What goes on in an Islamic School?

Abstract

A third of secondary school students in Australia now attend Catholic and other independent schools, with the number of these schools substantially increasing since educational funding policy changes introduced by the Howard Coalition government after 1996. One group of faith schools to receive a great deal of publicity in the last decade has been the Islamic schools, although the main area of growth in numerical terms has been with the conservative Christian schools. Much of the publicity for the Islamic schools has focused on community opposition to their establishment, particularly the proposed Islamic school in Camden, near Sydney, in 2007-2008 (the protests were the subject of an ABC Four Corners programme, Dangerous Ground, on 10 March 2008). Islamic schools were also targeted in the Australian Values debate after 2003 when the then Minister for Education, Dr Brendan Nelson, said he had received letters from 'concerned citizens' about the schools and what they taught, that he was following up. Wild allegations have been made about what these schools are teaching their students, yet very little research has been carried out on them. It was for this reason, that my own research since 2004, has focused on visits to many of the schools, interviewing a cross section of Muslim and non-Muslim staff, as well as former students. The research focused on what was taught in the schools, how it was taught, and how staff and students had reacted to the Australian Values debate. In addition, did the schools teach intolerance of other faiths as alleged by some of their critics, and did the schools isolate students from other high school students who were not Muslims?