Islamic Education in the United States

This article, which I intend to be one of a series, will provide analysisofmajor issues and problems arising out of attempts to implement Islamiceducational alternatives to American public schooling. The discussionbegins by offering a brief overview of the current dilemma-atriumvirate of historical, theoretical and practical enigmasconfrontingMuslim schoolmen. A primary question that is common toMuslim-American school planners is scrutinized through a sub-setanalysis focussing on some relevant and critical concerns to Muslimeducators. From this starting point, future installments in this serieswill look at practical cases that are representative of contemporaryefforts in alternative Muslim school planning, design and implementation.Where We areConservative estimates of the number of Muslims in North Americause one million as an approximate figure, two-thirds of whom reside in ornear the major urban areas of the United States. Within this multiethnicpopulation-800,000 being immigrants, the remainder a rapidlygrowing number of indigenous converts-there is a strong culturalcommonality and identity: It is Islam. Islam is a comprehensive code oflife that is expressed in the cultural, economic and social organization of

Abu Ali Hussein Ibn-Abdallah Ibn-Ali Ibn-Sina (Avicenna) - Persian encyclopedic scholar, philosopher, physician, poet, and musician (to the 1040th of birthday

Abu Ali Hussein was born in 980 in a village near Bukhara. At the age of five, he entered the elementary Muslim school, which he graduated by 990. The child received further education at home, studying mathematics, physics, logic, law, astronomy, philosophy, geography and other subjects. In those same years, he wrote his first treatises. Avicenna began to practice medicine before reaching the age of 12, and very quickly became a famous doctor. In gratitude for curing the emir of Bukhara, he gets access to the Bukhara library. Since 1008, after refusing to enter the service of Sultan Mahmud, Ghaznev Ibn Sina has been forced to lead a wanderer. Ibn Sina was the author of more than a hundred scientific works. Around 1020, he completed work on the Canon, which has survived more than thirty editions, being a textbook for studying medicine at European universities for five centuries. The Canon was one of the first printed books, and in terms of the number of publications it competed with the Bible. Until his death, Avicenna could not return to his homeland, wandering in a foreign land from one city to another. He experienced hardships, getting into prison, rose to the heights of power, becoming a vizier, lived in luxury and poverty, but did not stop his creative and scientific work. His property was plundered more than once, his library was lost. Abu Ali Hussein Ibn Sina died in 1037. For religious reasons, 100 years after his death in the main square of Baghdad, his philosophical books were burned, and after several hundred years in Europe, five volumes of the Canon of Medicine will be the first printed edition after the Bible

The Youth of Muslim Diaspora and Identity Markers: The Crossroads of School, Religion, and Society

This study addresses the religious identification of young people from an immigrant background in the context of a sociological perspective. This study is essentially focused on young people's perceptions of their religious identities. We tried to understand the religious markers exhibited by young people attending a religious Muslim school in Canada. How do these students construct identity in the gears of religion, school, home society and parental culture? Young people are thus given the opportunity to express their identity-building perspectives. Through an ethnographic stay, the data collection took place in a private school located in Quebec, Canada. The data analysis allowed us to identify some religious identity markers developed by participants during their biographical and social paths. Participants are hence distinguished as a cultural group in a minority context. These religious markers also seem more adapted to the context of young people and more open to others

Inclusivist Soteriology: Mouhanad Khorchide’s Islamic Theology of Mercy and Its Contribution to Inter-Faith Dialogue

This article explores the salvific prospects of ‘non-Muslims’ alluded to in the ‘theology of mercy’ (TM) as proposed by the Austrian-Palestinian Islamic scholar Mouhanad Khorchide. A critical description of his thoughts on belief, salvation and ‘being Muslim’ outlines a possible concept (whether dialogical, pluralistic or inclusivist) of salvation applicable to the religious and non-religious Other. The significance of his theological-humanistic project must be understood within the pedagogic setting of Khorchide’s intellectual action, namely the state university training of future Muslim school educators in Germany. The essay argues that Khorchide promotes an inclusivist view of salvation, as well as of the perfection of humanhood which necessitates ‘love-action-harmony’ and dialogical collaboration between both God and humans, as well as among the whole of humanity. Finally, I reflect on the potential contribution of TM to inter-religious (inter-human) dialogue along the lines of Catherine Cornille’s five pillars.

Learning Independence of Students at Dayah Muslim School in North Aceh

Learning independence of students at Dayah muslim school in North Aceh through various activities of Dayah in an effort to make Dayah's Alumni who are ready to adapt and continue life in society. Various activities carried out are structured, so the control and evaluation are carried out periodically. The independence of Dayah's student in the present context will experience difficulties when the necessary of the times keep developing. If the student are not ready, they will experience being overwhelmed to face global competition. This research aims to find out and describe the learning process of the independence of Islamic boarding students, especially those in the North Aceh area. This research uses a qualitative research approach with with a phenomenological approach that is descriptively qualitative. The results show student education of Islamic boarding school in North Aceh can be described through several fields, such as students' independence in doing ubuduyah, students' independence education in recitation activities, independence education in carrying out social activities, students' independence education in developing economy through another skill.

CHALLENGING MODERATE MUSLIMS: INDONESIA’S MUSLIM SCHOOLS IN THE MIDST OF RELIGIOUS CONSERVATISM

Muslim school is an important element of education in Indonesia. The school has been in place long time before Indonesia’s independence in 1945. The school educates Indonesian Muslim children to understand and practice religion, and simultaneously, promotes the sense of nationalism. Thanks to Muslim schools, Indonesian Muslims are recognized as being moderate (Hefner, 2000). In the last few years, however, the moderate nature of Indonesian Islam is challenged by the spirit of conservative Islam (Van Bruinessen, 2013). Issues such as Islam and democracy, Islam and modern state, Muslim and non-Muslim relation, and rights of citizen that have been resolved and agreed upon are being reinstated. As Hefner (2007) argues that there is a relationship between politics and education, especially religious education, it is important to see the relationship between schools and the changing society. The question is how the current conservative trend in Indonesian Islam is occurring at schools. This paper explores how the curriculum of (Islamic) religious education potentially contribute toward the development of Indonesian conservative Islam, and how religious education teachers view sensitive issues concerning conservative Islam. To answer the questions, analysis of religious education’s curricula and interviewing experts serve as the primary method of data collection. Four religious education teachers from different provinces of Indonesia were interviewed to reveal their opinions on various religion-related issues. This paper discusses how Islamic education in Indonesia has been designed to present moderate Islam, but at the same time faces a number of challenges that try to turn religious education into a conservative one.

Reasoning about the scope of religious norms: Evidence from Hindu and Muslim children in India.

Conflicts arise when members of one religion apply their norms to members of another religion. Two studies explored how 100 9- to 15-year-old Hindu and Muslim children from India reason about the scope of religious norms. Both Hindus and Muslims from a diverse Hindu-Muslim school (Study 1) and Hindus from a homogeneous Hindu school (Study 2) more often judged it wrong for Hindus to violate Hindu norms, compared to Muslim norms, and said the opposite for Muslims. In contrast, children judged it wrong for both Hindus and Muslims toharm others. Thus, even in a setting marred by religious conflict, children can restrict the scope of a religion’s norms to members of that religion, providing a basis for peaceful co-existence.