Being and Belonging: Muslims in the United States since 9/11

7. Islamic Schools, Assimilation, and the Concept of Muslim American Character

CHAPTER 7 ISLAMIC SCHOOLS, ASSIMILATION, AND THE CONCEPT OF MUSLIM AMERICAN CHARACTER CRAIG M. JOSEPH AND BARNABY RIEDEL THE TERRORIST attacks of September 11, 2001, intensified a concern many Americans have long had concerning its Muslim residents and communities. One of the forms this concern has taken is a heightened scrutiny of Muslim institutions and practices that might foster attitudes incompatible with the goal of integrating Muslims fully into American political and social life. More specifically , many Americans have become increasingly worried that American Muslims , especially Muslim youth, are being indoctrinated with anti-Western or anti-American attitudes, or with intolerance of other religious traditions. In this context, Islamic schools abroad have increasingly become a source of concern. Immediately after 9/11, journalists and pundits became interested in the baleful effects of madrasas, or traditional forms of Islamic schooling. Islamic schools in the United States have attracted less of this kind of attention ; but here too there has been a degree of alarm over the tone and content of some textbooks used in these schools. For example, a March 30, 2003, article in the New York Daily News revealed that a few New York Islamic schools were using textbooks containing frankly anti-Jewish and anti-Christian statements : “ ‘Many Jews and Christians,’ the textbook says, ‘lead such decadent and immoral lives that lying, alcohol, nudity, pornography, racism, foul language, premarital sex, homosexuality and everything else are accepted in their society, churches and synagogues’ ” (Larry Cohler-Esses, “Sowing Seeds of Hatred: Islamic Textbooks Scapegoat Jews, Christians”). Recently coverage of Islamic schools has been more encouraging. For example , a 2002 survey of Islam on the PBS documentary series Frontline showcased an American Islamic school and its principal. The same school—Universal School islamic schools 157 in Bridgeview, Illinois—has been profiled in several segments on National Public Radio, and most recently in an article in Time magazine. It is on this school that our investigation of Islamic education in the United States after 9/11 focuses. We focus on it as an acknowledged prototype for Islamic schools across the country and briefly describe it and the community surrounding it, examining in particular how it has sought to resolve the dilemma of socializing its students to be both good Americans and good Muslims. In contrast to current essentializing discourses, based on the worry that there is “something about Islam” that fundamentally conflicts with the West, the Universal School aspires to show that the two are compatible; that developing good Muslims is at once consistent with the aim of cultivating successful Americans. As a result of 9/11 increased attention has been paid to Islamic schools in the United States, giving the impression that these schools only just emerged, perhaps even as a response to 9/11. On the contrary, Islamic private schools such as Universal School have a history that stretches back to at least the early 1990s. Reporting often contextualizes these schools as existing in the wake of 9/11 but the most interesting and neglected question is whether Islamic private schools have changed as a consequence of 9/11. Did 9/11 have an impact on the development of Islamic curricula, Islamic educational aims, or the organization of school life? Did 9/11 create factions within these communities, foster a sense of institutional alienation, or result in polarizing discourses emphasizing the incompatibility of Islam and the West? What about the effect of 9/11 on the identity, self-esteem, and academic achievement of Islamic private school students? We cannot answer all of these questions because we focus primarily on one school, Universal School, and one stratum of institutional life, namely teachers and administrators. But, even through this small window, the story to be told about 9/11’s effect on Universal School is perhaps unexpected. Our observations of this community—which began before 9/11—suggest that the terrible events of that day and their aftermath did not significantly alter the trajectory of the school or radically change school life. Grief counselors were not brought in. The school was not shut down for a prolonged period. Curricula were not revamped or overturned, and the school’s philosophy remained the same. In fact, when asked about the effect of 9/11, teachers and administrators at Universal School have consistently noted the lack of change. As traumatic as 9/11 was, it did not derail the school or set it on a new course. The adaptations to American life...