Muslims - One step forward, four steps back..!

-F. S. M. Ahamed-

Muslims in Sri Lanka are moving away from mainstream society, and one of the main reasons for it is the kind of education our children are receiving.  Comparing the present generation of school going Muslim children with those some decades back, it is obvious that the present generation of children who are attending Muslim schools and Madrasas are growing up isolated from society.

It was troubling to say the least, when I was told by a Muslim girl from a low income family living in Atulugama, that the girls in her family and her neighborhood are now increasingly being sent to Madrasas instead of mainstream schools.  Apart from learning the Quran, they are taught some reading, writing and some simple arithmetic, cooking and sewing.  She proudly stated that not only were the girls getting an Islamic education, but that they were now more religious, because they wore the Niqab (I’m tempted to use an exclamation mark here, but use a full stop instead).

Looking around, it’s obvious that this ‘trend’ is on the rise, not just in places like Atulugama with a high Muslim population, but in Colombo too.  Our community members will know that our children are being enrolled in Muslim schools, or pulled out of schools, even Muslims schools, to be enrolled as full-time students in Madrasas which only provide Islamic education.  But before we consider education which excludes secular knowledge, let’s look at Muslim schools.

In the case of our children being sent to Muslim schools, there may be reasons for parents to enroll their children in a Muslim school, be they a national Muslim school or a Muslim international school.  The reasons for this can be manifold.  It may be that parents prefer their children receive an education in an Islamic environment while they receive their secular education, or the inability for their children to gain admission to government or private schools which are ‘most sought after’. 

Whatever the reason may be for our children to be sent to a Muslim school, the obvious end result is that they grow up not interacting, not having friends, and simply not knowing, about people of other faiths and ethnicities; and I’m not sure which is worse, when children of other beliefs and races grow up not having Muslim friends.  Isn’t this a recipe for disaster for our community?  Parents who send their children to Muslim schools will know that almost every one of them would have themselves studied in Government or Private schools which had children of different faiths.  They would have made friendships and bonds which still exist, they would have learned the language of their friends, they would know about their culture.  Their friends would know about Muslims, and relationships and trust of a lifetime would have been established when they were children.  Are they any less of a Muslim because they studied in a school which had children of all faiths? Is that why they choose to send their children now to Muslim schools? It rings true then, when we Muslims are accused of alienating ourselves from other communities- we ourselves have built a wall around ourselves that Non-Muslims view us negatively because they simply don’t know who we are or what we are up to. Leave alone peaceful coexistence, if we are supposed to do Da’wah, how will they know what Islam is when they don’t interact with us?

Let’s now look at children who attend full time Madrasas from the age of 11,12, 13, especially when they get no help with secular subjects, or don’t sit for standard exams like the OLs or ALs.  They grow up not getting any ‘knowledge of the world’ to live their lives on earth.  Knowledge of Islam is absolutely necessary to live one’s life, and Islam also stresses on worldly knowledge. 

Gender is no barrier to seek knowledge as we are told that seeking knowledge is a duty of every Muslim.   It is evident in the actions of the Prophet as to the importance he attached to knowledge.  During the Battle of Badr, he ordered that any prisoner of war who could teach 10 Muslim children to read and write should be released.  This proves that knowledge necessarily didn’t mean only religious knowledge, as it was even sought from people who were not Muslim.  The Holy Quran too states- “

"In the creation of the heavens and the earth the alternation of the night and the day, in the ships that sail in the sea with their load…. in the rain which Allah sends down from the sky and thus revives the earth after its death; and then He spread in all kinds of animals; in the changing of the winds: in the clouds which have been left suspending between the heaven and the earth -in all these are clear signs for the people who understand” (2:164)

Ask any head of a madrasa if worldly knowledge is important too, and their reply would surely be in the affirmative.  I have spoken to a few persons who run Madrasas, and all of them believe so, and in fact, some went to the extent of saying that there is no way one can understand and appreciate Islam without worldly knowledge. However their Madrasas did have children who had dropped out of mainstream schools to follow a full time course in the Madrasa.

It is known that the socio economic well being of families depend on the education of the mother.  This spills over from the family to extend to the entire community. So a Madrasa education alone isn’t enough to have an educated, healthy and stable Muslim community in the future.

The growing popularity of Madrasas with Muslims is met with the establishment of institutions to cater to this demand.  However, establishing these Madrasas does not necessarily mean that people are only catering to a spiritual need.  The setting up of these schools also meets material ends.  For many, establishing such schools or teaching in them is a form of employment.  One of the reasons for Madrasas being established is the increasingly large numbers passing out of these schools as Hafizul Quran or Aalims or Aalimas.  They then set up their own Madrasa as it is the most convenient and easiest form of earning a living.  The lack of a monitoring system to monitor the quality of Madrasas is an area which begs another discussion.  But what is also alarming here is the gradual withdrawal of our Muslims from other vital professions.  It is known that there are hardly any Muslims in the administrative spheres of government.  One cannot emphasize enough on this important aspect which would not only have our people employed in the State sector, but also as whistle blowers for our community and contributors to policy making.  We will also soon reach saturation point in having too many of our youth who are qualified only to teach in Madrasas, and therefore an ensuing unemployment problem, which can translate to other social problems in the community.

This note to my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters is not to look inward for the welfare of only our community.  Our community makes up a significant part of Sri Lankan society.  Our social and economic standing in the country will also impact the whole of Sri Lanka.  It will be prudent then to impact it positively than to take four steps back and be the community at the bottom of the social ladder.  So shall we rethink the kind of education we as a community are giving our children?