Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 07-10-2019
A prominent Australian leader and professor has told Radio Islam that while the South African Muslim community has done a tremendous job in establishing Islamic schools in the country, they face a number of challenges.
Professor Mohamad Abdalla is currently in South Africa for the Association of Muslim Schools (AMS) conference in Durban with a focus on Pedagogi and Islamic schools transformation.
For the last 16 years, Professor Abdalla has played a leading role in establishing Islamic studies, research and teaching as an academic area of study in Australia.
Professor Abdalla says while Islamic schools in South Africa are serving a tremendous purpose for the local context, they do have a number of challenges.
“Are they truly providing a conducive environment for the preservation of Islamic identity. To what extent are they helping young Muslims come out from these schools with a functional identify that can easily reconcile in this case being South African and Muslim.”
At the same time Professor Abdalla says the strength of Islamic schools in South Africa are similar to Islamic schools in Australia with variations.
“The strengths for example is that they are helping in some extent in the preservation of faith for Muslim learners, preservation of identity, helping young learners keep in touch with their faith heritage, in this case Islam.”
Professor Abdalla says the nurturing of a student is not only about education instruction, but also about the human relation, love, affection, compassion and exemplication of character that has the most impact on learners.
Listen to the interview with Professor Mohamad Abdalla
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