Learning Islam: Identity, Education, and Empire By Khalid A. Afsar A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Education Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Na’ilah Suad Nasir, Co-Chair Professor Ramon Grosfoguel, Co-Chair Professor Patricia Baquedano-Lopez Professor Hamid Algar Summer 2017 Abstract Learning Islam: Identity, Education, and Empire By Khalid A. Afsar Doctor of Philosophy in Education University of California, Berkeley Professor Na’ilah Suad Nasir, Co-Chair Professor Ramon Grosfoguel, Co-Chair Situating education within world-systems analysis and in the longue durée of capitalist history affords a critical view of public schooling and Islamic education in the US. While the American Muslim community copes with the aftermath of 9/11 and the effects of the war on terror, the business of providing Islamic education to young American Muslims and educating them about the larger world they live in remains a challenge. Public schooling represents democracy, the right to free and universal education, and the prospect of social mobility, but it also hides the underlying historical forces of colonialism, capitalism, cultural domination, cultural genocide, and segregation. Yet, unlike many centuries past, Islamic education during the Cold War also served a geopolitical agenda against communism, distorting and defaming the teachings of Islam. Contrasting epistemological and ontological dissimilarities between California public school standards and Islamic education makes visible the tensions and tendencies that arise out of combining the two in a private Islamic school. Centering on a private Islamic school located in the Silicon Valley, and with a view to serving the learning needs of Muslim children in the US post 9/11, this dissertation surveys the fears and hopes of the Muslim community, and the opportunities and challenges of Islamic education that lie ahead. Effectively, the necessity arises in formulating a new vision of Islamic education that prepares young American Muslims to contribute positively to an increasingly militarized, racialized, divided world. Based on the longue durée of Abrahamic faiths, relating modern and Islamic history, Islamic education inside the US must re-conceptualize the understanding of the Qur’an and Islam, so as to develop a spirituality and worldview that prepare young American Muslims to serve the social and political needs of their communities, their country, and the world at large. 1 Dedication To all the refugees of the world, especially mothers, who struggle, sacrifice, and wish for a safe, nurturing world for their children to live, learn, and thrive in. For my parents and family. i Table of Contents Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………. i Acknowledgements…………………………………...…………………………………… iii Chapter 1: Introduction: Education, Empire, and Islam….…................……...................... 1 Chapter 2: Research Site and Methodology......................................................................... 10 Chapter 3: Colonialism, Capitalism, and Education............................................................ 15 Chapter 4: American Education, Silicon Valley, and the Islamic School............................ 28 Chapter 5: Teaching Islam…………………….................................................................... 37 Chapter 6: Learning Islam.................................................................................................... 86 Chapter 7: Conclusion……….............................................................................................. 110 References……………………………………………………………………………….... 116 ii Acknowledgements I wish a special human language existed solely for expressing gratitude to people who’ve contributed most to our lives. That language would serve its purpose here. My big-hearted siblings, especially my wise sister Shanaz and my brother Naeem, deserve inexpressible gratitude for always offering the morale and support needed in life. I can’t thank my incredibly diverse and supportive dissertation committee enough for appreciating the topic and research of this dissertation. Professor Nasir for her help early on with making sure I had a workable research project and proposal, and for her subsequent critical feedback on the completed draft. Professor Baquedano-Lopez for her support, and willingness to serve on the committee, given the number of doctoral students she already advises, not to mention committees and research centers she presides over. Professor Grosfoguel for his unremitting encouragement, advice, and suggestions that always came at the most crucial and needy times of my years at Cal. He doggedly made sure I didn’t give up, and always made himself available whenever and wherever he happened to be around the world to review certain concepts, or to provide insights and suggestions. Last, but definitely not least, Professor Hamid Algar, who has been an incredibly patient, gracious, encouraging mentor on so many fronts, always offering the most historically and hermeneutically valid and detailed comments needed on this dissertation. Writing about Islam as a student and receiving his feedback compares aptly to the experience of a kindergartner seeking a critique of his artwork from an artistic giant. His extensive research and scholarship, his standing as a world-renowned scholar on Islam, Sufism, Ottoman history, and Shi’a Iran, to name just a few, not to mention his command of at least eight languages, make possible for his extremely fortunate students an understanding of Islam worthy of an entire university’s worth of knowledge. What an honor it would be for us to have a university named after him. I must also thank the students, parents, teachers, and administrators for their time and effort in making the research at the Islamic school possible. Much thanks to all my friends and inspiring scholars for offering lively and inspiring discussions on an entire range of scholarly topics, such as Ahmed Kabel, Rekia Mohammed-Jibrin, Ryan Calder, Harun Rasiah, Zayd Barganier, Louis A. Medoff, Kenzo Sung, Shoaib Ghias, Ahmed Zildic, and Yasmeen Hussain. Many thanks to the people in the Graduate School of Education, especially Ilka Williams, and Karen Sullivan for helping struggling students obtain urgently needed grants. If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a community of friends and supporters to survive a PhD program. Thank you all. iii Chapter 1: Introduction Education, Empire, and Islam Since the end of WWII, institutions like the United Nations and the World Bank, largely under America’s stewardship, have continued to promote literacy around the world as part of the nation-building developmentalist package intended to modernize countries emerging from colonial rule (So, 1990). Since the time of the Renaissance and Spanish expansion across the Atlantic, Western colonial education has been complicit with Western empires seeking conversions of non-European, non-Christians to European languages, culture, and Christianity (Mignolo, 2003). The common thread that emerges from the last 500 years of Western hegemony lays bare the role of Western education, both as a tool of imperialist expansion and colonial subjugation (Willinsky, 1998). More importantly, modern education emerges as a key component of a capitalist world-system, or global capitalism, in the making over the last 500 years (Arrighi, 1994; Wallerstein, 1979). Without Western traditions of “modern” education, the entire global capitalist system would collapse. Working within this long sweep of history, this research examines how a private American Islamic school, modeled on California public schools, pursues the education of young Muslims, and how it negotiates its place inside a Euro- American capitalist nation-state that has effectively declared war on Muslims. Furthermore, using the Islamic school as a case study, this research situates education, Islam, and Muslims in the modern capitalist world-system under Judeo-Christian Western hegemony in order to develop a model of Islamic education that can effectively challenge the hegemonic ontology and epistemology of Western models of education. 1.1 Islam and Muslims in America Islam and Muslims in the Western media, even before the events of 9/11, occupied a position of “threat” to Western civilization because of Islam’s “extremist” tendencies and “hatred” for democracy (Said, 1997). Moreover, the historical distrust and the multifaceted hostility towards Islam in the Western world predate the Middle Ages, which partly inspired the European Renaissance (Hall, 1996; Said, 1978; Southern, 1962). Unsurprisingly, since 9/11 the Muslim community and Islam in the US have become the target and topic of many mainstream debates and discussions, mostly intended to distort and condemn Islam for harboring terrorists, for encouraging suicide bombings, and for keeping Muslim women veiled and oppressed1 (McGreal, 2010). This propagandist campaign against Islam, also known as Islamophobia, continues to offer itself as an effective tool for justifying the protracted war on terror domestically and globally. Hidden behind this tragic propaganda one sees the lives of everyday Muslims in the US who continue to face extreme pressure to take a “moderate” stance by denouncing violence and hostility towards America and the American way of life2 (Bosco, 2010). The public opinion at large (here and around the world) seeks to undermine