Islamization of Education

Abstract

The Sixth International Conference on Islamic Education heldA.D. September 20-25, 1996/6-11 jamad al-Awwal, 141 7A.H. at lslamia College, Gatesville, Cape Town, South AfricaAfter World War 11, most colonized Muslim countries achieved independence.During their days of struggle for independence, all majorpolitical parties in Muslim lands had committed themselves to liquidatetheir inherited, ill-conceived, divisive, and un-Islamic systems of educationand to replace them with truly Islamic ones. But after independence,while politicians in power (constrained for whatever reasons) remainedreluctant to bring about the promised changes, academics were, by andlarge, not clear as to how to Islamize education. The most that they couldpropose was installation of lame-duck departments of Islamic studieswithin the inherited systems, established parallel to the predominantlysecular departments, thereby perpetuating a discredited, dualistic form ofeducation that was generating split personalities among the Muslim youth.This remained the shape of education in the Islamic world duringdecades after independence in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. It was inthese circumstances that King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah/Makkah,under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Muhammad Abduh Yamani and Dr.Abdullah Omar Nasseef obtained approval from the then king, Khalidbin Abdulaziz, to hold the First World Conference on Islamic Educationin Makkah. For two years, its organizing committee under the chairmanshipof Shaykh Ahmad Salah Jamjoom and comprising Professor SyedAli Ashraf, Dr. Abdullah Muhammad Zaid, and Dr. Ghulam Nabi Saqeb,worked day and night, along with renowned colleagues such as ProfessorMuhammed Qutb, Professor Muhammad Al-Mubarak (now deceased),Professor Hussain Hamed Hassan, and others to examine all issues relatedto the task. The Conference held in Makkah al-Mukarramah in 1977was a tremendous event. Attended by some 350 Muslim scholars from ...