AMT Sponsored Event: Islamic Education Nonprofit Promotes Black History Month Contest To Increase Awareness And Celebrate Racial Diversity Among Muslims
Lede: ISLA launches a contest for middle schoolers to celebrate the life of an influential Black Muslim in history, part of its campaign to promote a more inclusive school curriculum.
AMT Staff
As a way to honor Black History Month, the Islamic Schools League of America (ISLA) is asking Muslim students to submit a PowerPoint presentation about an African or African American Muslim figure that made a crucial contribution to a historical movement or issue.
Shaza Khan, Executive Director of ISLA, said their student alumni felt that Muslim schools were not investing enough in recognizing the contributions of African American Muslims or Black people more generally.
“ISLA’s research with Islamic school alumni revealed that many former students of Islamic schools felt that there was not enough focus in their Islamic schools on African American and African Muslims in the United States or globally,” she said. “Some alumni in our study recalled explicitly asking for Black History Month to be included in the curriculum, only to receive the response that it is either not needed or already sufficiently addressed.”
For this reason, ISLA’s competition is particularly targeting middle schoolers (6th, 7th or 8th graders) enrolled at public or private schools. If presentations are being submitted through an Islamic school, ISLA is asking the school to only submit the top 3–5 presentations.
Omitting Black Muslim historical contributions from curriculums, she said, keeps Muslim students from learning about their own history and excludes approximately one-fourth of American Muslims who identify as black, African American or African.
“For Islamic schools, the explicit inclusion of African Muslims’ and African American Muslims’ contributions to Islamic history and other advances in society, health, sciences and global civilization is critical because 1) Muslims of Africa were so pivotal in the advancement of all of these areas, and 2) we often omit, overlook or neglect to mention their contributions,” she said. “Instead, the context within which we might often hear Muslims of African heritage being spoken about is in relation to the transatlantic slave trade. The legacy, contributions and impact are so much richer and begin way further back than slavery.”
Khan hopes initiatives like this will inspire Muslim institutions, such as Islamic schools and mosques to challenge racial and ethnic divisions within community spaces but also wants Muslims to speak out against conservative attacks on teachings such as Critical Race Theory, which promotes an honest analysis of how America’s history has contributed to racial inequalities.
“It is well known that secular publishing companies have whitewashed or omitted parts of our country’s history that are uncomfortable or inconvenient to teach about,” Khan added. “The recent outlawing of teaching critical race theory in American public schools in states across the country is one example of how our nation continues to censor honest conversations around our country’s past, which has prevented American children from understanding current social, economic and political realities and impacts their ability to imagine a better future for our nation. As Islamic school educators, it is paramount that we use all that we have at our disposal to provide a more comprehensive, thorough and critical curriculum that helps students uncover and interrogate what happened in the past and how they can be part of a better tomorrow.”
Khan revealed that this contest will contribute to ISLA’s “Research to Resources” initiative it launched during Ramadan last year, which is an initiative meant to help educators find solutions they need to improve their schools.
Presentations must focus on an African Muslim or African American Muslim that you think more people should know about. The subject can be deceased or living.
Some guidelines for the contest are:
- You and an adult from your household or school must sign off on your presentation to verify that the presentation was created independently by you (the middle schooler)
- Only minor help from adults or others is allowed. This means others can help you think about who to do the presentation on, how to use the technology to create the presentation, or suggest resources for you to read or look into, but cannot help you put together the presentation in Google Slides.
In the future, Khan hopes that Black history will be incorporated into curriculums year-round, not just in February.
“Black history is an important topic that needs to be integrated and woven into the curriculum throughout the year, in public and private schools across the country,” she said. “Black History Month is an excellent opportunity for educators to jump-start this integration if it is not already a critical component of their curriculum.”
The submitted presentations will create a “library” of educational resources that other schools, teachers and students can utilize throughout the year to help jump-start lessons on Black Muslims. The winners will receive a gift card and receive recognition on ISLA’s website.
Interested applicants can click here to view the rubric. The deadline for submissions is Friday, February 18 by 11:59 p.m. EST.
