Second Speech in the Conference: ‘The Muslim Youth… Pioneers of Real Change’

Secularising the Muslim Youth through the Education Curricula

The culture of any people represents the backbone of their existence and their survival. Upon this culture, its civilisation is built, its goals and objectives are defined, the pattern of their life is distinguished and by it, their individuals are melted into a single melting pot so that they are distinguished through that from the rest of the nations and peoples. The method to preserve the culture of the Ummah is the education that works to form minds and dispositions, and implant the values, thoughts and principles from which the personality of the person is formed in the future. And because the relationship between control and education is fundamental in the West, they have worked to control the Islamic lands and subjugate them through the secularisation of education within them, just as they have worked to distance the Muslims from the Deen of Islam to prevent the production of Islamic personalities that carry the concerns of the Ummah and its vital issue. For this reason, they set out to adjust the teaching curricula in accordance to their vision of globalism and in secular directions. As such, the educational curricula are no longer a domestic matter within these lands but rather have become a global matter with the objective of wearing down the Aqeedah of its people and empty their minds of thought and values. And that makes these curricula based upon other than the Aqeedah of the Ummah. Rather it is based upon the Aqeedah that is contrary to it, through which it is desired to transfer to the sons and daughters of the Ummah a western culture, different from the culture of their Ummah whilst it is this method that guarantees the subservience to them… The Bishop Dr Samuel Zwemer, when directing his speech to the missionaries, said, “You have prepared youth in the homelands of the Muslims who do not know any connection to Allah and do not wish to know of one. You have taken the Muslim out of Islam whilst you have not caused him to enter into Christianity. In addition, the one brought up on Islam has come out in accordance to what colonialism had desired for him; he is not concerned with the calamities and he loves relaxation and laziness whilst his concern in this life does not follow other than his desires”.

In this secularising process they employed a number of means including the focus on neglecting the Arabic language, anddistanced students from it, whilst making the teaching of foreign languages equal or rather superior to it. That was to take them away from understanding the Ahkam of the Qur’an (their constitution) in a way that would enlighten their thinking and make them strive for revival. They did the same with the subject of Islamic studies through making it a secondary and not a main subject. That was whilst its teaching was only in the form of homework, principles and as a study subject required to pass examinations before being forgotten, instead of it being the basis to build the Islamic personality of the youth. And do not forget the set up of the western education system and foreign schools, whether Christian missionary or secular, which are in reality like vessels that discharge their deadly venom in respect to the Deen, the thought, the concepts and conduct… The result of all of that was therefore to build a foundation upon liberal thoughts, which were un-Islamic. All this, while Islam was viewed as if it was a priestly religion separated from life and which was related to the acts of worship alone and not a constitution and method for life, in addition to it not having a relationship or importance to their lives which has an impact upon their concepts and conduct…The woman had her own share in respect to this change within the curriculum as they strove to change her fundamental image and role within the society, which they called ‘Changing her stereotype!’ by making her strive to be a working woman alone and not a house wife. So they took the subject of household management out of the curriculum, which included within subjects that would help the girl to gain knowledge about her fundamental role. They also declared war against what they called ‘early marriage’ whilst they sang about economic consolidation and independence for her. They encouraged the students to involve themselves in activities, trips, projects and parties in and out of school such as non-Islamic occasions and festive celebrations, which in most cases involved mixing, revealing the body and contraventions to the Shar’eeah rulings

Yes, sisters… They want to guarantee the raising of a generation which is Muslim in identity but western in essence or to the core. A generation that lives in Islamic land but possesses the customs and values of the western society. A generation that are descendants of ‘Umar, Ali and Salahideen but believe that every call for the return of true Islam represents a call to terrorism, backwardness and digression, and not a call for revival.. And so that they stand themselves as the obstacle in front of the return to Islam and its essence.

My Honourable Sisters:

The colonialists have considered the educational policies to represent one of the most important areas that they must gain control over. So they interfere in the curricula, schools and education policies in a number of lands like Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. For example, the huge support that America has given to the government of Musharraf in Pakistan in order to monitor the religious schools (madrassah) and to void schoolbooks in all subjects from any association to Islam. This includes deleting the subject of Al-Walaa’ Wa-l-Baraa’, the Ayat of Jihad and the distortion of some of the Aqeedah definitions within the Sharee’ah sciences in Saudi Arabia. All of that, according to their claims and pretences, is being done to prevent ‘terrorism’ from arising from those Islamic schools!!Similarly, in Palestine and after the arrival of the so-called ‘Palestinian Authority’ curricula have been set which work to demolish Islam within the souls of the sons of the Muslims and transform them towards the disbelieving secularism by wrecking their minds with concepts that are away from Islam.As for Egypt Al-Kinanah, they have deleted all of the texts related to the wars with the Jews whilst they have come to glorify the peace and its agreement. They have also deleted lessons that discuss Islamic personalities like Salah ud-Deen Al-Ayubi and ‘Uqbah Bin Naafi’ claiming that these lessons incite extremism and violence whilst even further deleting the Ahadeeth of the Messenger (saw) that encourage Jihad. This is in addition to the reiteration of the Pharaonic civilisation as being representative of Egypt’s history whilst completely overlooking the Islamic conquest and all of its history.

As for here in Tunisia, Bourguiba abolished the Zaytuna University and set up schools in which the secular westernising direction dominated. He inserted the teaching of foreign languages, at a young age whilst he distanced students from Islamic education replacing it with civil culture in which the student would be taught the man-made laws and corrupt bonds like patriotism and nationalism.

We will never ignore the role of the youth organisations, women’s associations and western institutions like USAID, UNICEF, UNESCO and the British Council, which on the outside provide assistance to students and their education and wellbeing, whilst inside (and in reality) they contain a deadly poison by secularising their thinking and concepts. This is such that the general environment and atmosphere within the schools becoming un-Islamic and indeed secular, where the West is given a beautiful and adored image whilst Islam is shown to represent binds and restrictions that obstruct freedoms, leads to backwardness and is an obstacle to advancement and revival. The image is provided that the West represents the advanced, progressive and affluent civilisation that we must strive to be like and proceed upon its path!! So we say to them that which Allah Almighty said:

[ وَلاَ تَرْكَنُواْ إِلَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ فَتَمَسَّكُمُ النَّارُ وَمَا لَكُم مِّن دُونِ اللّهِ مِنْ أَوْلِيَاء ثُمَّ لاَ تُنصَرُونَ]

“And do not incline toward those who do wrong, lest you be touched by the Fire, and you would not have other than Allah any protectors; then you would not be helped” [Hud: 113].

Distinguished sisters:

This is the current situation of education within the Muslim lands and so what must we do in respect to our sons and students?! What is the correct method so that we must teach Islam to our children and students whether we are parents or educators?

As we have mentioned, we must not interact with and present Islam upon the basis that it is a subject for study or information that fills exam papers and a student attains certification by, whilst ending it at that. Rather, we must instil the concepts that lead to the change of thinking and from there to a change in behaviour and conduct. We must connect them to the reality so that it becomes touched upon and understood by them to facilitate its  implementation…So when we provide them with any lesson like the ‘Ibaadaat (acts of worship) or Akhlaaq (morals), poetry, history or sciences, it is not necessary for it to be given as mere knowledge(science)alone. Rather we would connect it to the reality and the Ahkaam Ash-Shariah which will benefit them in building their concepts and behaviour or conduct.

So for example, when we explain the Salaah, we do not only teach them how many Rak’ah, what we say and do in it, but rather that it is a Rukn (pillar) of the Deen and that through its rectitude the action is rectified and that it must act as a preventer and block before any evil or indecent act. And when we teach them the recital of the Qur’an, we embed within them that it represents the Dustoor (constitution) for life and a methodology for application and implementation, and that it is not only for reciting in Ramadan, at funerals and before examinations. That is because it represents Ahkaam Shariah which are for application and implementation at the individual and state level… The same applies in respect to the natural manifestations that are studied in the sciences where for example we would not connect them to material causations alone but rather we would present the aspect of Imaan (belief) connecting them to their Creator (swt) as manifested in the Ayaat of His Noble Book. The same applies to the Akhlaaq, Mu’aamalat (transactions), history, physics and technology amongst other subjects through continuously linking them to the Islamic culture, Aqeedah and Ahkaam, and to the concepts and behaviour…

      I know my dear sisters that this matter is not easy in reality that we face in terms of a war being carried out against Islam and its adherents. However, it is obligatory upon us to reduce the harms resulting from this war. I know that the application of Islam is missing due to the absence of the Islamic state that applies it comprehensively and completely… It is this state which will contain within it the education that the person requires in the battlefield of life as an obligation. It is its duty to provide free education for every individual, male or female, within the primary and secondary stages. This is whilst it opens up the opportunity for free further and higher education to all to the best of its capabilities… It is not like the current situation where people sometimes restrict their food intake in order to provide education for their children!! It is a state where the objective of the education rests upon two matters:

The first is the building of the Islamic personality, mentality and disposition, and that is by cultivating the Islamic culture as an Aqeedah, thoughts and conduct within the minds of the students and their inner dispositions. For that reason, those who set the curricula and implement them within the Khilafah "Caliphate" state will focus upon the realisation of this objective…

The second matter is the preparation of the Muslim children so that there are from them scholars who specialise in every field of life whether it is in the Islamic sciences (in terms of Ijtihad, Fiqh and Judiciary amongst other areas) or in the experimental sciences (like engineering, chemistry, physics, medicine and others), capable scholars who will carry the Islamic state and the Islamic Ummah upon their shoulders so that it takes the number one leading rank amongst the nations and states of the world. It would then be a leading state, one that is effective with its ideology, and not one that is subservient and an agent in terms of its thought and economy like the current situation in the Islamic and Arab world… It will be a State where the school will be the first cradle for the building of the distinguished Islamic personality, in the areas of Usool ul-Fiqh, language and Tafseer. Just as it will be the first cradle for building the personalities in the areas of knowledge like that related to the atom, space and computers etc.… It is the state that we all yearn to live within its sanctuary and under its shade…

We ask Allah (swt) to hasten the return of Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashida (Caliphate) upon the path of the Prophethood so that our children may learn under its shade and are ridden of the capitalist ideas with all its corruptions and harms… and we hope that this day may be close…

Muslimah (Umm Suhaib) Ash-Shaami