This book critically examines the concept of indoctrination within the Western liberal traditions and analyses case studies of indoctrination in some Muslim societies. It offers suggestions to counter religious indoctrination and highlights the key tensions, challenges and prospects of Islamic education in a modern and multicultural world.
Islamic schools, especially madrasahs, have been viewed as sites of indoctrination for Muslim students and militants. Some educators and parents in the United States have also regarded introductory courses on Islam in some public schools as indoctrinatory. But what do we mean by "indoctrination"? And is Islamic education indoctrinatory? This book critically discusses the concept of indoctrination in the context of Islamic education. It explains that indoctrination occurs when a person holds to a type of beliefs known as control beliefs that result in ideological totalism. Using Indonesia as an illustrative case study, the book expounds on the conditions for an indoctrinatory tradition to exist and thrive. Examples include the Islamic school co-founded by Abu Bakar Ba’asyir and the militant organisation Jemaah Islamiyah. The book further proposes ways to counter and avoid indoctrination through formal, non-formal, and informal education. It argues for the creation and promotion of educative traditions that are underpinned by religious pluralism, strong rationality, and strong autonomy. Examples of such educative Muslim traditions in Indonesia will be highlighted. Combining philosophical inquiry with empirical research, this book is a timely contribution to the study of contemporary and often controversial issues in Islamic education.
“This book presents a comprehensive, well-structured and enlightening survey of the problem of indoctrination as manifested in scientific, moral, religious and social fields within the context of an intellectual milieu that prides itself in being liberal and democratic. In the craft of intellectual midwifery which she masters, Professor Tan has but one prescription: constant reflection, but not of the solipsistic or sterile kind. Rather, she advocates fearless questioning within the bounds of a community of learning, which is what schools should ideally be, wherein we all recognise ourselves to be at once students and teachers.” - Professor Alejo José G. Sison, Rafael Escolà Chair of Professional Ethics, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
Religious schooling in Canada has been a controversial subject since the secularization of the public school system, but there has been little scholarship on Islamic education. In this ethnographic study of four full-time Islamic schools, Jasmin Zine explores the social, pedagogical, and ideological functions of these alternative, and religiously-based educational institutions. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork and interviews with forty-nine participants, Canadian Islamic Schools provides significant insight into the role and function that Islamic schools have in Diasporic, Canadian, educational, and gender-related contexts. Discussing issues of cultural preservation, multiculturalism, secularization, and assimiliation, Zine considers pertinent topics such as the Eurocentricism of Canada's public schools and the social reproduction of Islamic identity. She further examines the politics of piety, veiling, and gender segregation paying particular attention to the ways in which gendered identities are constructed within the practices of Islamic schools and how these narratives shape and inform the negotiation of gender roles among both boys and girls. A fascinating and informative study of religious-based education, Canadian Islamic Schools is essential reading for educators, sociologists, as well as those interested in Immigration and Diaspora Studies.
"This ground-breaking book is one of the most significant contributions made in recent years to Islamic education."—John M. Hull, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom New Directions in Islamic Education is a radical rethinking of Islamic education in the modern world. It explores the relationship between pedagogy and the formation of religious identities within Islamic education settings that are based in minority and majority Muslim contexts. Abdullah Sahin, PhD, directs the Centre for Muslim Educational Thought and Practice and is the course leader for the MEd program in Islamic education at MIHE in Leicestershire, United Kingdom.
In recent times, there has been intense global interest on and scrutiny of Islamic education. In reforming Islamic schools, what are the key actions initiated and are they contested or negotiated by and among Muslims? This edited collection brings together leading scholars to explore current reforms in Islamic schools. Drawing together international case studies, Reforms in Islamic Education critically discusses the reforms, considering the motivations for them, nature of them and perceptions and experiences of people affected by them. The contributors also explore the tensions, resistance, contestations and negotiations between Muslims and non-Muslims, and among Muslims, in relation to the reforms. Highlighting the need to understand and critique reforms in Islamic schools within broad historical, political and socio-cultural contexts, this book is a valuable resource for academics, policymakers and educators.
Despite their close geographic and cultural ties, Indonesia and Malaysia have dramatically different Islamic education, with that in Indonesia being relatively decentralized and discursively diverse, while that in Malaysia is centralized and discursively restricted. The book explores the nature of the Islamic education systems in Indonesia and Malaysia and the different approaches taken by these states in managing these systems. The book argues that the post-colonial state in Malaysia has been more successful in centralising its control over Islamic education, and more concerned with promoting a restrictive orthodoxy, compared to the post-colonial state in Indonesia. This is due to three factors: the ideological makeup of the state institutions that oversee Islamic education; patterns of societal Islamisation that have prompted different responses from the states; and control of resources by the central government that influences centre-periphery relations. Informed by the theoretical works of state-in-society relations and historical institutionalism, this book shows that the three aforementioned factors can help a state to minimize influence from the society and exert its dominance, in this case by centralising control over Islamic education. Specifically, they help us understand the markedly different landscapes of Islamic education in Malaysia and Indonesia. It will be of interest to academics in the field of Southeast Asian Studies, Asian Education and Comparative Education.
This book describes the practices and propaganda that are preparing the fall of America and guaranteeing that nothing will be done to stop it. Other books focus on one aspect of the problem; this book tells you the whole story. Other books give you rants and unsupported claims. This book presents documented facts but also tells the victims' stories, bringing you face to face with the human costs. When presenting misguided practices and anti-American ideology, the book lets the perpetrators hang themselves in their own words.
The author explores education from the essential principles of Tawhid (Oneness of God, humanity, knowledge); fitrah (concept of human nature); and the role of humans as vicegerents of God on earth (responsibility and stewardship). The current education system dates back a hundred years or more, and is in desperate need of a 'reboot'. In developing the industrialized society, the education system itself became like a factory, the end product being pupils who merely regurgitate facts, and themselves end up as cogs in the machine that is the wider industrial complex. The legacy of this is a soulless ‘functional’ educational system that fails to develop pupils to meet the present and future needs of individuals and their expectations. This failure inevitably impacts on society and humanity at large. Society has long since moved beyond the industrial revolution and into an age of global connectedness where the sum of human knowledge is freely available via the internet. It is an age where people are generally more well informed and on a variety of issues. An effective holistic educational philosophy is required, one that gives full spiritual meaning to all that a child learns. It should equip children with spiritual awareness, morals and values, social responsibility and accountability, self-discipline and self-determination, self-confidence and empowerment, ambition and aspiration tempered with thoughtfulness and a sense of gratitude.