Shared values, cultural diversity and education :
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Building understanding and tolerance toward American Muslims

Springfield School District, Springfield, Delaware county - USA

The project Building understanding and tolerance toward American Muslims aims at familiarizing the whole primary and secondary communities of the Springfield District (teachers, around 4,000 students, administrative staff and librarians) with the Muslim religion and the different aspects of Muslim Americans' life. Conceived and realized by an American Muslim woman, whose children attend the school, the project considers that by having access to the Islamic symbols and practices and using them as a trampoline to an academic approach of Islam, the diverse institutional components (teachers, students, administrative staff) will learn to understand and tolerate the cultural diversity within their school.

To start with, the whole school community (headmaster, teachers, librarians, students' council, etc.) has been contacted and informed of the project and its objectives. With their consent, the vacation season has been chosen as the first stage in getting familiarized with Muslim religion and culture. Thus, a star and a crescent, a mosque and its minaret have served as decoration for the establishment during the two "Eid" (two principal Muslim celebrations). A space has been prepared for Muslim students to perform the five daily prayers. The idea is that by watching their classmates perform their prayers every day, students will get to consider that as a common fact and will become more tolerant. In the library, there are books, calligraphic samples, or even posters explaining terms related to Islam. Special information (articles, books, videos) concerning American Muslims has been prepared for teachers.
Finally, nine educational team members have attended the mosque, or have listened to the Friday sermon and observed the prayer. This visit has been completed with a meeting with the Imam, who answered their questions.

Determined to show that Islam is not only a religion, but also a whole culture, Ms. Zakiyah Islam has decided to put an end to the prejudices that link the Islamic terms Islam, Islamic and Muslim to terrorism and violence. This Bengali-born American has had several teaching experiences and has always stressed the need for tolerance and openness toward the others. Given the negative information on Islam diffused by the media, and keeping in mind the school's educational role in the transmission of tolerance toward the considerably large Muslim American community (over six million Americans are Muslims), she has decided to make students and teachers become familiarized with the Muslim culture by pushing them to discover a better facet of Islam which is unknown to them. With a Master's degree on Cultural Diversity and Linguistics, Ms. Sayeda Islam will teach, starting from September 2001, at the Philadelphia School District, where she wants to continue developing a better knowledge and tolerance toward Muslim Americans.

Ms. Zakiyah ISLAM
1025 Capie Polk
Dr. Springfield, PA 19064
USA
Tel.: 00610 544 1512
E-mail: kaziIslam@aol.com

Institutional Partners
The Springfield School District
The Multicultural Committee of the Springfield Community
The Bawa Muhaiyadeen Mosque
Financial Partners
Exclusively financed, at an early stage by Ms. Z. Islam, the project has obtained since 2001 the financial support of the American Muslim Society (AMS) of the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

The project started in September 2000

The project has been a success, despite some objections which arose in the beginning, especially by the school administration and due to the small number of Muslim American students in the school. It has been a success since it created the students' curiosity and managed to answer their questions. By opening themselves up toward this culture, they have shown their tolerance