“It’s better you put your kids in a toilet instead of putting them in a public school. At least if you put them in a toilet you can wash them after”
Sheikh Yusuf Estes

There is going to come a point in your life insha’Allah when your kids will start school and you have to decide what to do. Should you put them in public school, private (i.e. Islamic) school, or homeschool?

This article will not discuss homeschooling as an option, but will discuss the Islamic school option. As soon as you decide to put your kids in Islamic school you will find that most of the society will be against you. First of all, funding for Islamic schools is usually private, they are not usually funded by the public sphere (i.e. government funding) unlike public schools. This puts the onus on the Muslim community to cover all the expenses for running the school. To give you an example, at the time this article was written, ISNA Elementary School costs approximately $4000 a year for your young son or daughter. That is approximately the cost of 1 term of university education!

Now, the second common argument against Islamic schools is that the quality of education is poor. Dunya comes first, and akhirah is secondary, so put them with the public schools.

Here are some points to consider. First of all is that it is well known among the elite of society that school is a form of public indoctrination. What that means is schools are used to pass on the values of a culture onto the masses. Those in control who are the mala of society are the ones who control what goes into the curriculum and what is published in the books. For some more details on this topic, I recommend reading “The lies my teacher told me” (source needed). If you put your kids into this school, you are sending them to be indoctrinated with the common views and beliefs of a society.

Kids are young and impressionable, do you really want some homosexual, some liberal, some feminist, or some overall radicalist implanting these values into your son at a young age? Do you really want to start planting the seeds of discord in your family at this date and time?

As well, from parents whose kids are in school, it has been noted that kids tend to listen to their teacher before their parent. Hamza Yusuf once gave the example of how his child was being taught Quran by a teacher who was from an Indian background and mispronounced some of the letters, but when he tried to correct his child, they responded saying the teacher knows better!

Next, there is no public implementation of Aqamas Salah, Prayers in Congregation. If your kids are lucky, they might get a chance to pray, if not, well they will grow up thinking its normal not to pray during the day. Don’t forget jumuah prayers, you either will have to drag them out of school for that, otherwise they will have to implement it at school, which can be difficult to say the least.

Also, Christmas is very much promoted, not to mention other festivals of shirk like Halloween, Easter, Valentines, and so on. Do you want your kids feeling joy that it’s Christmas and wanting to put up a Christmas tree like everyone else? Well that is what will happen. On the other side, Ramadan and Eid will be promoted in an Islamic school.

Regarding the mixing issue, there will be no school dances, mixing is not encouraged by the administration and thus boyfriend/girlfriend issues will be less common. It will definately occur, but it won’t be flaunted like in a public school. When you are a young child in high school and you see all these guys kissing girls, don’t tell me that you don’t desire the same for yourself. Admit it, your kids will be tempted…..

Here is something else to consider. Muhammad Alshareef once mentioned that if there is an Islamic school started in an area with the intention of protecting our kids, and wealthy people live in the area, but they do not put their kids in that school NOR do they support it, and the school fails (goes out of business, closes down), they will all be responsible for the failure of that school. The administration and those who struggled to make it work will inshaAllah not be responsible but the community overall will be. What this means is establishing an Islamic school is fard kifayah.

Oh Muslims how do you expect us to establish great organizations of education for our children? We want these Islamic schools to be superior in education and better than the secular schools. We want our children to grow up with a strong understanding in life and deen so that when someone tells them that a monkey is where they came from, they will have confidently be able to discuss and disprove such false allegations.

We ask Allah to grant us the rizq and the ability to establish centers of education not just for preschool, but also elementary schools, high schools, and inshaAllah even universities.

Update March 24, 2009
Today my 4 (almost 5) year old taught me a dua to say before eating: “Allahuma Bariklana …..”
Mashallah, :)

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