Islam Missing in Brazilian Textbooks

BRASILIA — When Munir Hamdan grew thirstier for more information about his Muslim faith, he decided to resort to the most obvious source of knowledge; his school.

But the Brazilian teen was frustrated to find out there was nearly no information about Islam in his schoolbooks.

“Since I was five my father was trying to teach me everything about Islam and the Muslim culture,” Hamdan, 13, told IslamOnline.net.

“But when I went to school I realized that what I learnt at home wasn’t important for Brazilian education.”

Hamdan found only two chapters about religion in the books for the primary and secondary school.

“There were three pages about all religion and another talking about the wars in Middle-East, but nothing about the details that really matters.”

Hamdan is representative of the younger generations of Brazilian Muslims who suffer lack of information about their religion in the country’s educational institutions.

According to the 2001 census, there are 27,239 Muslims in Brazil.

However, the Islamic Brazilian Federation puts the number at around one and a half million.

The majority of Muslims are descendants of Syrian, Palestinians and Lebanese immigrants who settled in Brazil in the nineteenth century during the World War I and in the 1970s.

School Needed

Tammer Jalil, of the Arabic Muslim Association in Curitiba city, says the lack of Islamic schools in the country is also contributing to the problem.

Muslim parents are forced to enrol their children in public or private schools, where they find themselves trapped in a deep cultural and religious clash, he added.

The Muslim leader notes that the lack of mention of Islam in schools leaves Muslim families exerting double effort to sow religious aspects in their kids.

“If the home preserves an Islamic environment, the chances of a possible distortion of the child's education decrease,” he told IOL.

Najla Hussein Tawfik, a mother of three who came from Lebanon with her husband 20 year ago, is a living example.

She says she struggles to give her children information about their faith without an educational support.

“Of course the home is the main place to teach our kids about life and religion,” she told IOL.

“But when you come to a foreign country, despite using all efforts available, you realize that you are unable to use the same methods I was raised with.”

Tawfik says while she realizes that religion isn’t a subject to be thoroughly discussed at schools, especially in a country where a secular trend is emerging, the needed information about every religion should be available.

“I understand that the reason is to prevent differences and argumentations,” says the Muslim mother.

“But at least they could offer more information, so that new generations would easily understand our culture and customs.”