ERIC Number: EJ1098447
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1938-9809
EISSN: N/A
Islamic Schools in America: Islam's Vehicle to the Future?
Timani, Hussam S.
Forum on Public Policy Online, v2006 n1 Fall 2006
This paper explores the role of American Muslim schools in shaping and constructing the identity of Muslim children in the U.S., and shows how Muslim organizations and educators are using these schools to (re)Islamize Muslim children. America's Muslim immigrants believe that without teaching their children the Islamic culture and religion, they will be brought up as anything but Islamic. This paper argues that Islamic organizations and Muslim educators have capitalized on the ills of public schools to put pressure on Muslims to build Islamic schools, where (re)Islamizing Muslim children would be the goal. But, in the process, many of these children may end up alienated and isolated from the rest of the society, and, in some cases, exposed to anti-American, anti-secular, and anti- Western propaganda. This paper also argues that for Islam to prosper and flourish as a minority religion in a predominantly Western, Christian, and secular society, Islamic education must be geared towards Islamizing Muslim children without de-Americanizing them.
Descriptors: Muslims, Religious Education, Private Schools, Religious Cultural Groups, Identification (Psychology), Immigrants, Islamic Culture, Islam, Social Influences, Cultural Influences, Cultural Awareness, Christianity, Cultural Maintenance
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A