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Muslim Students in State Education

There are many problems children in general face coping with school life. There’s pressure from teachers to hand in homework and coursework, there’s pressure from parents to go to school on time and not get into trouble, and there’s pressure from friends and classmates to get involved in the latest fads, gizmos and gossips. Added to all this, Muslim students face the pressure of dealing with issues that go against their beliefs and teachings.

Muslim students don’t feel inhibited to take a non-Muslim as a friend. There’s nothing in Islam that prohibits mixing with people of other races and culture. However, when it comes to mixing with people of opposite sex it becomes an issue for Muslims.

In mixed gender secondary schools girls would generally segregate themselves from boys in the classroom. However, teachers often don’t realise how important it is, especially for Muslim children, to be segregated when it comes to the classroom seating plan, instead girls and boys would often be forced to mix.

Halal food is now being served in most Muslim majority secondary schools across UK. More and more schools are accommodating the demand from Muslim parents to have an alternative form of school uniform suitable for Muslim girls. However, segregated PE lessons in all women environment is yet to be enforced in schools. Even in our Muslim majority (in terms of students) boroughTower Hamlets there are still many schools who are not adequately accommodating the social and physical needs of Muslim children.

“…the purpose of sex education in schools in the UK is not about teaching children how to refrain from sex until they are married but they teach them how to practice safe sex.”

“The main purpose of today’s sex education classes is to try and reduce teenage pregnancies and therefore the emphasis is on how to enjoy sex without getting pregnant and this is obviously not what Muslim children should be learning.” Excerpts taken from an answer to a question on theRevival.co.uk, given by Shaykh Salim Ghiza

"The number of Muslim students has grown considerably in the last 10 to 20 years and a higher proportion of Muslim families do not accept evolutionary theory compared with Christian families.”  Prof. Michael Reiss, Head of Science, Institute of Education

These comments points to the incompatibility of some aspects of the curriculum with the religious beliefs of Muslim students. Even RE (Religious Education) does not correctly inform students about Islam. It can be argued that RE makes the situation worse by focusing on the five pillars of Islam and not encouraging discussions about other aspects of Islam, such as family life, community values and societal transactions.

More and more Muslim students are attending the Friday prayers. During school holidays the local mosques become jam packed with the influx of thousands of young Muslims attending the compulsory jummah prayer. This is one of the basic duties of all Muslim males who have reached puberty.

Some Muslim boys have decided to take a greater interest in their faith. Some of them even decide to keep a beard and get engaged in discussions with their classmates about religion.

Schools must not react negatively towards pupils who decide to practice their faith at young age. Instead, they should understand and take advantage of the positive elements religion brings to school in terms of discipline and self control in classroom, respect for the teachers and dedication to the pursuit of knowledge helping to improve exam results.