Support for Establishing Islamic Schools in Europe

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - At the close of its proceedings in Madrid, the academic meeting on developing Quranic institutes curricula in Europe recommended the establishment of Islamic schools in Europe under European laws.  Participants in this meeting held by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), in cooperation with the Holy Quran Memorization International Organization, a Muslim World League body, and in coordination with the Spanish association for the Holy Quran, stressed the importance of developing curricula and Quranic school teachers through, extra-curricular activities, waqf and self-funding.  The meeting called for initiating contacts with European officials to learn more about Muslims’ rights under European laws in order to overcome legal obstacles. The meeting also called for more flexibility when devising curricula and a stronger Islamic cultural identity based on integrated academic curricula.  Furthermore, the meeting underlined the importance of citizenship values and positive integration, and the need to activate the European body for the Holy Quran, raise family awareness of education, devise a European guide to educational curricula, sensitize to the importance of Quran memorization, set up curricula for all age groups, support autonomy through training, see to complementarity and diversity of knowledge in curricula and foster scientific competences in the fields of Quran and quranic sciences.  Dr Youssef Abou Dakka, Programme Specialist in Education, Sheikh Abdullah al-Muhib and Dr Alaa Mohammad Said, represented respectively ISESCO, Holy Quran Memorization International Organization and Spanish Association for the Holy Koran in this meeting.  This meeting was attended by representatives of Quranic institutes from Spain, Croatia, Serbia, United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Norway, Switzerland and Macedonia./129