Word: islamics
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Madrassas are known in Britain as supplementary, after-hours schools, often run by volunteers in mosques and community centers. They typically teach youngsters how to recite the Koran and ground them in Islamic fundamentals. But over the past few months, 30 madrassas across the U.K. have trialled a program called the Islam and Citizenship Education (ICE) Project. Funded by the government, the ICE Project aims to teach madrassa students aged 7 to 14 how to use Muslim values to be better citizens. (See pictures of London...
Teacher Ali calls the lesson plans "very good, very well researched." Still, he's uneasy with the project's working assumption that young Muslims in particular need to be taught the importance of good citizenship. "Citizenship is inseparable from Islam," he says. "As a Muslim and a teacher, I can't separate these things...
...agrees that efforts to quash extremism are needed, but says they should come from within the Muslim community. Though the government says it financed ICE at the urging of British Muslim leaders, Moghal is skeptical of that claim. "What the government is hoping to get is a state-compliant Islam - it will not happen...
...Victorian terraces. While the students at the Aziziye madrassa say they enjoy the ICE classes, it's clear that, as for other young urban British Muslims, their most immediate concerns are the threats of crime, drugs and racism. Radicalism, says Sumeyye, 12, shaking her head resolutely, "That is not Islam." For those tempted to disagree, the government hopes the new citizenship lessons will help change their minds...
...journalist, it seemed the regime still cared too much about its legitimacy to tamper dramatically with the people's will. The constitution, after all, enshrines the will of the people as the basis for sovereignty, and the pretense of democracy has characterized Iran's revolution as much as political Islam...