The meanings and possible implications of critical Islamic religious education

ABSTRACT

The teaching of Islam in Western and non-Western societies may be located along a continuum from critical to non-critical paradigms. Islamic religious education is dominated by the non-critical paradigm and a devotional discourse of religious education. This is true in both Islamic and non-Islamic countries and is relevant to the teaching of both the spiritual and moral messages of Islam. The current essay is motivated by the ‘inadequate theoretical reflections on the meaning of education, which gravely hinder the task of thinking about Islam educationally and education Islamically’. The first section reviews the tenets of Islamic religious education from a conservative and devotional perspective. In the second and third sections, the authors address the major shortcomings of this approach and its theory of Islamisation. In the final section, the authors propose a rationale for an alternative paradigm of critical Islamic religious education – which is rarely discussed in the literature – and for its appropriateness for living in modern, democratic, multi-faith societies.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamic education
• critical religious education
• Islamisation of knowledge
• liberal Islam

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. It is believed that these people are ‘the sources of legitimate knowledge and the methodology of accessing this knowledge’ (Duderija 2014a, 134).

2. The first four Rashidun righteous caliphs (632–661) are Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali.

3. Education for economic and materialistic purposes, and the failure to reduce social ills such as inequality, sexism, racism and abuses of human rights.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Najwan Saada

Najwan Saada received his PhD in Curriculum Instruction and Teacher Education from Michigan State University and he is now a lecturer of multicultural, citizenship, and values education at Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education and Beit Berl College of Education, Israel. His research focuses on citizenship and religious (Islamic) education for religious and national minorities in Western and Muslim-majority societies. Najwan’s research has been published in Theory and Research in Social Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, Citizenship Teaching and Learning, Religious Education, and Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. Najwan’s broad interests include teaching for diversity and social justice, sociology and philosophy of education, multicultural education, values education, and curriculum studies. Najwan has an account on Research Gate and may be contacted on [email protected].

Haneen Magadlah

Haneen Magadlah received her PhD in Social work from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is now a lecturer at Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education, Israel, and at Bethlehem University, Palestine. Her research focuses on social change, active citizenship, and religious (Islamic) education. Haneen’s research has been published in local institutes and has had significant impact on the field of social work. Haneen’s broad interests include community engagement, teaching for social activism and social justice