europe's fastest-growing religion. The workshop aimed to improve teacher-student dialogue about and reception of cultural and religious diversity.

Jennifer Ryan Tishler, associate director for the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia, who organized the event,  emphasized a key point of the workshop: “that participants not equate ‘Islam’ with ‘the Arab world’. Not all Arabs are Muslims, and not all Muslims are Arab!” she said.

Disenfranchising common religious and ethnic stereotypes like these is paramount in combating misconceptions of Islam. Islamic students in the U.S. struggle with the double consciousness of retaining their Muslim identity while simultaneously trying to assimilate into mainstream American culture. Public-school teachers and administrators can come to the aid of this identity crisis by embracing and promoting the idea of ethnic and religious diversity in the classroom and beyond.

So how well prepared and equipped  are teachers and administrators to deal with Islamic students in the classroom? There are obstacles that negate the bridging of cultures that prevent facilitating common understandings. Tishler related a story Shabbas had told that addresses these problems.

“A class was assigned to read a story in which the main character is a gorilla named Ishmael. In Jewish and Christian tradition, Ishmael, Abraham's son by Hagar, is an outcast, in contrast to Abraham's ‘legitimate’ son Isaac, whose mother was Sarah. Islam also traces its roots back to Abraham, but in Islamic tradition, Ishmael is not the ‘lesser’ or ‘illegitimate’ son; he is one of the central figures of the faith. The teacher couldn't understand why one of her students, a Muslim girl, challenged the teacher's interpretation that the gorilla's name was supposed to represent his lack of humanity. But for the student, the name ‘Ishmael’ means something entirely different than it does to her Christian and Jewish peers. The primary obstacle in this case would be a lack of cultural sensitivity,” Tishler commented.

This type of cultural insensitivity is often unconscious. The workshop had special activities designed to create awareness of religious differences and interpretations, to better equip teachers and administrators to deal with cultural dualities.

“One activity was a pretest called ‘Three Holy Books,’” Tishler said. “Test takers had to identify the source (a. Jewish Scripture, b. the New Testament, c. the Qur'an) of several quotations. As it turns out, all the quotations are from the Qur'an, but observant Jews and Christians reading the Qur'an for the first time may be surprised at how many ... names and stories they recognize."

“A second exercise, called ‘Three Religions,’ asks students to react to statements about religions and identify them as being true for Christianity, Judaism, and/or Islam. The phrasing of some questions reveals biased language and modes of thinking that we may take for granted. For example, question 22 reads, "The 'church' is called a mosque"; and question 24 reads, "... call their 'mosque' a church."

Workshop participants gained a better understanding of the struggle to accommodate an increasingly diverse student body. They learned how to recognize the many definitions of Islamic culture  and how to respond in a culturally sensitive manner. This one-day workshop aimed at exploring the historical development of Islam in Europe was sponsored by the Center for European Studies in collaboration with the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program at the UW-Madison.

But what about after elementary and high school? Islamic students need continuing support and understanding upon entering post-secondary education. The National Muslim Student Association (MSA) is designed to do just that.

MSA National says its mission is to serve Muslim students during their college and university careers by facilitating their efforts to establish, maintain, and develop chapters of Muslim student associations, unions, organizations, and Islamic societies throughout the United States. Emphasis is placed on the learning and well-being of the individual Muslim student, as well as on networking and growth of the chapter through sponsorship of educational programs, camps, zonal and annual conferences, and worker-training programs. MSA National works with all organizations whose agenda includes a special focus on students and issues of concern to them during their college career. MSA National strives to inform and mobilize students to respond to crises in North America and around the world.

MSA National defines itself as a student movement that has provided a broad platform for Muslim students of diverse backgrounds for the past four decades. On Jan. 1, 1963, about 75 Muslim students, representing nearly 10 campus organizations, met on the University of Illinois-Urbana campus to consider coordinating their efforts. The result was an organization known as the Muslim Students Association of the U.S. & Canada,  more commonly known as MSA National.

MSA National lists its broad goals as:

• to help Muslim-student organizations implement Islamic programs and projects;

• to mobilize and coordinate the human and material resources of Muslim-student organizations;

• and to educate, mobilize, and empower students to struggle against injustice and oppression. Many current national leaders, speakers, and scholars have built this organization, and they humbly credit part of their training to MSA National. Geographically, MSA National has divided the U.S. and Canada into zones. Wisconsin is in the U.S. central zone.