By Shahed Amanullah, with permission of Illume
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is an award-winning journalist who writes regularly about the challenges and
opportunities facing Islam in America. He is the founder of Halalfire Media,
a network of Islamic themed websites with nearly 6 million visitors annually.
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One of the most popular forms of education within the Muslim-American community is the full-time Islamic school. Conservatively estimated to
number 250 Islamic institutions in the U.S. alone, these schools have made great strides in the past decade in keeping academic performance
up and creating a well-balanced Muslim-American identity.
In the school my son attends, all teachers are expected to have high
qualifications, including years of experience and graduate degrees.
Extracurricular activities such as field trips, scouting and robotics
labs - once considered luxuries that could not be afforded - are now
the norm in the average Islamic institution.
After attending this school for only two years, my son tests several
grades above the state average and can recite far more surahs of the
Qu’ran than I can, with the added benefit of having a proud sense of
his Muslim identity. It is a result most Muslim parents would be quite
happy with.
As happy as I am with this outcome, however, I’ve
already decided that come middle school I’ll be pulling my son out and
placing him in a predominantly non-Muslim school.
Why? You ask.
I’ve always been against the isolation of Muslims in the larger
society, and by keeping him in a "separate-but-equal" education through
high school will leave him unprepared to deal with the realities of
college and the working world. It is essential for Muslims to
integrate into society such that Muslims not only learn to interact
with other Americans, but feel comfortable in their presence. And the
best way to appreciate religious diversity is to spend their formative
teenage years establishing close bonds with non-Muslim friends.
Raising one’s child in an environment without diversity among students
is like raising another sheep in a herd. With little to no experience
with non-Muslims, I fear that my children will not be able to deal with
real life in the future. Elementary School is fine in an Islamic
environment, but what about coping with the pressures of college where
partying is the primary diversion among most non-Muslims? Well, if my
son hasn’t established a rock-solid moral foundation and a Muslim
identity to match by the time he reaches high school, then I will have
failed as a parent and his Islamic school will have failed in its
primary mission.
Unless Muslims are going to separate themselves from society like the
Amish, our children will eventually come up against morals and values
that we as Muslims frown upon. It is best to teach our children how to
deal with these issues in a controlled environment, while living under
the supervision of their parents, than to have them tossed into the
world upon graduation to fend for themselves.
The other reason for removing my son from an Islamic school is that
allowing Muslim youth to grow up with close non-Muslim friends can be
the best antidote our community has against anti-Muslim sentiment. If
we truly believe that our lives are enriched by being Muslim, does it
not follow that the lives of non-Muslims would be enriched by close
association with us? This is not to say we should go around
proselytizing - that, in fact, would be counterproductive to this
larger goal - but that our children should be encouraged to find and
keep non-Muslim friends who share our social values.
All that my high school friends knew about my Muslim identity is that I
was a Muslim. But in the 20 plus years since my high school days, many
of them have told me how much their impression of Islam and Muslims was
shaped by their knowing my brother and I. Imagine if every American
grew up with close Muslim friends, we would not have the social stigma,
political exclusion, or media sensation surrounding Islam that we have
today.
Some of my Muslim friends have expressed concern over pulling my son
out of the protective environment of his Islamic school. I would not
want my son to be susceptible to the pressures of the real world
without having prior exposure. It is imperative that we create both a
generation of Muslims with strong identities and a generation of
Americans who identify with others in order to solidify themselves as
both Muslim and American.
Posted July, 2008
Originally published by Illume, Vol. 3, Issue 1
