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Almir Pramenković, Impact of Islamic Educational Institutions On Preserving Religious Identity - The Case of Muslim Community in Britain
Almir Pramenković, Impact of Islamic Educational Institutions On Preserving Religious Identity - The Case of Muslim Community in Britain
378:28
Godišnje.
ISSN 1452-9580 = Islamska misao (Novi Pazar)
COBISS.SR-ID 141771532
Hfz. Prof. dr. Almir Pramenković
323.1::28(4-15)
316.722:28(420)
Sažetak
Ovaj članak se prvenstveno fokusira na uticaj islamskih obrazovnih
institucija na očuvanje islamskog identiteta i nastoji analizirati različite
probleme i poteškoće u islamskim obrazovnim institucijama. Posebno,
cilj ovog rada je da proceni iskustvo islamskih obrazovnih institucija u
Velikoj Britaniji i probleme u ovim obrazovnim institucijama - kao i da
istraži neke od mogućih načina za prevazilaženje tih teškoća. Pokazat će
se da su obrazovne institucije osnova muslimanskog identiteta u Britani-
ji. Istaknut ćemo neke od obrazovnih problema muslimanske zajednice
kako bismo poboljšali kvalitet obrazovanja u cilju očuvanja vjerskog iden-
titeta. Jedan od glavnih problema, a možda i glavni problem musliman-
skih zajednica je očuvanje islamskog identiteta i uspostavljanje održivog
islamskog obrazovanja u svjetlu religijskog i multikulturalnog konteksta
na Zapadu. Važno je prepoznati različitu prirodu muslimanskih zajednica
u ovom spektru. Muslimanske zajednice koje žive na Zapadu čine različite
kulturne, sektaške i etničke pripadnosti Ova raznolikost i fluidnost treba
da nas upozore u pokušaju da pronađemo jednu specifičnu ili statičku
definiciju “muslimanske zajednice” ili islamskog identiteta. U isto vreme,
teško je uhvatiti jednu ideju ili definiciju onoga što čini “zapad”, ili ‘’za-
padnu civilizaciju’’. Moramo priznati raznovrsnu i pluralističku dimenziju
zapadne civilizacije, ili kulture, sa svojim dinamičnim silama koje proizlaze
iz različitih istorijskih faktora i iskustava. Dakle, uspon i ideja sekularizma
mogu imati različite forme u različitim evropskim zemljama. Iako je sma-
trana sekularnom demokratijom, UK ima uspostavljenu crkvu. Francuska,
s druge strane, nema ustanovljenu crkvu i ne postoje državne odredbe za
vjerske aktivnosti.
Abstract
1
Ovaj rad je deo postdoktorskog istraživanja koji je autor obavio na Markfield Institute of Higher Education
in association with Gloucestershire University-Lester (Engleska) 2010.godine pod naslovom Impact of Islamic
Educational Institutions on Preserving Religious Identity – The Case of Muslim Community in Serbia and Britain
a pod mentorstvom dr. Abdulaha Šahina.
ain.
Muslim presence in Britain goes back at least three hundred years to
the activities of the East India Company, when men from Indian subcon-
tinent were first recruited into the merchant navy.4 These sailors, known
’kascars’, were present in Britain’s ports in sizeable numbers.5 Since entry
into Britain for citizens of British colonies was not restricted by 1962 the
immigrants came from India in 1940s after Second World War. Before Brit-
ish authorities issued a legislative proposition of entry into the country
(Immigration Act of 1962) there was a massive increase in immigration
from all regions, especially from the Indian subcontinent.6 Next Muslim
group of different background, Turkish, settled in Britain in 1970s. It was
followed by smaller groups from Malaysia, Morocco and Yemen.7 Euro-
pean Muslims from Bosnia and Kosovo as well as from Afghanistan and
Somalia came to Britain in 1990s. Until 2001, a comprehensive data on
British Muslims were not available. According to the 2001 census, British
Muslim population numbered 1.6. Million, making up 2.7 percent of total
British population, and is considered second-largest religion in Britain.8
1.2. Islamic Educational institutions in Britain
Many of the Muslim immigrants came in Britain for variety of rea-
sons—some as refugees, some for a better standard of living, others to
get education. Although the first mosque was erected in Woking in 1890,9
the number of mosques increased significantly with new phases of immi-
grants in Britain in the 1950s.10
It is unclear when supplementary schools first appeared. What is
known, however, is that the supplementary school “movement” started
flourishing after the Second World War, when refugees from Eastern Eu-
4
Ziauddin Sardar, ‘’Racism, Identity and Muslims in the West’’, in Muslim Minorities in the West, ed. Syed Z.
Abedin, Zaiauddin Sardar, (London: Grey Seal, 1995), 1.
5
Philip Lewis, Islamic Britain-religion, politics and identity among British Muslims (London, New York: I.B.
Tauris Publishers, 1994), 11.
6
Muhammad Anwar, Young Muslims in Britain-attitudes, educational needs and policy implications (Leicester:
The Islamic foundation, 1994), 12 .
7
Jorgen Nielsen, Muslims in Western Europe (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995), 41-42.
8
Ceri Peach, ‘‘Britain’s Muslim population: Overview‘‘, in Muslim Britain: Communities under pressure, ed.
Tahir Abas, (London, New York: Zed Books, 2005), 18.
9
Muhammad Anwar, Young Muslims in Britain-attitudes, educational needs and policy implications (Leicester:
The Islamic foundation, 1994), 12. Britain has no generally applicable legal framework for religious communities.
Traditional religious communities have historical privileges, but there some statutory limits for their freedom.
However, status of recognition, like in Austria for example, does not exist in Britain. Most Muslim organization
and mosques operate under law that regulates charitable organizations. That means that all mosques and
organizations are registered charities. Other than that, technically, organizations are not required to be registered.
10
Gilles Kepel, Allah in the West – Islamic Movements in America and Europe (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997),
97.
rope arrived in the UK. This growth continued in the 1960s, when immi-
grants from new Commonwealth countries set up their own community
schools. It has accelerated again as new communities continue to arrive
in Britain. Many such supplementary schools are held in mosques, in com-
munity centres, church halls, school halls hired for use, or private homes.
They study Arabic language for purpose of Qur’anic recitation, and they
also study principals of beliefs and basic requirements of Shari’a.11 One of
the main reasons, why Muslims have established a programme of supple-
mentary schools—madrasas—is because parents thought that the state
schools fail to provide an essential part of spiritual and moral education.
Other reasons include the absence of Arabic and other relevant commu-
nity languages from the school curriculum.12
Nowadays, there are two types of Muslim schools in Britain: state
funded and independent Muslim schools. State-funded Muslim schools
are required to teach the National Curriculum, but they are free to teach
their own syllabus for religious education. Independent Muslim schools
combine traditional Islamic religious education, based on models from
the Indian sub-continent, with some mainstream English National Curric-
ulum subjects. However, there is great diversity among Muslim schools
in Britain. For instance, they vary in student numbers from approximately
5 to 1800. They also differ in terms of the curriculum they teach: all state
funded and some independent Muslim schools follow the national cur-
riculum, while a small number of independent schools teach an entirely
Islamic curriculum. These tend to be Islamic seminaries or daru-l-ulum,
which are training their students to be Islamic scholars.13
The struggle to obtain government funding for Muslim schools spans
for pretty long time, as applications were repeatedly turned down. For
example, Muslim parents Association in Bradford in 1982 sought five
schools with majority of Muslim students to be moved into voluntary
aided schools under Muslim control. The initiative was rejected with ar-
gument that type of schools like that would inevitably lead to social seg-
regation and poor quality of the education.
When the Education Reform Act was adopted in 1988, for the first
time it has become a statutory duty for country schools with Muslim stu-
11
Ghulam Sarwar, British Muslims and Schools, (London, The Muslim Educational Trust, 1994), 28.
12
Muhammad Akram Khan-Cheema, ‘’British Muslims in State schools: a positive way forward’’, in Issues in
Islamic education, ed. The Muslim Education Trust, (London: Cromwell Press Limited, 1996), 84.
13
Parker-Jenkins, M., ‘‘The Legal Framework for Faith-based Schools and the Rights of the Child’’, in Gardner,
R. et al. (eds.) Faith Schools: consensus or conflict?, (Abingdon: Routledge Falmer, 2005),
They brought with them a cultural heritage and customs.19 All groups
who migrate to a new country have difficulties adjusting to a new way
of life. Strongly attached to their own religion and culture they feel that
Western culture is a threat to their religion and values, and religion is an
important and sensitive part of British Muslims identity. Brought up in
a different cultural environment Muslims migrants began to experience
tensions between minority-majority culture. These tensions strongly in-
fluence the attitudes towards religion and other values of their own com-
munity. Adapting to the new circumstances and culture becomes a major
obstacle for these newly formed communities in Britain. This raises a
number of important and related questions pertaining to their identity of
Muslims living in Britain. As Claire Tinker points out,
“Given these diverse national origins it is unsurprising that a num-
ber of questions have arisen about how Muslims in Britain construct and
maintain their identities.
In particular, do they adopt multiple or overlapping identities, or do
they privilege one aspect of their identity over others? Do `British Mus-
lims’ affiliate themselves to the British State, to a British or European
Muslim community, or to a global Ummah?”20
One of the main challenges for British Muslims is how to preserve
their Islamic identity in British society, and what this Muslim Britishness
means, or can we speak of multiple identities?21 British Muslims are grap-
pling with the question of how to be Muslim in secular state and to find
proper mechanism to live as a minority in non-Muslim society. In addi-
tion, they are supposed to find appropriate way whereby they will recon-
cile values of Islam and living in secular state.
For early Muslim immigrants preserving a religious identity became
a major concern, and they sought to preserve their religious identity by
educating and upbringing their children in accordance with Islamic teach-
ing. In order to achieve that, first Muslim erected first mosques in Brit-
ain. The structure of mosque and madrasas played key role in the first
decades of Muslims settlements. The first serious Islamic educational
need appeared to have been felt by the first generation when they were
joined by their families and children. Consequently, they expended realm
19
Maurice Irfan Coloes, Education and Islam – a new strategic approach (Leicester: SDSA, 2004), 13.
20
Claire Tinker, “State Funded Muslim Schools? Equality, Identity and Community in Multi-faith Britain,” Ph.D
dissertation (University of Nottingham, 2006), 12.
21
Paul Bagguley, Yasmin Hussain, ‘‘Flying the flag for England? Citizenship, religion and cultural identity among
British Pakistani Muslims‘‘, in Muslim Britain: Communities under pressure, ed. Tahir Abas, (London, New York:
Zed Books, 2005), 217.
response to specific religious needs has been largely left to local govern-
ment. The reason for this is that Local Education Authorities (LEAs) are
clearly in better position to identify the religious needs of children. Prac-
tices adopted by LEA in response to Muslims requests include: provision
of a room for midday prayer and special provision for Friday prayer, adop-
tion of school uniform rules and sportswear requirements, the use of dis-
cretionary holidays to allow Muslim children permission to be away from
school at the start of Ramadan and at ’Eid al-Fitr and ’Eid al-Adha, the
provision of halal food for school lunch, single-sex groupings and classes
and other schools activities.
Majority of Muslims parent support single-sex schooling for their
daughters after puberty. There are greater opportunities for boys to har-
ass girls verbally and physically in mixed schools. Muslims parents are
increasingly using these arguments to support their preference for sin-
gle-sex schooling. Muslim children are exposed to divergent values at
school and at mosque school.
In terms of educational planning, some community schools attempt
to keep religion and faith out of schools altogether, and this makes it
more difficult for them to meet distinctive moral, spiritual and cultural
needs of Muslim children.25 The result is that Muslim children’s unique
religious identity may not be celebrated in schools, leading to feelings
that this identity is also not valued in broader society. At the same time,
there is a concern of the teasing and bullying that Muslim children expe-
rience at schools. In one incident, a schoolgirl had her headscarf pulled
of by woman at her school gates while in other verbal abuse and threat
is recorded. The school curriculum has important contribution to make in
helping students to develop an understanding of different groups within
their society. Schools have responsibility to check the accuracy of rep-
resentation of Islam in the textbooks and library books they use. In the
school, Islam can be taught by non-Muslims, but they often have limited
understanding of issues pertaining to the needs of Muslim community.26
Many parents would like their children to have opportunity to receive
lessons about Islam within community schools, as a part of normal school
day, preferably taught by imam or qualified Muslim teacher. In State
schools, students are required to take part in daily collective worship,
which can be considered in broad sense as Christian in character.27 Above
25
Open Society Institute, British Muslims and Education (2005), 145.
26
Ibid. 152.
27
Ibid. 159.
all, teachers should be trained to meet the needs of Muslim children and
to respond sensitively to Muslim beliefs and values in, and beyond, the
classroom. It is important teachers to respect Muslim children’s identity
and avoid stereotypes about Islam and Muslims.
Prominence of religion in the identity of young British Muslims is of
enormous importance in schools, but it involves complex questions of
intercultural relations in multicultural society. The question of assimi-
lation and isolation begin to emerge in this context. One response is to
require Muslim children to cast off their cultural heritage (assimilation)
while other response is for Muslims to retreat into inner-city enclaves,
where they can preserve their identity untouched by the way of life in
the broader society around them (isolation). Muslim should prefer a re-
sponse in which they are both free to develop their distinctive identity
and confident to take on all the rights and responsibility of full British
citizenship. Here we are moving into the model of integration. Two shifts
in curriculum might help to make this happen. The first is more global
focus, where European and Christian culture is contextualised in terms of
world civilisation. The second involves the inclusion of currently neglect-
ed Muslim contribution to European learning and culture. The effect of
this would be both to enrich curriculum for all students and to support
Muslim children in preservation their identity within the concept of Euro-
pean citizenship, hence that will reduce their feeling of rejection.28
British Muslims have to consider question if they want or not to im-
port pedagogical methods and curricula from the country of origin and to
think of a project adapted to the realities of their societies. They should
explore the areas with witch Islamic education is concerned. Study of the
surrounding and of people is an essential part of education. Islamic ed-
ucational institution can not be disconnected from reality. If things were
the same as in the students’ countries of origin, the teaching methods
would have to take into account the milieu in witch the education was
given.
State-maintained schools are nurturing in an Islamic environment. At
the same time, there is a danger of many of these schools which pro-
mote a more isolationist outlook.29 These schools could isolate Muslims
from broader society and hinder attempts at integration. They may fail to
prepare children adequately for democratic citizenship in multicultural
Ibid, 154.
28
Abdullah Sahin, ‘‘The contribution of religious education to social and community cohesion: an Islamic
29
37
Abdullah Sahin, “Rethinking the Meaning of Being Islamicly Educated in a secular Context: Reflections on
Religious Nurture among British Muslim Communities”, 4.
38
Shahin, “Islam, Secularity and the Culture of Critical Openness A Muslim Theological Reflection”, 3.
39
Ibid, 4.
Ghulam Sarwar, British Muslims and Schools, (London, The Muslim Educational Trust, 1994), 30.
40