Community, Identity and Institutionalisation of Islamic Education: The Case of Ikra Primary School in North London
Titel:
Community, Identity and Institutionalisation of Islamic Education: The Case of Ikra Primary School in North London
Auteur:
Kucukcan, Talip
Verschenen in:
British journal of religious education
Paginering:
Jaargang 21 (1998) nr. 1 pagina's 32-43
Jaar:
1998
Inhoud:
This article is based on ethnographic research among Turkish Muslims in London in 1994-5. Sixteen parents from Turkey and thirteen parents of Turkish-Cypriot origin were interviewed. In addition to in-depth interviews, which overwhelmingly took place in Turkish, participant observation was employed as one of the indispensable tools of the ethnographic method. This involved gathering data in the natural social setting in which, as a researcher, I was able to gain access to the meaning of events and social interactions as understood by the group and the organisation under study. Ethnographic research is expected, as Jackson (1997) argues, to contribute to the reconstruction and elucidation of 'the religious or cultural way of life of others'. It is argued in this article that Muslims in Europe display great diversity in expressing their religious identity, and employ different strategies in relation to the transmission of religious and cultural values to members of the younger generation. Turkish Muslims are part of the religious and multicultural diversity in Britain and research on this micro-Muslim community is necessary, though insufficient, to understand the religious diversity within Muslim communities in the European context. This article shows that Turkish Muslims are concerned with the religious education of their children and have tried to establish institutions to provide such an education. It is argued in the article that attempts to institutionalise Islamic education on factional lines and on a particularistic interpretation of the tradition, in isolation from the larger society, have little chance of succeeding in an increasingly globalised and transnationalised world.
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