Islamic Religious Education in Ireland

Book excerpt: "Islam is the fastest growing religion in Ireland. Given the debate over the role of faith-based schools in secular societies in the twenty-first century, this book provides deeper insight and understanding into the role of ethos and the teaching and learning of Islamic religious knowledge (IRE) in two primary Irish state-funded Muslim schools. Based on data from Muslim parents, teachers and principals in two Muslim Irish schools, through semi-structured interviews and class observations, this study revealed significant variations in how IRE was delivered but also in how the ethos was manifested and experienced by Muslim pupils. The findings further demonstrated a strong link between the schools' ethos and parents' rationale for choosing Muslim schools for their children. This study also showed the various roles enacted by the IRE teachers as autonomous interpreters, transmitters and negotiators of Islamic knowledge which all had an impact on the choice of content in the classroom. In the wider debate on Muslim schools in Europe, this book challenges the claims made that they are breeding grounds for indoctrination and extremism, and that just as Muslim schools cannot be viewed in homogenous terms neither can the views of their stakeholders"--