Human / social communication, interaction and cooperation would be very difficult, if not even impossible altogether, without (civilized) human language. Language has a very important role to perform in human society. One of its very meaningful tasks is to educate and civilize human beings so that they can be reasonably responsible world citizens, useful to themselves, their families and communities, as well as human civilization, in general. All human languages, and particularly those with a potential (and history) to make significant contributions to human knowledge and civilization, assume and must assume such responsibility. Human language must be allowed to get on with the purposes of its “raison-d’être” and the work it is supposed to undertake to serve humanity everywhere. It must not become a tool of human exploitation, deprivation and injustice. Some communities transform their own languages into instruments of their own gradual destruction and prevention of healthy civilized development. This is very unfortunate indeed !

The Arabic language has a number of roles and objectives to fulfill : linguistic, cultural, educational, societal, civilizational, etc. On the linguistic level, for instance, it demonstrates a linguistic need on the group level within the specific context of the Muslim Minority Community in the British Irish Isles just like other parts of Europe, etc. (a) It is the first language of a great many Muslim people, (b) it is the second language of others, (c) and definitely the third / foreign / community language of quite a few, several of whom belong to one or other groups that constitute the British Irish Muslim Community in the European continent.

These three groups all need the Arabic Language for a wide range of reasons, the most meaningful of which are the socio-educational, the linguistic, the epistemological, and the cultural – including the religious, the ideological, where they apply, and the civilizational (in the true universal sense of the term).

Thus, we may ask if Arabic language is a religious or linguistic need? and whose responsibility it is to provide and facilitate the teaching of Arabic.?

Relevant academic and other studies carried out in different circles in Great Britain and elsewhere indicate that Muslims and others want the Arabic language to become taught in schools as a “modern language” like German, French and Spanish, not just as a second / community language taught in private and community or denominational schools and colleges. In Muslim schools, for instance, it is taught alongside the first language of non-Arabic speaking children and often in addition to a compulsory modern language such as German, French or Spanish. If Arabic were justly classified as a MODERN LANGUAGE (in educational terms, only, since ‘MODERN’ can simply imply A HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED DIALECTICAL DEVELOPMENT in certain contexts), the Muslim children would all opt for Arabic and would all have to learn it besides their first language, if it happens to be different, and the English language that is the majority language and language of the future for international communication and dissemination of a healthy useful knowledge and civilization. That is just one of the most meaningful reasons why it is taught initially everywhere in the Muslim World, in more than seventy countries, throughout the Planet, and in most cases, at the expense of Muslim universities, ministries and departments of education, from setting up the schools (throughout all stages of education) to the training of teachers and production of teaching and learning materials. In sharp contrast, Muslims in minority communities in the West and elsewhere, even when they struggle to remain self-reliant in every possible respect, the Arabic language remains deliberately marginalized (by those in charge of making decisions on behalf of others), even though it is a very well-known fact at least in intellectual circles, that the language is a very important language of civilization and classed as a world language, of the UN, and one of science, technology, and human / social development on all fronts.

Thus, Arabic language, as a religious need is arguably the responsiblity of Muslim communities within Eropean Union(EU), for instance to organise language schools, Arabic language programmes delivered and taught by qulaified teachers and linguistics in this field. French and Spanish languages are taught in most schools across EU, and Muslim children learn, and speak them fluently before leaving the secondary education. Arabic language should be taught in an academic, appropriate and happy learning environment, and by competent trained teachers. Unless they enjoy learning it, they will not deliver , as their parents may expect then to do. This is our responsibility. if they understand , speak and write Arabic, this will put them in an advantageous position: this will benefit their Islmic knowledge, research, and could be the future teachers, bilingual educators. for their own children.

Islamic centres should also contribute to such teaching and introduce relevant material, resources (Qur’an, Hadith and an appropriate learning learning environment., and according to chuildren’s level of understanding of Arabic language.

In conclusion, Muslim children will learn better if the teaching of Arabic language is deliverd in a very happy, learning, educational and academic environment (Islamic of course)., an dwill contribute to the development of their religious and linguistic identity.

Thank you
Mouloud Alouane

Very insightful! I’m excited to read part 2 of this article and will be checking back for part 3 of the series. I learned Arabic attending weekend ‘arabic school’ in the UK. I dreaded every weekend. Learning Arabic was boring and uninspiring! I completely agree with you that the solution to this problem is to create and distribute books and materials that are engaging and fun, and to encourage teachers and parents to build excitement around the Arabic language.

Several months ago, I launched an online startup to do just that. ARABOH.com is an online bookstore that provides Arabic educational resources to people all over the world. I would love for you and other visitors to this blog to visit our website and provide any feedback you may have.

Thanks again for another great read.

Jinanne Tabra
- ARABOH.com

State schools with monolingual teachers are not capable to teach English to bilingual Muslim children. Bilingual teachers are needed to teach English to such children along with their mother tongue. According to a number of of studies, a child will not learn a second language if his first language is ignored.

Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. Muslims have the right to educate their children in an environment that suits their culture. This notion of “integration”, actually means “assimilation”, by which people generally really mean “be more like me”. That is not multiculturalism. In Sydney, Muslims were refused to build a Muslim school, because of a protest by the residents. Yet a year later, permission was given for the building of a Catholic school and no protests from the residents. This clrearly shows the blatant hypocrisy, double standards and racism. Christians oppose Muslim schools in western countries yet build their own religious schools.

British schooling and the British society is the home of institutional racism. The result is that Muslim children are unable to develop
self-confidence and self-esteem, therefore, majority of them leave schools with low grades. Racism is deeply rooted in British society. Every native child is born with a gene or virus of racism, therefore, no law could change the attitudes of racism towards those who are different. It is not only the common man, even member of the royal family is involved in racism. The father of a Pakistani office cadet who was called a “Paki” by Prince Harry
has profoundly condemned his actions. He had felt proud when he met the Queen and the Prince of Wales at his son’s passing out parade at Sandhurst in 2006 but now felt upset after learning about the Prince’s comments. Queen Victoria invited an Imam from India to teach her Urdu language. He was highly respected by the Queen but other members of the royal family had no respect for him. He was forced to go back to India. His protrait is still in one of the royal places.

There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools with bilingual Muslim teachers. There is no place for a non-Muslim child or a teacher in a Muslim school.
Iftikhar Ahmad
http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk

A suggestion that I would like to make…is as you are writing your future articles, it would be nice if you could continue to give practical examples and even resources for those of us who would like to teach our children arabic (in the correct manner), but don’t have the experience with attending islamic schools, or even studying the language formally.
Where does one start? What is, in your opinion, the most successful way to teach the language so that it is retained and even in a way that is “fun” to the children?
This may seem like a lot to cover, but I am not aware of any good resources out there for dealing with this issue. Your suggestions would be appreciated.

Some enthusiasm are instilled at home by parents, and I believe this is one of them, although extra help from teachers always come in handy!
Also, reading Qur’an with meanings is another way of arousing this enthusiasm amongst young children. I noticed many parents just concentrate on thier children reading Qur’an without knowing what they are reading. If parents start telling them the meaning too and just focus on a few words’ meanings at a time, the children end up learning these words. And by the time they are done reading the entire Quran with meanings they build up a good amount of vocabulary. In fact, after some time they understand the verse without the parent having to explain the meanings…

They listen attentively even the meaning of the verses that we think will be hard for them to understand. Their little minds are quite imaginative.

Subhanallah, this was actually one of the “problems” I had when taking the arabic classes. I was so engulfed with the gem, that I wanted to write it down, but was afraid of missing out on the moment and maybe missing some points while writing, that I decided to listen to it instead.

I only wished i had written them down so i can go back and look at them! Alhamdulillah for that being the “problem” :)

http://www.islamicedfoundation.com/arabic/newpage1.htm