The equilibrium of islamic education: Has muslim women’s education preserved the religion?

Religion and Education

Volumn 25, Issue 1-2, 1998, Pages 5-19

  Barazangi, Nimat Hafez ^a  

^a Cornell University ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

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EID: 85007881855     PISSN: 15507394     EISSN: 19498381     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/15507394.1998.11000874     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. I would like to acknowledge Mohja Kahf and Nobl Barazangi for their invaluable insights and comments.
2. See the distinction between Islamic and Muslim education in Barazangi (1995) and (1997). Islamic education, referred to in the Qur’an (3:110) as thr process of shaping character within the Islamic worldview, requires the exposition to all knowledge as a means to understanding the parameters set in the Qur’an for a constructive relationship with Ckxi, otlier human beings, and nature.
3. Nimat Hafez Barazangi. “Vicegerency and Gender Justice,” in Nimat I iafez Barazangi, et al., eds. Islamic Identity and the Strugglefor Justice. Gainesville, University Press of Florida, p. 77-94,1996.
4. Nimat Hafez Barazangi. “Muslim Women’s Islamic Higher Learning as a Human Right: Theory and Practice” in Gisela Webb, ed. Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholarship-Activism in the United States. Syracuse University, forthcoming.
5. Thomas Lickona,“The Promulgation of Virtue” in Anne Tumbaugh Lockwood, ed. Conversation with Education Leaders. Conlemporaty Vieu’points on Education in America, New York, State University of New York: 21-30,1997;.
6. Atm L. Lockwood, “The Current Incarnation of Character” in die same reference: 31-38,1997.
7. Christopher Anderson, Patricia G. Avery, Patricia V. Pederson, Elizabeth S. Smith, and John L. Sullivan, “Divergent Perspectives on Citizenship Education: A Q Method Study and Survey of Social Studies Teachers,” American Educational Research Journal, Volume 34. Number 2, Summer 1997,333-364.
8. Anne T. Lockwood, American Educational Research Journal.
9. Barbara B. Gaddy, T. William Hall, and Robert J. Marzano, School Wars: Resolving Our Conflicts Over Religion and Values, San Francisco. Jossey-Bass, 1996.
10. William John Bennett, The Devaluing of America, the Eight for our Culture and our Children, New York, Summit Books. 1992.
11. David. A. Hollinger, “Visiting Historian to Discuss culture and Ethnoracial Classifications.” Cornell Chronicle, April 24. 1997: 4;.
12. David. A Hollinger. Science, Jews, and Secular Culture: Studies in MidTwentieth-Century American Intellectual History, Princeton University: 1996, p. 17.
13. Nathan Glazer, “Multiculturalism Gains an Unlikely Supporter.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. April 11. 1997: A 16, A18;.
14. Nathan Glazer, “Multiculturalism, Religious Conservatism, and American Diversity.” In Martin E. Marty, and Scott Appleby, eds. Religion, Ethnicity, and Self Identity, I Ianover, University Press of New England, 25-141,1997.
15. In a database search of the subject religion and education I found only six references out of 450 related to Islam, and none concerned with American Muslims There are several publications known to me as an educator, but for some reason, they are not indexed by "mainstream" bibliographies. The recent efforts of the Council on Islamic Educition with regard to world history in textbooks (Teaching about Islam & Muslims in the public School Classroom. 1995; and Strategies and Structures for Presenting World I listory. 1994) are the most recognized among mainstream educators, but was not indexed either.
16. See, for example, Khaliijah Mohammad Salleh. “The Role of Men and Women in Society,” Islamic Horizons, January/February, 1997:57.;.
17. Syed Ali Ashraf, New Horizons in Muslim Education. Cambridge University Press, 1995; Anis Ahmad, Muslim Women and Higher Education: A Case for Separate Institutions for Women, Islamabad, Pakistan, 1984.
18. Gaddy etal., 9, 1996.
19. See for example, Jamila Al-Hashimi “Public School System Versus Islamic School.” Islamic Horizon, June/July 1997, 55 in which she reasons that the public schools’ decline is the result of their attempt to make “the school increasingly the ctrrier of till kinds of social policies” instead of doing its job “to teach children elementary knowledge skills.” In the same breath, she states that “religious groups, in general, have a held start on teaching values in school.” It is exactly this dichotomy in education that is creating problems in our educational system. See another type of dichotomy in R M. Hare’s Essays on Religion and Education, Oxford University Press, 1992 discussion of Wilson’s distinction between the methtxl and the content of education vis-a-vis indoctrination (113-130).
20. See Nimat Hafez Barazangi, “Islamic HigherLeaming as a Human Right: Theory and Practice” in Gisela Webb, ed., Windows of Faith, forthcoming; and “Vicegerency and Gender Justice” in Barazangi, et al. eds., Islamic Identity and the Struggle for Justice, University Press of Florida, 1996,77-94.
21. Fazlur Rahman, Major Themes of the Qur’an, Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1980,1-3.
22. See details of the distinctions between “Islamic education,” “Muslim education” and Western, secular educition/universal schooling in Nimat Hafez Barazangi, 1995, “Religious Educition.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modem Islamic World. John L. Espsito. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, Vol 1.406-411.
23. Gulick, L 1953,4.
24. Annetta C. Baicr, The Commons of the Mind. Chicago: Open Court. 65-76,1997.
25. Warren. A Nord, Religion and American Education Rethinking a National Dilemma. University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
26. Deborah Mayo-Jefferies, Religious Ereedon in the Education Process: A Research Guide to Religion in Education (1950-1992). Buffalo: William S. Hein, 1994.
27. Nimat Hafez. Barazangi, “Muslim Women’s Islamic Higher Learning as a Human Right: Action Plan," in Mahnaz. Afkhami and Erika Loeffler Friedl, eds., Muslim Women and the Beijing Platform: Politics of Participation, Syracuse: Syracuse University, 1997,43-57.
28. Dr. Jordan said in the heated argument about placing the plate of the Ten Commandments in schools: "screw the Budhists and kill the Muslims." May 12. 1997 as reported by the Associatee Press.His statement indicates exactly the point I am emphasizing. That is, our pluralism has not become cognitively and morally autonomous. Individuals are still struggling between their normative beliefs and the "rational" presentation of others’ beliefs. They have not yet come to a point where they autonomously are able to integrate the two views, or make sense of them within their own frame of reference. Whether the reason is ignorance or pure refusal to accept the other’s norms is a matter for educators to assess. But the results are still strikingly suggestive that unless such individuals are able to understand and undertake cognitive egalitarism on their own, any attempt of having them accept social egal-itarism will contiue to have a weak point in the system and is apt to backlash with the change of circumstances.
29. Said Amir Arjomand, ed., The Political Dimensions of Religion. State University of New York Press, p. 4,1993.
30. William Sullivan, Reconstructing Public Philosophy, Berkeley: University of California, p. 10-19,1982.
31. Said Amir Arjomand, Reconstructing Public Philosophy, Berkeley: University of California.
32. Said Amir Arjomand, Reconstructing Public Philosophy, Berkeley: University of California.
33. June Shapiro, Sylvia Kramer, Cathreine Hunerbetg, Equal Their Chances: Children’s Activities for Non-sexist Learning. Englewood Cliff: Prentice Hall, 1981.
34. See my forthcoming article "Between die Post-ethnic and the Unique: Exclusion of American Muslim Women from Decison-Making" (in review).
35. I use "Western," "Islamic," "Muslim," "pluralistic", and other expressions in quotes because I want to draw attention to the elusiveness of these expressions, especially when contrasting "Islamic" in reference to religion vs. "Western" in reference to geography.
36. Sec Rheta DeVreis, Piaget’s Social Theory, Educational Researcher, volume 26. no.2, March 1997, p. 4-18 for a further explanation of Piaget’s differentiation of autonomous vs. heteronomous morality.
37. Andrea Lueg, "The Perception of Islam in Western Debate," Jochen Hippier ;md Andrea Lueg, eds., The Next Threat: Western Perception of Islam, translated by laila Friese, Boulder: Pluto Press, p. 16 1995.
38. Note that 1 intentionally am using the terms"character," "moral." and "religious" upbringing interchangebly in order to bring die focus to my claim that the problem is in our framework of understanding character, moral and religious pedagogy within the framework of "secular, pluralistic" education. I do agreee with some of the distinctions that Alan Lockwood or Lickona present, but 1 do not see these distinctions as the core of the problem here.
39. Lickona, T states that "we arrive at the natural moral law through reason and experience." (p. 27) But this is not my goal here. The concern here is the immediate experience of the learner within the direct relationship between her faith/Value and die reality of the situation in which she is dealing. This spur of the moment consciousness construction of knowledge and value is at stake here.
40. I realize that while Western educators see Islam mainly as rituals without understanding its theological principles, and religious education as moral education, Muslims often discuss these issues at die ideal level without relating them to die realities of their practices. Yet, it is necessary to see that all educators are equally missing the problem here.
41. Allen Lockwood questions if "we can really instill such characters, as these are unintentional values." I may agree with him at addressing intentionality as important, but this is not the problem here.
42. Lickona, T "we can really instill such characters, as these are unintentional values." p. 28.
43. Rita DeVries, “Piaget’s Social Theory," Educational Researcher, volume 26, no. 2, March 1997, p. 4-17 1997.
44. See the various perspectives, such as Nord and Gaddy, et al. on the value and details of the content of the document and die names and alliance of the seventeen national religious and educational organizations who cosponsored the curriculum, including the Islamic Society of North America, which was the only Islamic organization represented.
45. See Barazangi’s (in review) discussion of Muslim women’s self-identity; and (1996) for further details on Islamic Identity and gender justice.
46. Nel Noddings, Educating for Intelligent Belief or Unbelief, New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1993. In this book Noddings’ suggestion that teachers be pedagogically neutral is problematic because this is not possible once each teacher realizes his or her identity and moral autonomy.
47. See, for instance, Nord’s (p. 104) quotation of John Leland comparing Jesus to Muhammad in the context of imposing certain beliefs and practices. Had Nord took the extra step himself to study Islam, he would not have used such a biased quote concerning the use of the sword in "Muhammadan" tradition from a secondary source to make his point.
48. See, for example, the views expressed in some orientalists’ literature, and some of the responses by Muslim clergy to issues of Muslim women’s human rights that are often quoted out of context.
49. See, for example, Dr. Honry Jordan’s statement, and the responses to it in The Minaret (July/Aug, 1997), The Washington Report, and ADC Times (August/September, 1997).
50. In addition to being prevented from co-ed physical education and social activities, while their brothers are often allowed to participate in similar activities makes these girls wonder whether or not they want to identify with Islam, some Muslim women in the U.S., and other places, are prevented from attending Friday Prayers or are being asked to pray in separate, segregated buildings just as slaves or blacks used to be treated before die civil right movement. Furthemore, they are hardly represented in Muslim organizations consultative bodies that make community dccisons even when these women constitute die majority of education practioners and community volunteer workers.