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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61834-2002Feb24.html
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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
Where Two Worlds Collide
Muslim Schools Face Tension of Islamic, U.S. Views
Madeena Nazary writes on the board at the Washington Islamic Academy.
(Juana Arias - The Washington Post)
By Valerie Strauss and Emily Wax
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 25, 2002; Page A01
Eleventh-graders at the elite Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia
study energy and matter in physics, write out differential equations in
precalculus and read stories about slavery and the Puritans in English.
Then they file into their Islamic studies class, where the textbooks tell
them the Day of Judgment can't come until Jesus Christ returns to Earth,
breaks the cross and converts everyone to Islam, and until Muslims start
attacking Jews.
At the Al-Qalam All-Girls School in Springfield, seventh-graders learn about
the American Revolution and about respecting other people's beliefs. But
students in class also talk about the taunts they face outside the school
gates -- being called "terrorist" and "bomber" -- and ask whether Osama bin
Laden is simply the victim of such prejudice. Maps of the Middle East hang on
classroom walls, but Israel is missing.
Such tensions within the walls of Muslim day schools are in many ways
emblematic of the U.S. Muslim community's political concerns, fears, biases
and hopes, all brought into sharp focus since the events of Sept. 11.
Today, these schools -- and Muslims in this country -- are at a crucial
juncture, as some work to stay true to their religion while they try to adapt
to the U.S. experience, a process that Catholics and Jews went through before
them. At stake, educators acknowledge, is how the next generation of Muslims
coming of age in the United States will participate in the country they live
in.
The fall attacks could serve as the catalyst in determining whether these
schools and their students focus on the culture and politics of faraway
Muslim lands or find within Islamic tradition those ideals consistent with
U.S. democracy and religious liberty.
"This is going to get us out of the cocoon, out of our little comfort zone
that is more of an isolation from the community at large," said Shabbir
Mansuri, founding director of the California-based Council on Islamic
Education. "And it is going to put us into a position where we are going to
have to put our own feet to the fire."
The growth of the Muslim population in the United States in the past two
decades has prompted a proliferation of day schools, with about a dozen
located between Richmond and Baltimore. Nationally, there are estimated to be
200 to 600 of these schools, with at least 30,000 students. Thousands of
others attend Islamic weekend schools.
Most Muslim children in the United States attend public schools, but there is
a growing desire for more day schools. Some schools face the same prejudices
that Catholics and their schools did beginning in the 1800s, when their
loyalty to the pope was seen as inherently anti-American.
"We put Catholics through that, Jews through that, Mormons through that and
many other groups," Mansuri said. "It is the Muslims' turn . . . and if
Muslims are not living up to the ideas of Islam, then we certainly should
take them to task."
To that end, some Muslim educators are writing a new curriculum that infuses
tenets of the religion in every lesson while providing a broad-minded
worldview. Textbooks, often from overseas and rife with anti-American
rhetoric, are being replaced in some schools. Some parents are forming PTAs
and seeking a curriculum that teaches the civic virtues of tolerance and
pluralism.
"I wouldn't be surprised if some teachers are sometimes anti-American or
anti-Semitic," said Abdulwahab Alkebsi, whose 12-year-old daughter attends
the Islamic Saudi Academy. "But I don't want it to be that way.
"I choose the school because of the same reason why all American parents
choose private schools -- it's a better environment and no peer pressure of
drugs and being a sex symbol at too young an age. But there are other
American values -- like freedom of speech and assembly -- that we should be
teaching our kids to respect."
'A Lot of Growing to Do'
Ali Alkhafaji, 9, a fourth-grader, poses a question for his classmates at the
Washington Islamic Academy, echoing a lesson from their teacher:
"Is it better to be a fashion star or to listen to Allah?"
The youngsters agreed it was better to listen to God, though wide-eyed India
Abdullah, 8, said: "It's hard to be a good Muslim. But if we do the right
deeds and stuff, the devil is locked up and the door of heaven is unlocked."
Yet the pictures of Britney Spears and the Islamic holy city of Mecca
adorning the lockers and notebooks of two Muslim schools in Springfield
attest to the challenge of providing an Islamic education amid the beckoning
popular culture.
In fact, many such schools are not considered by Muslims to be truly
"Islamic" because there is not yet a curriculum that teaches all subjects
through an Islamic prism -- nor is there an Americanized curriculum for
Islamic studies, said Hamed El-Ghazali, head of the Muslim American Society's
Council on Islamic Schools.
Instead, they use public school curriculum and add classes in Islamic
studies, Arabic language and the study of the Koran.
The schools "do have a lot of growing to do," said Sharifa Al-Khateeb,
president of the Muslim Education Council and the North American Council for
Muslim Women. "They are still working out the exact curriculum. They are
still working out how much readiness they would like to see in the children
for taking mainstream exams. They are still going through the throes of
rewriting materials that would be more appropriate for kids here in the U.S."
With the exception of one network of schools for African American Muslims,
most Muslim schools develop their own approach.
At the coeducational New Horizon School in Los Angeles, Principal Shahida
Alikhan said the school is "on the progressive side," with teachers stressing
tolerance and students feeling connected to the outside world.
In Springfield, Islamic studies teacher Majida Zeiter described a different
role for the Washington Islamic Academy, serving kindergarten through
fourth-grade students.
"We want it to be a place where they don't have to assimilate, where they can
practice their religion. It's like any other religious school," Zeiter said.
"We teach them the history and good values and what it takes to be a good
Muslim."
Still, Zeiter said she takes pains to present balanced lessons to students,
piecing together a curriculum from books published both in the United States
and overseas.
When she feels she must use material in a popular Pakistani textbook, she
said, she makes photocopies of pages she needs and never uses those calling
Christian beliefs "nonsense" or portraying Jews as treacherous people who
financially "oppress" others. Yahiya Emerick, the author of "What Islam Is
All About," said he will soon release a new edition for U.S. audiences that
eliminates the tendentious parts.
Political views, though, pervade the school.
Third-graders at the academy spent one recent morning learning how volcanoes
work and where the Great Smoky Mountains and Yosemite National Park are.
Yet on world maps that hang every day in the classrooms, Israel is missing.
Upstairs in Al-Qalam girls school, the word is blackened out with marker,
with "Palestine" written in its place.
Officials at the two schools defended the maps, pointing out that some of the
students are refugees from Palestine and want their heritage represented.
The schools, they said, have no anti-Israeli policy, or any policy teaching
students to be disrespectful of others, saying Islam is a religion of peace
and tolerance. If teachers are slipping opinions into lessons, they say, it
is because they lack proper qualifications. The average salary at Muslim
schools across the country is about $16,000.
In a history class at Al-Qalam, Jill Fawzy teaches events from the
Revolutionary War to the Civil War. But even before Sept. 11, a major topic
of conversation had been what Muslims consider the U.S. government's unfair
treatment of Muslims abroad, particularly in the West Bank and Iraq. Given
their distrust of U.S. policy, some students question the government's claim
that bin Laden is responsible for the terrorist attacks -- disputing that
videotapes actually show him taking credit.
Fawzy, a 19-year-old who will graduate from George Mason University in 2003,
said she isn't so sure and wonders whether the United States just needed
someone to blame and picked a Muslim.
"A lot of the students can't make up their minds if he is a good guy or a bad
guy," Fawzy said. "There are some Muslims who think he did it and others who
don't. The thing is, we don't have any real proof either way. I think a lot
of people feel this way."
Rigid Strain of Islam
With two lavish campuses in suburban Virginia, dozens of highly qualified
teachers and accreditation from two respected organizations, the Islamic
Saudi Academy stands out among Muslim schools in the Washington area.
The academy educates the children of Arabic-speaking diplomats along with
other children of differing heritages -- about 1,300 students altogether. But
the financial support from the Saudi government brings with it a curriculum
that reflects the particularly rigid strain of Islam practiced there, Muslim
educators say.
"One of the things the community has been concerned about for years is the
Saudi influence and Saudi money," said Amir Hussain, a California professor
who has researched Muslim communities in North America. "You have people who
come in and say, 'Hey, I'll build you a school.' Then people begin to
realize, if that school gets built with Saudi money, do we want that kind of
curriculum?' "
The Islamic Saudi Academy does not require that U.S. history or government be
taught, offering Arabic social studies as an alternative. Officials there
said that only Saudis who intend to return home do not take U.S. history,
though a handful of U.S.-born students who plan to stay in this country said
they opted against it, too.
School officials would not allow reporters to attend classes. But a number of
students described the classroom instruction and provided copies of textbooks.
Ali Al-Ahmed, whose Virginia-based Saudi Institute promotes religious
tolerance in Saudi Arabia, has reviewed numerous textbooks used at the
academy and said many passages promote hatred of non-Muslims and Shiite
Muslims.
The 11th-grade textbook, for example, says one sign of the Day of Judgment
will be that Muslims will fight and kill Jews, who will hide behind trees
that say: "Oh Muslim, Oh servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come
here and kill him."
Several students of different ages, all of whom asked not to be identified,
said that in Islamic studies, they are taught that it is better to shun and
even to dislike Christians, Jews and Shiite Muslims.
Some teachers "focus more on hatred," said one teenager, who recited by
memory the signs of the coming of the Day of Judgment. "They teach students
that whatever is kuffar [non-Muslim], it is okay for you" to hurt or steal
from that person.
Other teachers present more tolerant views, students said. Usama Amer, a
veteran math teacher, is popular not only for his math skills but also for
regularly allowing students free debate about topics within Islam.
"We do not teach hatred," Amer said.
None of the academy's officials would publicly address the students'
statements. One, who spoke anonymously, said he had no knowledge of
intolerant passages being assigned or intolerant views being taught. He said
textbooks with such passages would be replaced soon.
Mont Bush, of the Secondary and Middle School Commission of the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools, one of the academy's accrediting
agencies, said that the organization does not delve into curriculum
extensively but that it would be "concerned" about such material being taught.
The schools are legally allowed to teach whatever they want -- as long as
they meet state requirements -- but have a responsibility to be accurate,
scholars say.
"As a matter of educational policy, no, it's not a good idea to cross a
nation off the map or to in any way misrepresent history," said Charles
Haynes, of the First Amendment Center in Arlington. "It is a civic
responsibility of all schools, religious and secular, to do the best job of
educating students to a variety of perspectives."
That should be particularly true for Muslim schools, where many of the
students are unfamiliar and uncomfortable with U.S. institutions, said Fawaz
A. Gerges, a professor at Sarah Lawrence College and author of "America and
Political Islam: Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests?"
"One would hope that Muslim day schools serve as a bridge that enable young
men and women to make the journey into the safe harbor of open society," he
said.
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