Education: In defense of Islamic faith schools

Divisive or incisive?

In 1999, I and a small group of colleagues set up an independent Islamic school in Nottingham, England. We started with four classes: Reception (Kindergarten), Years 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and 5 and 6. There were about 60 pupils, rising to over 100 as we added secondary classes later.

So when I speak about Islamic schools, it is not from any theoretical or partial perspective: I feel I know what an Islamic school is. And through my visits and inspections of 20 or 30 other such schools, I have found much diversity along with the obvious similarities. As such it would not be proper to speak about ‘faith’ schools under one umbrella term as there are huge differences between them. In particular, different ‘faiths’ have very different understandings of that very concept.

Consequently, I find it difficult to understand why critics with comparatively little knowledge of Islamic schools feel that it is legitimate to criticise or defame them when their arguments are often ludicrously over-generalised. Their arguments are often ‘straw sallies’ – that is to say, they are directed towards opponents that are easy to knock down but don’t actually exist.

Two of the most common problems people have with Islamic schools is that they’re “divisive” or that they wall children into “mental ghettos”. And indeed, when one analyses these two points
they barely stand up to any scrutiny.

Firstly, that they are divisive. Non-Muslim children, it is argued, need to mix with Muslim children in everyday life. What this argument doesn’t consider is that for every Muslim child that is enrolled in an Islamic school there are at least 50 Muslims out there who aren’t. Simply having a tiny fraction of Muslim children in Islamic schools should not leave them open to criticism of ‘divisiveness’ when Muslims and non-Muslims mix in all other areas of everyday life anyway. Muslim children do not exist in order to give non-Muslims a multicultural experience, nor vice-versa.

Perhaps behind this attitude there is a kind of offended sensibility and a tendency to blame the minority for not “engaging”. If national media coverage of Muslims was more favourable though, perhaps this suspicion would not exist.

As for the second theory about mental ghettos, I have a case in point. At one school where I was head, the chair of governors was the local imam/community leader and his daughter was in the school. She let slip one day that she, her mother and her grandmother watched every single episode of Big Brother while Dad was down at the mosque. The fact is, there are mental ghettoes everywhere, but the idea that Muslims are somehow “mentally cut off” from the process of mainstream society is no more than a canard to frighten the gullible.

But all this is reactive, and I feel no need to defend my first Islamic school; I suppose it’s just that the ‘opponents’ objections always seem so silly. To be fair, there are philosophical issues
around the so-called ‘brainwashing’ which deserve to be taken a little more seriously but the accusation itself is unfounded.

Of course, as an Islamic school we teach about the Islamic faith – this is no different from other faith schools and should not be classed as a negative. Teaching children about their religion is informative. There is nothing sinister about it. (Incidentally, a well known atheist did ask to come in and persuade my students not to believe in God. I didn’t think the governors would go for it. What did he really expect?!)

However, the main reason for Islamic schools, rather than why we shouldn’t be prevented from having them, is simple in my mind. Firstly, Islam is to live in the presence of your God and to know that, even if you are unaware of this presence, He is not unaware of you. Life then becomes a matter of organising the most conducive environment for this awareness to grow, and the rules are pretty simple: remember God as much as you can. Naturally we keep company with those that help us do this.

Secondly, teaching a child all about the different religions of the world and expecting them to “pick one” when they’re old enough is optimistic. Most children in this situation will grow up without a religion. While I’m not saying this is a negative thing necessarily, for parents that want their children to follow the same faith as themselves, teaching and instilling a sense of devotion in them from the start is the only way to do it.

Finally, Muslims have a right, as much as any other faith, to be taught their religion alongside the curriculum. For those that do not agree with Islamic teachings I say we do not have to agree to get along. Acceptance is key. And rejecting faith schools as “anti-democratic” or “divisive” is simply the wrong approach to take.

(Photo: Islamic Institute of Orange County)

Dr. Ibrahim Lawson is a shura member of the Association of Muslim Schools and the headmaster of Al-Risalah schools in Tooting, England. He has written for various journals and publications and is currently pursuing a Ph.D.