Teaching Islam in schools – what are you so afraid of?

The topic of the moment appears to be centred on the suggestion that Islam could be taught in schools in Malta.

Predictably, this has been met with cries of blasphemy, racial slurs, unsubstantiated claims of Islamification against the will of the people, and some reasonable opinions that perhaps children’s education should be free from religious teaching completely.

Let us start at the beginning – does religion have a place in school? Across the world, schools that are based on a faith, be it Islam, Catholicism, or Church of England are extremely commonplace and often the teaching of other religions forms a part of the curriculum. To be honest, when I heard that there was no education relating to any other religion in Maltese schools, I was shocked. Why on earth would you not want to?

I was schooled in the UK at a church school and then at a secular secondary school. During my education, I was taught equally about Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Roman gods, Ancient Greek gods, Egyptian gods, and even Aztec and Mayan religions. We learnt about holidays and traditions, celebrated Diwali and Eid, had Easter festivals and Nativity plays, went on school trips to various places of worship, and were taught to respect the beliefs of others. I wasn’t taught that one was better than the other was, and I wasn’t taught that any of them was more right than the other, I wasn’t even told that any of them were true or false, it was all objective. But most of all, and what I believe is key, is that I was taught that the people who follow these religions are the people that make up the world and that by understanding what they believe, I would not only have the opportunity to expand my knowledge of cultures but I would also better understand the way the world works. To sum it up, I believe that teaching children about one about anything that stretches further than the end of our own noses and, while we are at it, why not shut down the airport and access to international news portals, and keep ourselves immersed in things that are only relevant to this small Mediterranean rock?

One common protestation I hear is that you cannot practise Christianity in Muslim countries, so why should we teach about it here? This is completely incorrect. There are churches of various Christian denominations in Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Kuwait. As for whether it is taught as a part of the national curriculum in these countries, other religions are taught to varying extents and children are taught from a young age to respect the beliefs of others. Besides, just because a country does not teach it at all or in much detail, does that mean we should not? Since when did any developed or forward thinking country set its rules based on what another country does or does not do? North Korea does not allow its citizens access to the internet and, based on this way of thinking, perhaps we should follow suit.

But what is it that you are so threatened by and afraid of? I have almost given up trying to debate with people on this topic especially when the majority of them believe that Islam is some horrific cult designed to wipe out humanity as we know it. You believe in the same God and you follow pretty much the same stories, morals, and teachings. If you want to be really technical about it, did you know that the Bible is actually considerably more violent, gruesome, and graphic than the Quran? But you are happy for your children to be taught it with no questions asked.

If you are going to form a strong opinion on something and shout from the rooftops (or on Facebook or a newspaper comments section) about the evils of a particular religion, then I implore you to at least learn a bit about it first. Don’t be misled by propaganda and fake news and don’t use YouTube or Donald Trump fan pages as a credible source of information. If you genuinely care about your country and the education of your children, consider picking up a Quran, a Torah, or the Guru Granth Sahib and actually read it to make sure that what comes out of your mouth, is a true representation of the facts.

Multiculturalism is a gift. It is something that helps us grow and develop as both individuals and as a society. If you took out all foreign influences from the Maltese way of life, you would not be left with a lot. Your diet is Italian, your language is Arabic, your religion is Middle Eastern and repackaged in the Vatican, your cars are French, German and Japanese, your politics is Greek, your legal system is heavily influenced by the British… you get the idea. Things that you use every day such as toothbrushes, calculators, paper, numbers, the alphabet, medicine, psychology – it all comes from other cultures and trust me, you wouldn’t be where you are now if it wasn’t for multiculturalism. Embracing the fact that other cultures have always been a part of a functioning society and learning to respect them is an important step that will result in more respectful, intelligent, and well-rounded human beings.

By refusing to educate the next generation on the world around them and the people that make it up, you are just further perpetuating an environment where hate, bigotry, violence, and extremism on both sides will continue to flourish. One cannot quell hate with more hate and it is the fear of the unknown and the things that we don’t understand that will contribute to the demise of our society, not education.