: A Delicate Balance: Teaching About Islam In American Schools

About 12 years ago, the story goes, Shabbir Mansuri’s daughter Ahsia came home from school, waving her sixth-grade textbook opened to the chapter on Islam. The text explained that Muslims rub their faces in the sand during prayer. “Dad, we don’t have any sand in our house,” said Ahsia. “I don’t think we’re praying correctly.” (Other Muslim parents reported teachers showing the movie “Not Without My Daughter” as a tool to teach about Islam.) Soon afterwards, Mansuri quit his engineering job and founded the Council on Islamic Education in 1990, which provides free research on Islamic culture, history and religion to K-12 textbook publishers. A decade later, the work of CIE and others working to promote a fair representation of Muslims in education has proved successful – perhaps too much so. The sections on Islam became richer, with interactive projects and role-playing games, and various teachers took the opportunity to expand on the material. One school in Northern California which assigned a “no-candy” fast to demonstrate what Ramadan might be like for Muslims found itself in a bitter court battle that was decided in the school’s favor yesterday. US District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton found that there was no evidence that the activities had a devotional or religious intent, and that no reasonable student would have seen them as an endorsement of Islam. That hasn’t quelled the considerable protest by Christian groups who feel that Islam is being promoted in school. Another school in Southern California found 200 protestors outside its doors after a similar extra-credit fasting exercise (requiring parental permission) was assigned there. (The protest was organized by Christian radio host Bob Morey, who has called for all Muslims in the US to be registered.) “We think the assignment was within the state educational standards,” said school official John Roach said. “[The teacher] didn’t say to do it while thinking about Allah, Jesus or Buddha.”

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.