Portfolio at NYU

Posted 06.15.03
Islamic Schools a Source of Identity for Arab Students

By Megha Bahree

A white woman stood outside Razi School in Queens. She held in her hands a large poster proclaiming the Iraqi people were living under a dictator; they needed liberators, and "our boys" had gone to provide them democracy.

The incident took place in the second week of the war on Iraq. The woman stood outside the school for almost an hour. Since it was close to the dismissal bell, a crowd of parents had gathered on the road along with the regular motorists driving by, drawing traffic to a standstill. Despite repeated requests by the school authorities, the woman refused to budge from the spot and moved only when the police hustled her off.

Muslim students in the city are being forced to re-examine their way of life and deal with accusations of there being something wrong with them or their religion, even as their relatives may be getting bombed in another part of the world. In these troubled times, schools across the city are changing their focus from being a place to produce "ideal Muslims", to offer students counseling on how to deal with situations of racial and ethnic slurs to physical assaults.

"Anything that happens in the Islamic world affects us," said Nidal Abuassi, principal of Al-Noor School in Brooklyn. "First it was September 11, then it was the war in Afghanistan, and now it is Iraq. We don't know what could happen next, but whatever it is, we need to be prepared for it." The school was started in 1995 and has classes from pre-K to 12th grade.

To ensure that he is prepared, Abuassi is collaborating with the Arab American Association of New York, a non-profit organization that provides social services to the Arab and Muslim community. The organization is bringing professional mental health counselors to train his teachers to recognize symptoms of stress, anxiety or trauma among the students so that anyone in need of help can get it. "Some of the students' grades have been suffering, they aren't concentrating on their studies and these could be indications of anxiety that need to be dealt with," Abuassi said.

The counselors will also talk to the students about things that matter to them -- their identity, civil rights. Representatives from the Brooklyn District Attorney's office will also visit the school around the same time to talk to the students about their rights as citizens. "Many people think that we are different, but this is to tell the children that they have the right to be who they are," he added.

There are around 15 full time Islamic schools in the city and more than a dozen part time and weekend schools. The oldest Islamic schools in New York City date back to the early 1990s (????). TK percent go up to 12th grade, while the others offer TK grade.

Trying 2 generate islamic feelings----So far most of these schools have been concentrating on molding their students in the image of a good Muslim, and instill in them Islamic etiquette and manners. "That means no cursing, no profanity, no fighting, no answering back teachers, and to offer the Islamic greeting of As-Salam Walekum as soon as you meet someone," Abuassi, a Palestinian-American, explained. It even means a focus on the body language of students -- how they walk, talk, gesture -- and that has to be tapered and molded to what is acceptable and respectful within the Islamic community. It also means that boys cannot touch or shake hands with each other, and girls must wear a jibab and a headscarf because it is forbidden to expose the hair on their heads.

All the schools have a mosque on their premises where the students pray at least once a day. Razi School's dull gray exterior doesn't prepare you for the stunning masjid that you set eyes upon entering the building. Mosaic tiles cover the dome shaped entrance of the mosque which is flanked by verses from the Koran written in gold paint on black or deep green pieces of velvet. A huge poster of Mecca is hung on another wall.

The number of girls in most schools is more than that of boys since most Muslim parents are worried about what kind of morals and values their daughters might pick up growing up in the American society. For instance, in Al-Noor School 60 percent of the students are female, in Razi School girls are thrice the number of boys, and in Al-Madinah School they constitute 55 percent of the populace. A sixth grade student in Al-Madinah Islamic School in Brooklyn was suspended for writing a "secret admirer" letter to a boy in her class because "such behavior is a problem and unacceptable".
But these schools have had to constantly adapt to their changing environment, and deal with unpleasant situations where their students or their religion has been attacked.

For instance, all the day trips for students at Al-Madinah have been cancelled since the war started because they fear the safety of their students; their teachers no longer use the subway and have instead figured out car pools; officers from their local police precinct will be coming in to train the students on how to deal with any hostile incidents and harassment.

"Two of our girls from the eighth grade were jumped in the subway station by a couple of Hispanic girls and it was a physical fight and the police had to be called," Zenab Elkady, assistant principal, said. In another incident, a garbage bag was thrown at a staff member as she walked to work on the first day of the war on Iraq. When this reporter requested her for an interview, her eyes welled up and she said she couldn't talk about it.

The school has been through a see-saw of events ever since its inception three years ago. Located on Third Avenue in Brooklyn, the students had a clear view of the twin towers and actually saw them collapse and witnessed people running on the bridge. "Before 9/11 we had 600 students," Elkady said. "But right after that and with all the registration procedures, many parents withdrew their kids from the school because they were scared to live here anymore and had decided to go back overseas." Enrollment decreased to 500.

The school on its part tried to help the students to deal with the tragedy by making it a part of the curriculum for a few days. "We had a whole list of ways for teachers to include it in their syllabus," Elkady said. In math students used the speed of fire and the area of the towers to calculate how long would the fire take to travel and burn the entire place. Similarly, once the war on Iraq was launched, some students were appointed to follow the news every morning and present it to their classmates in assembly every morning. "None of the kids actually read papers and this was one way to keep them informed of what was really going on," Elkady said.

Similarly, at Razi School the principal, Dr. Ghassan Elcheikhali, along with the student counselor, has been counseling students and parents and regularly hands out printouts on what to do and how to act in hostile or discriminating circumstances as well as contact numbers of the local police and the FBI.

The latest development that the schools have to deal with is accusations of anti-Semitic teaching in their religious and Islamic classes. The Daily News in an article on March 30 accused a few schools of using books with anti-Semitic passages in them. After seeing that report, the chairman of the City's Education Council sent a letter to the schools in question, asking them to get rid of the material.

"Out of a book of 400 pages the reporter took out only four lines," Nahid Farooqi, principal of Muslim Center Elementary School in Queens, said. This was one of the schools accused of using a book that said Jews were infidels (EXACT QUOTE TK). "The author says the same thing about Muslims also because you have people who don't follow their religion properly in every religion. But the reporter just took out those lines. It's people like him who create problems and instigate others against Muslims." Following the news article, Farooqi had to deal with a few angry phone calls from readers.

Some schools, like Razi School, teach about other religions. In fact, the school was founded in 1996 originally as a Shiia school. Now most of its students are Sunni. "We present a concept and tell the students how the shiias and Sunnis both view it and then leave to them the path they prefer," Elcheikhali said.

Despite their claims of being secular, their very uniform and turnout is enough to make these schools an easy target and most of them now have to be prepared to deal with hostility from their neighbors almost everyday. They never know when to expect the next slur or strike against them.