Ramadan: A Teachable Moment

By Betsy Barlow

The season of Ramadan, which lasts this year until February 20, becomes a "teachable moment" for educating students about Islam. Images on TV and in magazines show Muslims around the world fasting and observing different lifestyles than in other months, which arouses curiosity about the tenets and practices of Islam.

Fortunately, new materials have recently appeared to enable educators to teach more effectively. The Council on Islamic Education has just published an expanded and revised third edition of Teaching About Islam and Muslims in the Public School Classroom. In addition to a section on the beliefs and practices of Muslims, the work also contains an annotated list of recommended books, teaching tools, video tapes and computer resources. The book is listed on the California State Board of Education's "legal compliance" list. A companion activities booklet also is available.

The CIE also has published two booklets of teacher notes: #1 on Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, and #2 on the Hajj and Eid al-Adha. The eight-page Ramadan booklet contains a one-day lesson plan, with review questions and student activities. For further information or to order materials, contact the Council on Islamic Education, P.O. Box 20186, Fountain Valley, CA 92728, telephone (714) 839-2929, fax (714) 839-2714.

AWAIR also has appropriate seasonal material. The Ramadan Adventure of Fasfoose Mouse is a 44-page story suitable for K-6th grade students. AWAIR also has published a new four-page guide, Middle East Resources, complete with a calendar and descriptions of Muslim holidays to the year 2000 and, most helpfully, an article on "Ramadan and the Public Schools."

Muslim holidays can also be introduced through Islamic art. AWAIR sells a book on Islamic Calligraphy and another on Geometric Concepts in Islamic Art. In addition, the organization is producing, with artist Sylvia Godlas, a new Islamic Art kit, which will premier at workshops planned in late March. For further information contact AWAIR at 1865 Euclid Avenue, Suite 4, Berkeley CA 94709, phone (510) 704-0517, fax (510) 704-0741.

AMIDEAST now is offering an Al-Azhar mosque model, recommended for ages l0-adult. The finished size is approximately 8lŽ2 x 17 inches. For more information or to to order, contact AMIDEAST, 1730 M Street NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20036-4505.

Other New Materials

Partners for Peace is producing a six-part video series Jerusalem After Oslo: No Justice, No Peace. Part One, "Competing for the City," a 30-minute program completed in 1995, highlights the building of new settlements in East Jerusalem on land that was part of the West Bank prior to 1967.

For the many Americans who don't understand why, after the handshake, there is still no peace, this program fills a void and helps to clarify the issues which need to be resolved before there can be a lasting peace in the area. Maps are used to explain the extensive nature of Jewish settlements in and around East Jerusalem. The attempt to expand the Ma'ale Adumin Jewish settlement from Jerusalem to the Jordanian border in order to separate the West Bank into two noncontiguous units is explained. The mayor of Ma'ale Adumin is interviewed, but also the victims of land confiscation and house demolition in the village of Za'ayim (travesties which occurred after the peace agreements were signed in September 1993).

One begins to appreciate the despair of the Palestinians when one hears that their homes were destroyed without warning—no chance for a legal hearing, and no time to retrieve furniture or personal belongings. Indeed, some families seem to have had barely enough time to get their children out before the bulldozers struck.

The filmmakers also talk with Israelis who believe in coexistence and mutual recognition, which may help students to realize that not all Israelis support the settlers' activities.

The video should also be shown to Christian education groups. We learn in it that land of Muslim Palestinians is taken either for "Jewish only" settlements or for hotels to meet the "needs" of Christian pilgrims from abroad—a policy which, if unchallenged, will surely lead to Muslim hostility. One suspects that overseas Christians will be appalled to learn that they are being used as an excuse for Israeli confiscation of land from the Muslim population.

The Teaching Resource Center of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University has just published unit one of a projected series of excerpts from Middle Eastern literature for precollegiate U.S. students. This first unit ("Growing Pains") focuses on the experiences of Middle Eastern young people, and includes "Me and My Sister" by Alifa Rifaat (from Distant View of a Minaret, 1983); "The Two Pennies" (from The Pillar of Salt by Albert Memmi, 1992); "An Egyptian Childhood" (an extract from the book of the same name by Taha Hussein, 1981); "The Women's Baths" by Ulfat al-Idlibi (from Modern Syrian Short Stories, 1988); and "Three Cloistered Girls," (an extract from Asia Djebar's Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade, 1985).

The extracts are carefully chosen to be easily understood by U.S. students. The unit includes questions and activities, as well as background notes, a glossary and a bibliography. The editor is Carol Johnson Shedd, Outreach Coordinator at the Harvard Center. Additional units on other topics will be forthcoming at the rate of one a year.

To order unit one, send a check for $20 (which includes postage) made out to the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, to Teaching Resource Center, CMES, 1737 Cambridge Street, Room 517, Cambridge, MA 02138. For further information, contact Carol Shedd at (617) 455-4078.

A listing of resources for teaching about the Middle East is available from the Middle East Outreach Council. The guide lists the publications of Middle East Centers, as well as educational groups and some embassies. Single copies are available from the MEOC Publications Chair, c/o the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Michigan, 144 Lane Hall, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1290.

AWAIR's A Medieval Banquet in the Alhambra Palace continues to gain attention. Social Studies Review asked Audrey Shabbas for an article about the work and about Islamic Spain, and the resultant eight-page article appeared in their Spring 1996 issue. Shabbas hopes to be able to come out with a revised edition by the end of the year—including the ideas for lesson plans put forth by the Department of Education of the state of Delaware, where the work has been made a required textbook for a new required course. Shabbas and Aramco World editor Robert Arndt served as consulting editors for the special November-December issue on Islamic Spain of Calliope, the world history magazine for young people from Cobblestone Publishing.

Workshops and Institutes

The mayor of New Orleans presented Audrey Shabbas with a proclamation of gratitude for bringing the program "Content and Strategies for Teaching About the Arab World and Islam" (a joint program with the Middle East Policy Council) to New Orleans' educators.

Audrey Shabbas reports that AWAIR has scheduled an active program of workshops in February and March. Programs will be held at Mississippi State University on Feb. 6; at the Milwaukee Public Schools on Feb. 10 and 13; at the Milwaukee Humanities Council on Feb. 14; at Louisville, KY public schools on March 2; the California Council for the Social Studies, March 9; National Association of Bilingual Education in Orlando on March 14; National Association of Independent Schools in Washington, DC on March 15; the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development in New Orleans on March 17; and the National Art Education Association in San Francisco on March 25. At the latter program the Islamic Art kit will be premiered.

To enroll in any of the above workshops, contact AWAIR at 1865 Euclid Ave., Suite 4, Berkeley CA 94709, phone (510) 704-0517.

Comparative Studies of Colonialism: The Colonial Experience and Its Aftermath in Africa is the theme of an institute for middle and high school teachers offered from July 8 to August 2 this summer. The sponsor is the African Studies Center at Michigan State University in collaboration with the Center for Middle East and North African Studies at the University of Michigan. Thanks to the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, there are no participant fees related to the institute. For more information or an application form, contact John Metzler, African Studies Center, 100 CIP, MSU, East Lansing, MI 48824. The application deadline is March 15, 1996. Successful applicants will be notified by April 1, 1996.

Betsy Barlow is the outreach coordinator for the University of Michigan's Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies.