Islamic Schooling in the Cultural West: A Systematic Review of the Issues Concerning School Choice

Abstract

Increased Muslim immigration and conversion to Islam have influenced the rise of Islamic schools in western nation-states. Islamic schools are both formal and informal. This paper summarizes literature on Islamic schooling in the cultural west with respect to three policy-relevant issues: (1) the purpose and nature of Islamic schooling; (2) parental wishes; and (3) the quality of Islamic schooling. The initial search process resulted in 12,535 articles, 81 of which inform the current review. The review reveals a variation in education policy issues in which some countries fund private Islamic schools and others provide Islamic religious instruction in public schools. The review discusses potential solutions to address parental wishes and improve the quality of Islamic schooling. Based on the reviewed literature, the review suggests guidelines for future research.

1. Introduction

Islam is a monotheistic religion and it is the second largest religion in the world after Christianity. Islamic education distinguishes between individual and collective obligations. Seeking knowledge is primarily an individual obligation1 in Islam. In the early Islamic era, education was not government-sponsored and private tuition and religiously-endowed philanthropic funds (waqf) were used to educate the community. The Islamic schools (madrasa) and schools in mosques were free of government intervention and were required neither to follow a curriculum nor to offer institutional degrees. According to (Egger 2004, p. 220) “The madrasa never displaced the mosque as an educational institution. In fact, Muslims were never precise in distinguishing between the two because education and worship took place in both.” Historically, the madrasa focused on Islamic jurisprudence, whereas Sufi institutions (khanqa) fulfilled the spiritual and esoteric needs of the community. In the modern era, madrasa are of various types, ranging from some that impart knowledge of reciting the Quran to others that provide training in Islamic jurisprudence.

Islamic schools existed in the western world in medieval Spain under Muslim rule between the seventh and fifteenth centuries. Islamic institutions became the center of learning for young scholars of many faiths in Europe and many works of literature and science were translated from Arabic to Latin and other European languages and vice versa during the golden medieval age of Islam in the tenth and eleventh centuries (Coulson 1999, pp. 60–64). Decentralization and market orientation were the key attributes of Islamic schooling up until the eleventh century (Coulson 1999; Durant 1950, pp. 94, 304; Makdisi 1961). Thereafter, Islamic scholarship declined for several centuries, reaching its nadir during the colonial era from the fifteenth to early nineteenth century. Contemporary sources estimate 40 percent illiteracy among Muslims (Pew Research Center 2016; Ummid News 2015). Muslim immigrants have settled in the cultural west in increasing numbers in the last three decades, and conversions to Islam have increased.

A minority of Muslims in western countries attend Islamic schools (Merry 2005). While only three percent of American Muslims attend privately funded Islamic schools (O’Neill 2010, p. 5) and four percent of Dutch Muslims attend state funded and privately run Islamic schools (Kiefer 2005), these numbers are increasing rapidly due to the cultural and religious demands of the Muslim community during the last two decades. Molook (1990) described the formation of Islamic schools in the US as resulting from parental dissatisfaction with the traditional public school system, an alien social environment for Muslim students in public schools, as well as concerns about integration. Islamic schools can create well-adjusted individuals for society who understand both religious and democratic values (Elbih 2012; Glenn et al. 2018; Mohme 2017). Concerning education systems, (Berner 2017, p. 20) says, “[e]ducational philosophies matter profoundly for the way we do education...yet, of course, imposing uniformity does not avoid the problems of deep difference: It merely occludes them.” Critics of Islamic schooling fear that it may not allow students to encounter philosophical disagreements in a serious fashion. Empirical and qualitative studies on Islamic schooling tend to challenge such assumptions (Dronkers 2016, Glenn et al. 2018; Mohme 2017).

Following the demise of the Soviet Union and especially after 9/11, policymakers have viewed Islamic schools in the west with skepticism due to concerns regarding domestic and international politics, civic values and possible segregation of Muslims (Shakeel and Wolf 2018). Some commentators suggest that secular public schooling is the best way to nurture civic attitudes and attributes of democratic citizenship in students (Gutmann 1999). Studies find that faith-based schooling, pluralism and market-based schooling generally lead to equal or better civic outcomes in comparison to secular public schooling (Berner 2017; Campbell 2008; Wolf and Macedo 2004; Wolf 2007). Others suggest that Islamic schooling contributes to the phenomenon of terrorism (Stotsky 2011). Preliminary analysis of the educational background of terrorists originating from the west provides competing evidence (Bergen and Pandey 2005; Shakeel and Wolf 2018). Critics also accuse Islamic schools of segregating Muslim students, promoting patriarchy and authoritarianism over female students and promoting religious intolerance (Elbih 2012). The research on Islamic schools has largely been qualitative in nature. To better understand policy-relevant issues, more research is needed. Alternately, consolidation of the existing research offers insights as to variation in Islamic schooling across nations. Lawmakers, researchers, critics and proponents of Islamic schooling may benefit from an up-to-date summary of the research.

Muslims are heterogeneous in their culture and understanding of Islam. The terms ‘Islamic schools’ and ‘Muslim schools’ are interchangeable in most contexts. However, the former is more often correlated with religion (implemented through school ethos, curriculum and pedagogy through traditional sources of Islamic knowledge) and the latter is more correlated with culture (implemented through dress, diet and mere observation of culture) (Memon 2009; Parker-Jenkins et al. 2005). Religion and culture tend to be highly correlated in Muslim communities, but this correlation is not strong in all of them. Some commentators see Islamic education as a top-down and Muslim education as a bottom-up framework (Panjwani 2004). A top-down framework tends to serve political and ethnic causes whereas a bottom-up framework tends to serve communal causes.

Traditionally, the term “west” has been used in a geographical context to describe Europe and North America. The population and culture of the traditional west have expanded to other parts of the world such as Australia that is not geographically located in the west. The cultural west represents economic opportunities, social justice and well-being, civilized society and democracy—all of which provide fertile ground for the educational opportunities necessary to cultivate human success. This paper reviews Islamic schooling in the “cultural west.” The term cultural west is used to describe western nations in which Muslim populations are relatively new—chiefly the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Sweden, and Spain. Additionally, the paper looks at the similarities and differences between the structure of Islamic schooling by region as well as immigrants’ culture and offers some policy recommendations. The term “Islamic schooling” encompasses Islamic schools and Islamic religious instruction in public schools in some countries. School choice theory posits adequate return on education either due to provision of higher quality schooling through competition or due to a better match between school offering and the family preferences (DeAngelis and Erickson 2018). Thus, evidence on three major issues concerning school choice is discussed in this review:

(1)

the purpose and nature of Islamic schooling,

(2)

parental wishes; and

(3)

the quality of Islamic schooling.

For this review, schools identifying with a mission or ethos related to a religion are termed confessional; schools that do not explicitly state any particular religious views or identification are called non-confessional; and, schools that recognize or accept two or more different denominations or religious sub-groups within a broader religion or religious tradition are termed inter-confessional. Furthermore, a denominational school identifies itself with one specific religious entity larger than a sect within a religion or religious tradition, whereas a non-denominational school is open to all (or at least a range of) those identifying themselves with a larger religious grouping regardless of denomination. Based on the laws that govern the education system, the definition2 of the aforementioned terms may change in a particular context.

The next section of the review provides an outline of the methods used to gather research. Thereafter, the results section summarizes the evidence on the three issues covered in this review. The results section also suggests policies for addressing parental wishes and increasing the quality of Islamic schooling. Lastly, the discussion section summarizes the issues facing Islamic education and provides guidelines for future research on Islamic schooling.

2. Method

This review contributes to the literature on Islamic schooling in the cultural west by summarizing 81 studies collected through a systematic search of 12,535 sources (Figure 1). The search process was carried out on 30 November 2017. Three major policy-relevant issues concerning school choice are covered:

The search process was comprised of a systematic search using three university databases (EBSCO, JSTOR and ProQuest) and Google Scholar. All searches used a Boolean search string (“islamic school*” OR “muslim school*”) that could appear on any portion of the manuscript. No restrictions concerning time period of the study or publication status were applied. Refworks and MS-Excel were utilized for importing the search results and conducting a detailed analysis of the retrieved literature. The computerized search resulted in a total of 12,535 sources.

2.1. Details of Computerized Search

JSTOR search

Search strings: “islamic school*” OR “muslim school*”

Content Type: Journals

Subject: Political Science, History, Religion, Education, Law, Economics, Sociology, Language & Literature, Jewish Studies, International Relations, Philosophy, Feminist & Women’s Studies, African American Studies, Population Studies, Slavic Studies, American Studies, Performing Arts, Urban Studies, General Science, Psychology, Peace & Conflict Studies

Articles retrieved: 414

 

EBSCO search

Boolean/Phrase: “islamic school*” OR “muslim school*”

Source Types: Journals, Academic Journals, Dissertations, Reviews

Language: English

Articles retrieved: 278

 

ProQuest search

Search strings: all (“islamic school*” OR “muslim school*”)

Source type: Scholarly Journals, Dissertations & Theses, Working Papers

Language: English

Articles retrieved: 243

 

Google Scholar search

Search strings: “islamic school*” OR “muslim school*”

Language: English

Articles retrieved: 11,600

2.2. Selection Process and Information Retrieval

Articles were excluded based on the titles if the titles were clearly related to an exclusion criteria (such as Islamic theology). Whenever the titles did not meet exclusion criteria, the abstracts were read to assess if the articles required full reading. After reviewing the study titles and/or abstracts and removing duplicates, 273 sources remained in the search. The articles were read to determine if they met the inclusion criteria. 192 articles were excluded at the full article phase.

Table 1. Overview of Article Sources and Exclusions.

	Number of Articles
Search 1 (University Library)
Three library sources (EBSCO, JSTOR, ProQuest)	935
Excluded Based on Title and/or Abstract	−795
Remaining articles (EBSCO, JSTOR, ProQuest)	140
Duplicates Removed	−36
Remaining Articles (EBSCO, JSTOR, ProQuest)	104
Search 2 (Google Scholar)
Number of Google Scholar Sources Initially Found	11,600
Excluded Based on Title and/or Abstract	−11,433
Remaining Google Articles	167
Duplicates Removed	−1
Remaining Articles (Google Scholar)	166
Sum of Remaining Articles (Both Searches)	270
Duplicates Removed	−35
Remaining articles	235
Excluded Based on Full Article	−192
Other studies added	+38
Total search results	81

and

Table 2. Reason for Exclusion—192 sources were excluded at full article phase.

Study outside cultural west	12
Not related to Islamic schools (e.g., Muslim women, arts, dress codes, preschool)	14
Religious schooling in general (not Islamic schooling specific)	7
Different question related to Islamic schools (e.g., creationism, democracy, globalization, politics, Islamic theology, Christian-Muslim relations, refugees)	30
Earlier/duplicate version of an included study	4
Duplicate version of an excluded study	1
Commentary, book review or opinion piece	57
Newer study looks at the same/broader issues	39
Lack of study rigor	28
Total Excluded	192

describe the details regarding the studies that were identified and eliminated at each stage. Thirty-eight studies were added to the search after analyzing the sources of information cited by the 43 studies retained in the final stage of the computerized search.

Descriptive statistics and qualitative and quantitative information concerning Islamic schooling were extracted from the remaining articles. From all the articles, the most recent and comprehensive descriptive statistics were maintained for a particular country/region. The qualitative information was categorized under different issues concerning Islamic schooling. Due to a lack of quantitative research concerning Islamic schooling, the findings from qualitative and quantitative studies were combined under themes.

2.3. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

To be included in the review, a study had to discuss one or more of the Islamic schooling themes relevant to this review: the purpose and nature of Islamic schooling, parental wishes, or the quality of Islamic schooling. Studies were read to infer if they provided unique, comprehensive and up to date information on the three aforementioned themes covered in this review. As Islamic schooling is an understudied area, the findings should be interpreted in localized contexts.

Eighty-one studies inform this review. Forty-four of these are peer-reviewed journal articles, 20 are book chapters/books, ten are technical reports/working papers and seven are doctoral dissertations (six) /master’s thesis (one). Multiple sources derived from the same books are counted as distinct (nine sources are derived from three books). Finally, to be included in the review, a descriptive study had to provide the latest country-level statistics, a review had to provide broad understanding of issues concerning Islamic schooling in a particular context, a qualitative study had to either examine issues not yet addressed in the literature or validate known issues with a larger sample, and a quantitative study had to utilize data to draw conclusions. A study remained in the review if it was either uniquely informative or more informative on the aforementioned criterion than other studies retrieved in the search.

The review does not examine the historical growth of Islamic schools, the politics that surround them, nor the laws that allow or restrict their formation in different countries. It also does not consider Islamic education in the form of informal schools in mosques, madrasas, homeschooling, or virtual schooling (For investigations of such issues, see Berglund 2015; Musharraf 2015; Musharraf and Nabeel 2015). Nor does the review explore the quality of Islamic textbooks, curriculum or instruction and non-confessional courses on Islam imparted to students from both Islamic and non-Islamic backgrounds. Some ethnocentric charter schools cater to the communal needs of Muslim students but do not have a formal religious orientation (Basford and Traeger 2014). They are excluded from this review. Public charter schools founded by Muslim immigrants are also excluded because they are not faith-based schools (Maranto et al. 2018).

The findings of reviewed studies were excluded or de-emphasized if the authors made claims beyond what the data allowed, including findings contrary to their research questions or opined things without an empirical basis. For example, if a study used the word ‘causal’ or caused but did not use a causal design to explore the data, the study was read in detail to infer if it was worth including at all. Qualitative study results were excluded if they generalized findings based on fewer than ten interviews at a single school. Studies that claimed they presented as nationally representative information were excluded if their response rate was too low, their research questions were inappropriate, or the research design was too inadequate to draw relevant conclusions. Lastly, studies that examined topics such as pre-kindergarten Islamic schools, leadership styles of Islamic school principals, or nutrition issues in Islamic schools were excluded because those issues are not relevant to this review.

To confirm3 the nature of the findings as well as the reviewed literature, the review was read by an international expert on religious schooling, an international expert on school choice and three other scholars—one in school leadership, one in educational pluralism and one political scientist with a European background. The experts also confirmed the nature of information in the European language sources cited in the paper. Three such non-English language sources are part of the 81 included studies.

2.4. Strengths and Weakness of the Search Process

The current review seems to be the first systematic review on Islamic schooling in the cultural west. Since the temporal scope of the search was unrestricted and the geographical scope was global, the search process was likely to generate a sufficient number of studies to offer policy-relevant conclusions. Earlier reviews provided tables that offered an overview of Islamic schooling across some western nations (Berglund 2015; Kelly 1999; Musharraf 2015; Musharraf and Nabeel 2015). Some sources provided information for countries that were not covered in the current review. These prior reviews were limited in important ways. Often they cited information from news reports, surveys and other sources, but lacked a detailed search methodology and a validation criterion to test the nature of available information concerning studies done in each country. Most notably, they omitted a major chunk of the published research.

The current review is limited by its exclusion of Boolean search terms in non-English languages, the focus on journals instead of reports, books, websites and news articles, and the lack of a network search involving contacts with experts on Islamic or religious schools and country-level Islamic organizations. Although such a networked search likely would yield more granular information, resources were not available to do so. Interested researchers may combine information retrieved in the current review with earlier reviews and supplement it with localized information (such as the recently published Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Volume 9) in a particular context.

3. Results

The first section of the review discusses the purpose and nature of Islamic schooling. It lays out particular arrangements for Islamic schooling in more than a dozen countries. The next two sections of the paper discuss parental wishes and issues that affect the quality of Islamic schooling. The sections list potential policy solutions to address the two topics. Due to the lack of adequate research for each topic for each country, the findings in sections two and three are not presented by country. The information drawn is largely useful as indications of leads that might be followed by specific research in a particular national context. When exploring the findings from sections two and three, researchers interested in Islamic schooling should consider the social origins, situations of the Muslim populations, and the auspices under which Islamic schools are created and managed in a particular country.

3.1. The Purpose and Nature of Islamic Schooling

Being the faith of the majority of the population in over 50 nations, the understanding of Islam is varied. Despite the fact that Muslims agree on monotheism, there is variation in jurisprudence, culture and practices of Muslims around the globe. As Muslim immigrants settle in the cultural west, they bring with them cultural traits and heterogeneity in the understanding of Islam. This variation has substantial implications for school choice depending on the context. Seeing Islam as something fixed may lead to more consistent school choice policymaking than demanded in reality. This section summarizes the purpose and nature of Islamic schooling across different nations to highlight the similarities and variation in Islamic schooling.

Islamic schools should differ from other schools, since in Islam education encompasses all aspects of life. Worship in Islam is not confined to prayer. However, every act of a Muslim is considered worship as long as it is done with the intention to obey the creator (Coles 2004, p. 44). (Elbih 2012, p. 166) said, “the purpose of Islamic education is to provide Muslims with the knowledge required to build their faith and to help them take transformative actions to change their lives according to what Allah has prescribed in these revelations as a form of worship and a proof of their faith.” Proponents of Islamic schools say that these schools act as venues of sociocultural preservation and reproduction in consonance with the home environment (Glenn et al. 2018; Merry 2005; Mohme 2017). Inclusion of secular education in consonance with religious education has been a practice of Islamic schools. This fact is evident from the Prophet Muhammad’s saying4 “The seeking of knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim.” Merry and Driessen (2009) and Thohbani (2010) noted that Islamic schools do not differ from other faith-based schools as far as teaching the students secular subjects within the framework of their faith.

Yet, due to the decentralized structure5 of the Islamic faith, Islamic schools do not adopt a single common purpose. Molook (1990, p. 129) describes homogeneity as being that the purpose of Islamic schools is to instill religious and cultural values in students by providing an Islamic curriculum and environment. This approach can include instruction of Quran, Arabic and Islamic studies. Alternately, the purpose may become more focused on preserving the cultural values that can include more emphasis on bilingual ability and the preservation of cultural aspects of Islam (like gender segregation, modest dress codes and respect toward authority) often not even practiced by parents (Merry 2005). Haddad and Lummis (1987) and Smith (2000) noted that a large portion of Muslims in the west neither attend mosque nor vigorously nurture a strong religious identity. While keeping in focus the social and economic needs of their students, Islamic schools may also include academic excellence as a goal.

Islamic schools offer a cultural environment that supports their behavioral and moral values, such as not abusing drugs, not being involved in violence, and not exhibiting sexual promiscuity; as such, they are different from traditional public schools (Badawi 2006). Besides preserving religious and sociocultural values, Islamic schools are also seen by many British Muslims as protective against racism (Shah 2012). Islamic schools strengthen the sense of Muslim identity while focusing on improving the quality of education (Driessen and Valkenberg 2000).

Cristillo (2009) argued that Islamic schools produce social networks that promote civic integration of Muslims into American civil society. Quranic recitation and memorization from Arabic letters6 are two basic skills taught at Islamic schools. Teachers can prioritize other behavioral values and delay Quranic memorization and recitation if they deem them more essential in the local context (Berglund 2011). Bartels (2000) found that both formal and informal Islamic education help integrate Muslims into Dutch society.

Islamic schools have also become more involved in interfaith dialogues, community service and promoting tolerance and civic values after 9/11 (Cristillo 2009; Jones 2012; Memon 2010). Practices that promote tolerance and civic values include field trips, interaction with non-Muslim faiths, comparative religion classes and mandating community service as a graduation requirement. The schools also act as avenues of philanthropic and social activities as well as political engagement.

Like any other religious school, Islamic schools operate within the legislative boundaries of western democracies. This fact becomes important, as education is not the duty of the federal government in the US.7 Thus, policies related to Islamic schools will differ by state. The situation could be entirely different in democracies having centralized systems. Islamic schools have been the beneficiary of voucher programs in the US (Merry 2005) but they largely operate as private entities. Some European countries publicly fund religious education either through grants or within the structure of their public education system. Thus, the nature of Islamic schooling can vary from privately funded and privately operated, publicly funded and privately operated to publicly funded and publicly operated. Some European states fund Islamic education and train teachers for Islamic religious instruction through university level programs.

In the European context, the distinction between public and private schools does not mirror the distinction between non-religious and religious schools. This complexity is due to the existence of public confessional and interconfessional schools in addition to secular private schools. Religion also plays a significant role in the public schooling system of some European countries even though the public schools are generally secular. Willaime (2006, p. 59) stated, “there is a broad consensus in Europe on the need for instruction on religions in public schools.” France is unique in providing no religious instruction in schools whereas the system in other European countries can be categorized as either confessional religious instruction or non-confessional religious education (Wolf and Macedo 2004).

Kelly (1999, p. 200) and Berglund (2015, p. 12) discussed full-time Islamic schools in some countries in North America and Europe. Berglund (2015, p. 8) described four models of Church-State relations for nine western nations. Austria, Germany and Spain operate on a cooperation model between the church and religious institutions. Officially recognized Islamic associations can enter into an agreement with the state, and Islamic religious instruction is available within the public school system in these countries. The Netherlands and Finland operate on a model of parallel state religions. Hence, Islamic religious instruction is available within the school system, and the state provides university-level teacher education. The UK and Sweden operate on a model of one dominant religion, Protestant Christianity. However, both countries provide public funding to Muslim schools that conform to the national curricula. France and the US maintain a distinct separation between the church and the state. Islamic schooling is thus a private-only phenomenon in both countries. In contrast to Berglund (2015), Fuess (2007) described four approaches in Western Europe that affect Islamic schooling. France and Francophone cantons of Switzerland maintain religious neutrality of the state. The UK, the Netherlands, most Scandinavian countries and to some degree Ireland do not require official recognition of religious communities. Hence, these countries provide financial support for religious instruction at all religious communities. Austria, Belgium, Spain, Germany and some German-speaking cantons of Switzerland require official recognition of religious communities for imparting specific confessional religious instruction. Lastly, Italy chiefly operates as a Catholic nation with no support for other religious instruction.

Table 3. Summary of Islamic schooling in the cultural west.

Country	Has Islamic Schools	Publicly Funded	Islamic Religious Instruction within Public Schools	Provision of Publicly Funded Teacher Education
Austria	✓	✓	✓	✓
Germany	✓	✓	✓	✓
The Netherlands	✓	✓	✓	✓
Belgium	✓	✓	✓
Australia	✓	✓
Denmark	✓	✓
Sweden	✓	✓
United Kingdom	✓	✓
Spain	✓		✓	✓
Serbia	✓		✓	✓
Croatia	✓		✓
Macedonia	✓		✓
Finland			✓	✓
Canada	✓
France	✓
Norway	✓
United States	✓

Note: Existence of a check mark for a category does not necessarily imply sufficient access. Muslim majority nations like Bosnia have been excluded as Islamic schooling in Muslim majority countries may enjoy a distinct cultural advantage. Western nations for which literature was not retrieved in the search process, have been excluded.

presents an extensive summary of Islamic schools in the cultural west. The first column of the table distinguishes countries that do not have Islamic schools (e.g., Finland) from those that do. The top three rows represent Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, since they have Islamic schools and their governments are the most involved in supporting those schools through funding, permitting religious instruction, and training teachers. Thereafter, the countries are organized based on the number of checkmarks—full government support, some support and no support for Islamic schooling.

Countries Having Extensive Government Support for Islamic Schooling

In Austria, only a single body formed in 1979, “Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IRCA),” is legally entitled to provide Islamic religious instruction in public schools. The IRCA determines the content, teaching curricula and syllabi for the Islamic religious instruction. The Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs publishes the syllabi. Provision of large-scale Islamic religious education in public schools has reduced the demand for private Islamic schools (Medeni 2013). Seven private Islamic schools exist in Austria (Medeni 2013), and the state pays the salaries of the teachers (Jozsa 2006, p. 71). To address the issues of trained Muslim teachers, in 1997 the Austrian Ministry of Teaching and Cultural Issues approved the “Islamic Religious-Pedagogical Academy” (IRPA). It takes eight semesters for a person to become a teacher in the Islamic faith. A mere one percent of Austrian Muslims are registered members of the IRCA and in districts like Salzburg approximately 30 percent of Muslim students opt out of Islamic instruction (Kiefer 2005). There is no single-sex Islamic schooling in Austria, but physical education and sex education are offered in single-sex classes in some private Islamic schools (Medeni 2013). Catholic private schools are required by law to provide Islamic religious instruction to Muslim pupils if they are in sufficient numbers and demand it (Fuess 2007).

The German constitution makes the federal state responsible for the provision of religious instruction in schools (Jozsa 2006, p. 75). Generally, religious education is confessional and the responsibility of curriculum, textbooks, the recognition and teacher certification all lie with the religious community. The concept of recognition is central to German education. Only if a religious community is legally recognized, is the state obliged to provide religious instruction as an ordinary school subject. Although the state finances the teachers and is supposed to take care of each legally recognized community, the same is not true for the Islamic faith as no Islamic organization is generally recognized at the state level. Kiefer (2005) noted that Islamic education in Berlin is a kind of free and private education that is exclusive to the situation in Berlin and not of a regular and compulsory nature. (Jozsa 2006, p. 77) noted “After a long lawsuit with the government, which started in 1980, the Islamic Federation in Berlin (IFB) was in 1998 the first Islamic Organisation to be given the right to teach Islamic religious education in public schools as a free subject according to the law in Berlin.” (Jozsa 2006, p. 75) mentioned the existence of only one primary Islamic school in Berlin. It may be noted that Germany has not integrated its long-term Turkish population, even though it had no Islamic schools. This fact tends to support the view that religious education does not foster separation. Very few private Islamic schools exist in Germany due to its weak history of private schooling (Fuess 2007).

North Rhine-Westphalia introduced Islamic religious instruction at 130 schools and it is expected to grow over time (Fuess 2007). Attempts to integrate Islamic religious instruction in the school curricula have been made in regions such as Bavaria, but they are complicated due to a lack of agreement on syllabi and a reliance on foreign language text and culture. Müller (2005) criticized this approach for assimilating the students with Turkish backgrounds. However, efforts have been made to experiment with the provision of Islamic religious instruction in recent years. Even these efforts are short of ensuring religious pedagogical training of teachers who would provide Islamic religious instruction in German. Hamburg has followed a model of religious education for all with the involvement of approximately 80 percent of the Islamic association bodies (Schreiner 2000; Kiefer 2005). Publicly funded teacher training is also available at university centers in Münster-Osnabrück, Frankfurt-Greissen, Tübingen, and Nuremberg-Erlangen (Berglund 2015).

Islamic religious education is available in three forms in the Netherlands (Shadid and van Koningsveld 2006). Firstly, parents can demand the municipality to facilitate and subsidize Islamic religious instruction on public school premises. Secondly, some Christian schools with substantial Muslim enrollment may facilitate the provision of Islamic religious instruction. The first option has been employed through imams or freelance teachers in seven percent of public primary schools (Veugelers et al. 2004, pp. 21, 23) whereas the second one has not been well implemented (Shadid and van Koningsveld 2006). Thus, a third option, state-funded Islamic schools, has grown since 1987 to 41 Islamic primary schools in 2005 (Shadid and van Koningsveld 2006). Co-education is the norm in Dutch Islamic schools, but some lessons related to physical activities are gender specific (Dronkers 2016). At present, all Islamic schools in the Netherlands are primary schools.

The pedagogical practices of Dutch Islamic schools involve more homework, focusing teaching and learning time on basic academic skills more than noncore activities in comparison to other Dutch primary schools. Additionally, the Dutch Islamic schools are less ethnically diverse due to targeted patterns of Muslim immigration from some countries such as Turkey and Morocco. Dronkers (2016) also finds evidence that Dutch Islamic schools increase students’ non-cognitive skills on three dimensions (reflections, skills, and attitudes). The students at Islamic schools perform better on these three dimensions than students at comparable schools and average schools. Dutch Islamic schools struggle to find religious teachers, and not all students attend the Quran classes. (Jozsa 2006, p. 80) noted that Dutch public schools can provide Islamic education, but the teachers have to be paid privately by the parents. Due to the existence of full-time Islamic schools and the generally poor quality of teaching of Islam in public schools, hardly any Islamic religious instruction occurs in Dutch public schools. Since 1995, the Islamic religious instruction teachers have received training at Inholland University of Applied Sciences (Berglund 2015).

Countries Having Full Government Support for Islamic Schooling

Belgium employs Muslim teachers and provides Islamic religious instruction within its state schools (Merry and Driessen 2005). Furthermore, the Muslim Council, which was inaugurated in December 1998, solely determines the content of religious instruction. Earlier estimates suggested that as many as 40 percent of the Muslim children attended Islamic instruction in state schools (Shadid and van Koningsveld 1996). Such a structure appeals to secularized Muslim parents but limits choice for more religious Muslim parents. Merry and Driessen (2005) noted the existence of one state-funded Islamic school in Brussels but political opposition has restricted the opening of new Islamic schools.

The first Islamic schools in Australia were established simultaneously in Victoria and New South Wales in 1983 (Hassen 2013). Victoria has nine and New South Wales has 19 Islamic schools (Hassen 2013). Government-funded private Islamic schools exist in Australia at both the elementary and secondary levels (Gulson and Webb 2012). An estimated 20 percent of the student population of Australian Muslims seek education in Islamic schools, and most are co-educational. To receive state and federal government funding, the Islamic schools in Australia have to meet the curriculum requirement set by the state boards and land-use approval set by the local government (Bugg and Gurran 2011; Raihini and Gurr 2010). Roughly 50 percent of the staff at Australian Islamic schools is non-Muslim, which complicates the imparting of religious knowledge to Muslim students (Jones 2012). Approximately 37 Islamic schools operate in Australia, and enrollments in such schools increased from 4274 in 1996 to nearly 26,000 in 2014 (Hassen 2013; Independent School Council of Australia 2014).

Among the Nordic countries, Islamic schools have existed for the longest time in Denmark. Approximately twenty Danish Muslim schools exist and are financed partly through fees paid by parents but also partly by the government (Berglund 2012). Unlike Sweden, where the Islamic schools are inspected by a national agency of education, an external examination board oversees the Islamic schools in Denmark. Parents, along with the Danish Ministry of Education, are responsible for choosing the external examination board (Ihle 2007, pp. 39–45).

Islamic schools in Sweden come under the category of independent schools (also known as free schools). These schools have a distinctive profile and receive full funding from the state. There is a Swedish national curriculum but no separate national curriculum for Swedish Islamic schools, so each school has to come up with its own syllabi. Swedish Islamic schools have the same educational aims and basic curriculum as public schools (Berglund 2015). Islamic schools struggle in the absence of standardized curriculum and books in the local language that cater to both the religious and academic needs of Muslims. Yet teachers utilize religious texts to teach values related to gender equality that align with Sweden’s national curriculum (Berglund 2011). Teachers in Islamic schools go beyond the institutional requirements to fulfill state curriculum obligations. Muslim schools in Sweden impart one to three hours of weekly religious instruction and local Muslim organizations run these schools. A case study of an Islamic school for Somali immigrants in Sweden suggests that a deep grounding in one’s faith and religious community through Islamic schooling can, in fact, facilitate successful integration within a largely secular society (Mohme 2017).

In Sweden, schools can be classified as Islamic and as ‘Swedish-Arabic’ (Berglund 2011). While the latter can provide some sort of Islamic instruction, this novel classification strategy adequately addresses the issue of parental concerns related to preservation of religious or cultural values. Training for teachers in Islamic religious education is available at various religion departments and universities (Berglund 2015).

In the non-denominational system in England, schools can offer courses on the Islamic faith. Many Islamic schools are state-funded. Even in the absence of government funding, they are required to undergo inspections by the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Hussain and Read 2015). These inspections have revealed that Islamic schools score better on measures of tolerance towards other communities than the Evangelical Christian schools. Islamic schools grew from 100 independent and seven state-funded schools in 2007 to 139 and 14 respectively in 2012 (Meer 2007; Scott and McNeish 2012, p. 7). Often the community leaders and concerned parents established these schools (Hewer 2001, p. 518). These schools often lack basic facilities in comparison to state schools (Shah 2012). Independent Islamic schools not funded by the state do not have to abide by the national curriculum. Such schools were attended by a mere three percent of Muslims in 2004 (Choudhury 2005).

(Daun and Arjmand 2005, p. 413) reported that five percent of Muslim children attended such schools that ranged from poor charity schools to well-developed, elite schools. In 2004, five state-funded Muslim schools existed, representing 0.5 percent of the Muslim student population. These schools have to abide by the national curriculum, hire only trained teachers, undergo regular inspection and have long waiting lists. Single-sex Islamic schools exist in the UK (Berglund 2015). Tinker (2009) reported that both state-funded and independent Muslim schools served four percent of Muslim children. The apparent discrepancies between the percentages cited by (Choudhury 2005), Daun and Arjmand (2005, p. 413), and Tinker (2009) are due to variation in types of schools included in their analysis. In majority Catholic Ireland, state-funded Islamic schools have existed since 1993 (Scharbrodt and Sakaranaho 2011). The teachers have to be certified by the Department of Education and the schools combine Islamic ethos with the national school syllabus in Ireland. Islamic religious instruction is not provided in Irish state schools.

Countries Having Some Government Support for Islamic Schooling

In Spain, both the public and subsidized private schools have to offer Islamic religious instruction in accordance with article ten of the 1992 agreement (Dietz 2006, p. 123). However, the Catholic schools are excluded from this requirement. The Spanish Ministry of Education approves the curriculum for Islamic religious instruction. Additionally, in 1996 an agreement was signed between two federations FEERI and UCIRI and the Spanish state to regulate the framework for incorporating teachers who would provide Islamic religious instruction in public schools. The point to be noted is that practical application of either the curriculum or the regulations related to Islamic religious instruction in public schools leaves much to be desired. The attempts to provide Islamic religious instruction within the state school system have been futile (Fuess 2007). The reasons for the futility range from fear of attracting too many Muslim students to few Muslim students attending Islamic religious instruction.

Alternately, Muslim parents are attempting to provide Islamic religious instruction privately (Dietz and El-Shohoumi 2005; Moreras 2005). The teacher supply for Islamic religious instruction is unable to meet the demand due to state regulations. Dietz (2006, p. 126) reported “The fact that it is the central state and not the regional Ministry of Education which hires the Islamic teachers is highly confusing in the decentralized Spanish educational system, as it seems to re-centralize at least this aspect of religious education.” However, in the end, the interested parents have been able to get access to Islamic religious instruction for their children in public primary schools in Andalusia, Madrid and Catalonia since September 2005. Berglund (2015) mentions the existence of three types of private schools in Spain: publicly funded, privately funded and partially funded. At present, no partially funded Islamic schools exist in Spain.

Non-Muslim majority states from the former Yugoslavia have made progress in providing Islamic education to their Muslim citizens. This development could be seen as a sign of reconciliation across religious lines after the 1990s war in which mainly Catholic Croatia and mainly Orthodox Christian Serbia fought against mainly Islamic Bosnia (though all three had somewhat religiously diverse populations). Islamic religious instruction in Serbia is in progress. Islamic textbooks that are confessional in character are used to provide information about Islamic culture, history and faith. To support the provision of Islamic religious instruction in state schools, the government Ministry of Religious Affairs selects and trains teachers (Kuburić and Vukomanović 2006).

Croatia passed the Law on the Legal Status of the Religious Communities in 2002. This opportunity allowed the Islamic community to contract with the state to provide confessional religious instruction in schools (Bobinac and Jerolimov 2006). The Ministry of Education is responsible for approving the curricula and textbooks for Islamic religious instruction in schools. The law passed in 2002 regulates the training of teachers, for which religious communities are responsible. When an adequate number of properly qualified teachers is not available, the religious communities can authorize others to provide Islamic religious instruction. Approximately 650 Muslim students received Islamic religious instruction from 14 teachers in 46 schools in Croatia in 2005 (Bobinac and Jerolimov 2006, p. 65).

Islamic religious instruction is also available in the public schools in Macedonia. In 2001/2002, a non-obligatory subject named Catechism was introduced in the public schools. The curriculum was closely tied to the basic theology of Christian Orthodoxy or Islam. The religious clergy from each organization provided the teachers, and the children could study only their own religion (Matevski et al. 2006). However, due to issues in design and implementation, the subject was terminated after a year. The government ministries are attempting to reintroduce religious content in the regular curricula of public schools. Matevski et al. (2006, p. 156) reported that the Ministry of Education and Science decided to include religious content in state education curricula.

Finland has not yet seen the rise of an Islamic school; however, Tartars operated a Muslim school until 1969 (Martikainen 2004, p.116). Muslims in Finland have the right to Islamic religious instruction in the state schools (Berglund 2012), but lacking skilled teachers, few can be served (Fuess 2007). Helsinki University established an education program to train teachers in Islamic religious instruction in 2007 (Sakaranaho 2009, p. 120). Berglund (2015) mentions that Finland’s National Board of Education has published the Salam book series offering material and workshops to help teachers provide Islamic religious instruction.

Countries Having no Government Support for Islamic Schooling

France maintains strict separation between the church and state. Jozsa (2006, p. 74) noted the existence of only two private Islamic schools in France in 2005. Only 100 students attended these schools. Van den Kerchove (2009, p. 55) mentioned the existence of four privately run Muslim schools that are under contract to the state. The schools receive public funds for teacher salaries, and they have to follow the national curriculum. This fact suggests that France’s separation of church and state may not be entirely strict. The separation of church and state does not preclude funding of religious schools in France (Glenn et al. 2012).

A Muslim school in Oslo, Norway 2003–2004 was closed down due to internal problems (Grytnes 2004). However, Berglund (2012) reported that in Norway two Muslim schools received permission to start in 2012. Government support for Islamic schooling is not present in Italy. The local authorities closed down a private Islamic school in Milan in 2005 (Fuess 2007).

Memon (2010) noted that the majority of Islamic schools across Canada are primarily funded through student fees. Thus, these schools are accessible mainly for economically well-off families. Memon (2006) reported that approximately seven percent of the total Muslim student population in Canada attended Islamic schools at the elementary and secondary school levels. Zine (2008) reported that most Islamic schools in Canada have long waiting lists, with as many as 650 students, some waiting since birth. Approximately 55 Islamic schools exist in Canada (Memon 2011).

Most Muslim students in the US attend public schools. In the western nations covered in this review, the rise in Muslim immigration was the primary driver of an increase in Islamic schooling. On the contrary, Islamic schools in the US started in the 1930s in Detroit as a movement for Black Nationalism that included ideas from Islam, Christianity and the mythology of the founders of the Nation of Islam movement. These schools took the name ‘Sister Clara Muhammad Schools’ in honor of Elijah Muhammad’s wife, Clara. Elijah Muhammad was one of the early African Americans to join the Nation of Islam movement, and Clara Muhammad was the first teacher of the school founded in their home. The Nation of Islam founded schools that are focused on their philosophy rather than on the more broadly understood Islam. The schools became Islamic schools after transitioning to mainstream Islam in the 1970s (Rashid and Muhammad 1992, p. 182).

In the US, Islamic schools are not directly government-funded and have minimal formal accountability to the state. However, Merry and Driessen (2005, p. 427) noted, “rather than shun accountability, American Islamic schools enthusiastically embrace it.” There were approximately 235 private Islamic schools in the US in 2009 (Berglund 2015). The Private School Universe Survey8 available from the Common Core of Data (CCD) shows that most of the Islamic schools in the US do not have higher-level grades. A majority of the Islamic schools in the US is K-6, and they combine secular instruction with religious and cultural instruction (Berglund 2015). O’Neill (2010, p. 68) mentioned findings by (Keyworth 2006) which showed that most Islamic schools in the US were under twenty years old, and many were under six years old. The Islamic schools in the US include professionally certified staff and an average of 121 students.

The literature reviewed in this section shows that Muslims vary in their understanding of and commitment to Islamic schooling. Similarly, nation-states vary in their levels of support for Islamic schooling. Islamic schooling operates both as a public and private phenomenon in most cases, although there are exceptions such as in the United States where religious instruction is only a private phenomenon. Generally, it can be said that western nation-states have extended the same rights for Islamic education as they have for traditional Christian education. However, political and social tensions limit such possibilities. Some nation-states, such as Italy, still do not extend any kind of support for Islamic schooling.

This review covers Islamic schooling in the countries where it is relatively new. There are large variations and strong differences in the socio-economic status of the Muslim immigrants who settle in North America versus those who settle in most European countries. Although the Netherlands stands out as the western nation with the largest number of government-supported Islamic schools, the Islamic schools face challenges due to the low levels of education and socio-economic status of most Dutch Muslim parents. In contrast, American Muslim parents have higher levels of education and socio-economic status than most of their European counterparts. Islamic school boards in North America may be better organized and experienced than Islamic school boards in most European nations due to the higher education levels and socio-economic status of American Muslim immigrants (Glenn et al. 2018).

The social origins of immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia largely influence American Islamic schools. The Nation of Islam founded schools that have an historical connection to African-American efforts for achieving racial equity. Therefore these schools are an exception. The majority of immigrants in some European nations are from parts of Africa and Muslim majority nations outside the Middle East and South Asia. Immigrants push their cultural and social values on Islamic schools, which in turn affects the children. These values are likely to be endogenous to the social origins of the Muslim immigrants. Lastly, the situations of Muslims in the west are dynamic, with new waves of immigrants from zones of conflict. Hence, research on Islamic schooling needs consistent updating.

Family satisfaction and quality of schooling are key concerns to school choice policy. Research on parental wishes and issues affecting the quality of Islamic schooling is limited across the contexts analyzed in this paper. Hence, the findings in the next two sections are not presented by country. In doing so, the aim is to summarize the key issues regarding parental wishes and school quality in the literature on Islamic schooling. Based on the reviewed literature,

Table 4. List of parental wishes and the issues they generate for schools.

Parental Wishes	Corresponding Issues Generated for Schools
Strong home-school partnership	Deal with a relatively new Muslim population (Nation of Islam founded schools in the US also focus on racial equity)
Reproduction of socio-cultural values	Build identity and belonging in students
Reproduction of religious values and moral foundations	Build values and attitudes in students
Academic excellence (student achievement, attainment and civic outcomes)	Establish a quality teaching environment
Establish economic independence for daughters (a concern of Muslim mothers)	Involve mother’s perspectives on their child’s education
Financial support for accessing Islamic schooling (for parents with weak financial status)	Generate funding for expanding school access and reforming school quality
A school environment free of racism and discrimination	Run a Muslim calendar which provides breaks for daily (congregational) prayers and Muslim festivals, reduce the homework burden and/or curtail hours of schooling in the month of fasting (Ramadan)
A school environment free of foul language, illicit drugs, permissive sexual attitudes and peer pressure	Provide socio-religious activities for students
Inclusion of Islamic history and values in (state) school curriculum	Provide Arabic language classes (for reciting Quran) and build an Islamic curriculum
Address possible alienation/segregation due to Islamic schooling	Strike a balance between maximizing religion vs. foreign culture and tradition
Provision of good teachers for their children	Provide training to teachers, hire qualified non-Muslim teachers

,

Table 5. List of suggested policies to improve the quality of Islamic schooling.

Government support

Provide finances and infrastructure for Islamic schooling based on local demand

Provide assistance for building facilities, resources and programs for special education and gifted students

Provide support for transportation to schools

Administrative reforms

Design an education policy framework for Islamic schooling based on the local educational and political context

Design policies to ensure that school autonomy and educational innovation are not negatively affected by government regulations

Design policies to limit the domination of school’s governance by one ethnic group of parents

Identify and track cognitive and non-cognitive parameters to evaluate effectiveness of Islamic education

Develop surveys and a database to collect statistics on Islamic schooling

Strike a balance between prioritizing religion vs. foreign culture and traditions

Design policies for an effective relationship between Islamic schooling and the local mosque

Pedagogy and curriculum development

Inculcate Islamic theology, history and culture in school curriculum and textbooks

Design local syllabi for Islamic religious instruction in state schools

Include modern educational pedagogy in Islamic texts

Develop a standard Islamic syllabus with the rise of standardized tests

School and staff related improvements

Design policies to recruit and train bicultural and bilingual classroom assistants and teachers

Incorporate the socio-cultural and religious needs of Muslim students into training programs for the majority of non-Muslim teachers

Design policies to hire and retain quality teachers, staff, school principals and administrators

Design policies to provide context specific training and professional development to human resources involved in Islamic schooling

Design training programs for school board members

Extend grade levels in private Islamic schools based on local demand

Extend the provision of Islamic religious instruction in state schools to higher grade levels based on local demand

Communal transformations

Evaluate and identify gaps in the degree and forms of parental involvement in their child’s education

Design schooling policies considering the racially and/or linguistically clustered housing patterns of Muslims in certain contexts

Design policies to increase educational attainment of immigrant Muslim mothers

and

Table 6. Directions for future research concerning Islamic schooling.

Guidelines for future research

Design surveys to empirically identify parental wishes and distinguish between their stated vs. revealed preferences

Investigate the similarities and differences between the cultural and religious needs of Muslim parents

Evaluate the effectiveness of Islamic schooling based on school choice theory (such as school’s mission, market competition, school autonomy and parental satisfaction)

Evaluate the effectiveness of Islamic schooling based on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes

Investigate the effectiveness of mechanisms through which Islamic schools provide opportunity for children to interact with other cultures

Examine school practices for reducing the tension between religious beliefs vs. counseling

Evaluate the content of elective courses in lieu of fully structured Islamic religious instruction courses that may be helpful to teachers in the short run

Investigate the effectiveness of policies designed for local nurturing of Muslim theologians (in the localized context of Islamic schooling)

Evaluate the design of university programs for training of teachers and administrators related to Islamic schooling

Examine how to inculcate non-Muslim teachers’ perspectives in Islamic religious instruction

Identify the gaps between in-group vs. out of group attitudes of Muslim students

Use causal inference, large datasets and rigorous methods in studies on Islamic schooling

list potential policy solutions concerning school choice and present guidelines for further research. Researchers should supplement the discussion in sections two and three by country-specific documents for drawing context-specific conclusions.

3.2. Parental Wishes

Like any other religious community, practicing Muslims are not always served well in traditional public schools. Parental reasons for choosing Islamic schooling reflect a concern for identity and belonging, discrimination, values and attitudes, and Islamic education (McCreery et al. 2007). Parental demands generate some broad issues for the schools. Table 4 summarizes parental wishes and the corresponding issues generated for schools. The findings in Table 4 generally hold across different contexts. The caveat is that local political and legal condition, families’ socio-economic status and culture and schooling type (public, private or a mixture of each) may make some issues more relevant than others.

A study in the UK found that approximately half of Muslim parents would prefer Islamic schooling for their children (Nyman 2005, p. 151). Muslim children have experienced racism and discrimination in British Schools (Ahmad 2002; Coles 2004; Hurst 2000; Parker-Jenkins 2002). Lack of Islamic history in the curricula of state schools contributes to Muslim students’ feeling of alienation (Coles 2004; McCreery et al. 2007). Muslim students see Islamic schools as family, due to the strong relationships between teachers and students and an environment of comfort and safety (Zine 2007). Clyne (2001) found that Muslim parents in Australia have limited involvement in their students’ education in non-Islamic schools due to cultural, language and employment issues. Teachers and, more importantly, the principals, in public schools are ill-prepared to meet the needs of Muslim students (McAndrew 2010).

Not all Muslim parents are religious, and non-practicing parents may choose Islamic schools for their students (Cristillo 2009). Merry and Driessen (2005, p. 412) noted, “Even non-practicing Muslims who smoke, drink alcohol, eat forbidden food, etc., seldom completely renounce their Muslim identities.” The majority of Muslim parents in the US do not send their students to Islamic schools (Malkawi 2004; Nimer 2002). This fact should not be seen as a rejection of school choice; Muslim immigrants are relatively new to the west and they are not sufficiently concentrated residentially to generate an adequate demand for Islamic schools in most localities. Nonetheless, to some legislators, Islamic schooling provides a political stance against choice (Glenn et al. 2018). Other reasons most American Muslims attend public schools include a lack of money, a preference for Muslim culture over the Islamic religion, and a fear of segregation from the majority of society. The continuous growth in the number of Islamic schools and long waiting lists at many schools indicate demand. The scarcity of money is clear in the case of two Islamic schools in Milwaukee, where three-fourths of the students qualify for school vouchers (Merry 2005). Yet, some Muslim parents prefer state schools, due to possible ideological isolation in faith-based schools (Parker-Jenkins 2002). However, Zine (2007) found that students attending Islamic schools maintain ties with non-Muslim friends from outside of school.

Hussain and Read (2015) find that Islamic schooling in the US and England equips Muslim students with the cultural capital that is beneficial for participating in mainstream institutions. Hence, Islamic schooling in the US and England promotes the integration of Muslims into society. Yet, Islamic schooling does not guarantee increased religiosity among Muslim youth; in some cases it may turn the youth away from religion or leave them isolated (Hussain and Read 2015; Jones 2012). Homeschooling is also a preference for some Muslim parents who do not see any difference between the Islamic schools and public schools (Martinez 2009). Such parents find the available public and Islamic schools inadequate to meets their demands for academic excellence. Religious parents are concerned about the curriculum and teaching environment in Islamic schools. Such parents find the available Islamic schools inadequate to meet their demand for reproducing religious and moral values in their children. This fact becomes a larger concern when the teachers have to follow the national curriculum (Jones 2012).

Interviews with 30 parents from three Islamic schools in Florida revealed that parents selected Islamic schools for religious, sociocultural and academic reasons (Elkhaldy 1996). Muslim parents across the west often express concern for building a strong moral foundation in their children (Raihini and Gurr 2010). Similar parental preferences also emerged for European Muslim parents even though their poverty rates, patterns of immigration and educational levels differ from their American counterparts (Merry 2005, p. 378). Some Australian parents value a strong home-school partnership but that can vary by the extent to which parents express their academic, religious and behavioral concerns (Raihini and Gurr 2010). Some parents may cherish the socio-religious activities at school while others may find them irrelevant in adding any educational value for their children. Osler and Hussain (1995) found that Muslim mothers put special emphasis on establishing economic independence for their daughters through quality education; most want more involvement in their daughters’ upbringings through partnership with the schools. The preferences of Muslim females may be distinctly informative for drawing policy conclusions.

Muslim parents often worry about the use of foul language, illicit drugs and concerns related to unwarranted sexual attitudes and peer pressure in the traditional public schools (Badawi 2006). Parental dissatisfaction with traditional public schools also occurs when schools’ curricula do not reflect their values. Dissatisfied parents may view Islamic schools as a substitute for traditional public schools because they cater to Islamic values and knowledge (Smith 2000). Students may view Islamic schools as a better alternative than public schools because they offer a more caring environment free of racism, peer pressure and religious discrimination, especially for girls (Smith 2000; Zine 2006). This attraction becomes especially important since public schools have expelled Muslim girls in Quebec, France and Turkey for wearing the hijab (Zine 2006).

Islamic schools also cater to the Muslim calendar and give breaks for Muslim festivals. More importantly, they offer an environment for daily congregational prayers and reduce the homework burdens and/or curtail hours of schooling during the month of fasting (Jones 2012). Kelly (1999) found that many parents in Islamic schools in the US, England and Canada assign importance to Arabic language classes, academic standards and behavioral norms. Thus, parents do not seek mere religious affiliation; they also value the quality of both religious and secular instruction. In essence, an Islamic school accommodates the halal9 needs of Muslim students that include meals, modest dress and other activities from an Islamic perspective. Even though religious Muslim parents resort to weekend religious instruction at local mosques to inculcate religious values in their children, weekend religious instruction does not proxy for formal Islamic religious instruction at school (Merry 2005).

British and Dutch parents choose Islamic schools because existing schools do not match their children’s needs to fast and pray according to their faith (Driessen and Valkenberg 2000). Muslim students attending denominational schools in the Netherlands receive Christian religious instruction; therefore, many Muslim parents send their children to after-school or weekend Quran classes (Merry and Driessen 2016). Parental dissatisfaction with non-Islamic schools could also be the result of the continuous low-performance of Muslim students in non-Islamic schools in comparison to their peers (Herweijer 2009). Driessen and Valkenberg (2000) also found that parents of students at Dutch Islamic schools have more children, and that the fathers have attained a better education than have the mothers. However, Dronkers (2016) says that most parents at Dutch Islamic schools are of very low socioeconomic status; hence, the Islamic schools in the Netherlands receive additional government funding.

Merry and Driessen (2016) say that Islamic schools in the Netherlands receive approximately double funding in comparison to the non-disadvantaged schools. The schools can use the extra funds for reforms, such as reducing class sizes. The non-Muslim parents in non-Islamic religious schools in the Netherlands are far more secularized in comparison to Muslim parents at Islamic schools (Dronkers 2016). Parents value Islamic schools when they observe religious practices, knowledge and attitudes inculcated in their children (Badawi 2006). Students at Dutch Islamic schools cut classes less frequently, score well on final examinations, and their teachers feel they are less likely to drop out (Driessen and Valkenberg 2000). Students at Dutch Islamic schools have a positive value added in their final test scores when adjusted for their parental background (Merry and Driessen 2016; Dronkers 2016).

Generally, Islamic schools lack sufficient funding and operational infrastructure, yet parents choose them and find satisfaction through reproduction of cultural and religious values in their children. Female immigrant parents see employment at Islamic schools as an opportunity to acquire institutional experience (Cristillo 2009). Hence, more women than men value employment at Islamic schools. This finding is more likely to be true for females who have acquired adequate education levels or alternatively who are students.

While it is expected that Muslim parents who choose Islamic schools would be more involved in their child’s education due to shared religious and cultural values in the school environment, there exists a stark difference between the involvement of American and European parents. Parents who choose Islamic schools for their children in the US are active choosers and seek more involvement in preserving their children’s religious values. Merry (2005) noted that American parents are more demanding and involved than are Dutch parents in Islamic schools. The possible explanations for the lesser involvement of Dutch parents could be due to lower socioeconomic and education levels, more ethnic stratification, more demanding work schedules and working farther away from schools in comparison to American parents. Another possible explanation exists for the lower involvement levels of parents in Dutch Islamic schools, which is passiveness related to culture (Dronkers 2016). Some parents might feel that sending their child to an Islamic school relieves them of any further academic responsibility (Driessen and Bezemer 1999; Shadid and van Koningsveld 1992). As these schools also teach religion and culture, the parents might become more passive in transferring their religious and cultural values to their children. These passive patterns could be correlated with the culture of parents and this area needs further research.

The literature reviewed in this section shows that parental wishes for Islamic schooling are a reflection of parental wishes in the broader literature on school choice (Fox and Buchanan 2017). Parents wish for a better match between their children’s needs and their school’s offerings. They seek funds and information to access quality schooling. They also desire to build a strong moral and civic foundation and reproduce socio-cultural and religious values in their children. The research on school choice reports differences between parents’ “stated” and “revealed” preferences for school selections (Elacqua et al. 2006; Teske and Schneider 2001; Trivitt and Wolf 2011). The research on Islamic schooling has not yet addressed this issue. Hence, there is a possibility to over-interpret the parental wishes for Islamic schooling.

Given the limited research on this vital topic, well-designed surveys with large sample sizes are needed in future studies. Such research could inform if a better match between parental wishes and Islamic schooling options is associated with an increase in educational effectiveness for children. Conversely, increased school quality may form the main component of educational effectiveness for Islamic schooling. The next section summarizes the issues that could inform the design and implementation of studies that seek to measure the quality of Islamic schooling.

3.3. The Quality of Islamic Schooling

Religious schooling requires involvement of theologians or staff trained in religious knowledge. The first challenge to the quality of Islamic schools stems from the fact that Islamic schools in the cultural west tend to be operated by Muslim immigrants (with the exception of Nation of Islam founded schools in the US). Elbih (2012) noted that these immigrants run the schools according to their culture and tradition rather than according to a specific knowledge of Islam acquired by Islamic theologians. Merry and Driessen (2005) stated that, in American Islamic schools, usually one ethnic group dominates. This situation creates a continuous challenge, since Muslims born in the west often reject the culture of their immigrant parents’ nation of origin and align more closely with local culture and the fundamentals of Islam. To address this conflict, there is a need for local nurturing of Muslim theologians and educators in the western nations. Table 5 lists the suggested policies to improve the quality of Islamic schooling based on the reviewed literature. The suggested policies vary among government support, administrative reforms, developments in pedagogy and curriculum, improvements in schools and staffing, and transformations at the communal level. The suggested policies are generally relevant across all contexts, with the caveat that policymakers should consider the local legal and political conditions, families’ socio-economic status and culture and context of the schooling type (public, private or a mixture of each).

The growth of Islamic schools has created a demand for teachers and administrators. Memon (2011) carried out surveys of teachers in Islamic schools. He noted the absence of an accredited teacher education program in the US and Canada to train Islamic school teachers in Islamic pedagogy. Using surveys, Fahmy (2013) found that female principals in US Islamic schools often lack family support. Molook (1990, pp. 106–7) described curriculum, location and finances as the three major challenges for Islamic schools in the US. Badawi (2006) described the challenges as lack of facilities, resources, programs and services in Islamic schools in the US. The scarcity of finances not only affects science labs and libraries, but also the school’s ability to hire and retain quality teachers. Al-Lawati and Hunsaker (2007) found that Islamic schools in the US lack facilities and programs for gifted students. More importantly, Merry (2007) opined that many Islamic schools fail in the very task for which they are formed: to provide an effective Islamic education. Islamic schools may also fail in involving parents in the core educational activities of their children, if the parents become more centric on the communal religious activities (Raihini and Gurr 2010). In the Netherlands, absence of curriculum and method and a disconnect between religious knowledge and practices that Dutch Muslim children receive at home and schools affects the pedagogical quality negatively (Shadid and van Koningsveld 2006).

State funding of Islamic schools may bring access to quality schooling for socioeconomically disadvantaged and religious parents, but it may also bring curricula issues, with focus of schooling moving towards core academic subjects rather than religion. Alternatively, the excessive cultural influence of parents may make Islamic schools less autonomous, since the majority of parents will tend to enforce their cultural practices over the minority. Merry (2007) thus argued for state funding of Islamic schools and state regulation as a way to hinder excessive cultural influence of majority parents. When the state determines the provision of religious instruction in schools, it is faced with addressing the demand for religious instruction, issues of curriculum and workforce training. The provision of religious instruction within private as well as public schools gets complicated, with foreign culture, books and languages used in the absence of locally developed options.

Dutch Islamic schools also suffer from poor networking between the Islamic school board members and the Dutch political and administrative authorities (Dronkers 2016; Shadid and van Koningsveld 2006), which led to the closing of the only two Islamic secondary schools in the Netherlands. In 2008, some Dutch Islamic schools formed an organization called SIMON to better align the Islamic ethos with Dutch secular values (Ter Avest and Rietveld-van Wingerden 2017). Bleher (1996) noted that the politics of education in Islamic schools limits the schools’ abilities to deliver effective Islamic and secular education. Most Islamic school board members in the US are volunteers who are often disconnected from teaching (Abd-El-Hafez 2015). Often the parents of Islamic schoolchildren give preference to the preservation of cultural customs over fundamental religious values. In such situations, an Islamic school operates merely as a Muslim school where the majority’s culture is imposed.

The lack of an education policy framework can be detrimental to Islamic schools, especially if they depend on state funds. Urban politics related to Islamophobia and racialization has affected the government-funded Islamic schools in Australia in the absence of a clear education policy framework (Gulson and Webb 2012, 2013). Internal problems in the Islamic schools often derail efforts to provide quality Islamic instruction to Muslim students in western nations.

Other issues have to do with curriculum. Clyne (1998) found that Australian government schools’ failure to inculcate Muslim values alienated young Muslims. As government schools tend to cater to general needs, students whose families value religion might be better educated in religious schools. (Clyne 1998, p. 287) thus said, “it is impossible to create Islamic ethos with an Islamically based curriculum in a government school.” The curriculum in the US Islamic schools is composed of secular subjects, and schools often devote separate time to religious instruction within school hours. The rise of standardized tests complicates the issues further, as teachers in Islamic schools are becoming more dependent on state-approved textbooks (Cristillo 2009; Merry 2007). Keyworth (2006) noted that most Islamic schools in the US offer only K-8 grades. This condition poses a challenge for the Muslim students in transitioning to a public high school culture prior to attending a college or university.

Adoption of local curriculum and textbooks by the Islamic schools pushes them to adapt to the existing system instead of creating their own based on the needs of Muslim students. (Keyworth 2006, p. 20) noted that the “problem with current Islamic texts is that only a few of them are based on modern educational pedagogy.” Few textbooks articulate the needs of Muslim students. In Croatia, the lack of textbooks impairs Islamic religious instruction in second and third grades (Bobinac and Jerolimov 2006). The textbooks for Islamic religious instruction are available for the primary and secondary school levels. The Ministry of Education has to approve the textbooks.

Islamic schools also face issues of leadership. The amount of a principal’s professional training and experience in an Islamic school is directly proportional to the degree to which Islamic schools integrate parental concerns related to curriculum (Keyworth 2006). Poor leadership results in a lack of informed decision making and hiring, training and sustaining qualified Muslim teachers. Teachers often lack the training required to integrate Islamic values in academic instruction, and professional development is seldom available (Zine 2006). However, Berglund (2011) found that teachers in Muslim schools in Sweden do well at connecting the Muslim students’ social and academic needs. Even though each teacher addresses social and religious issues uniquely, he or she generally aligns these issues with the national curriculum and school syllabi. Swedish Muslim schools also face the issue of writing local syllabi for Islamic religious instruction. Driessen and Valkenberg (2000) found that teachers at Dutch Islamic schools have less experience, perhaps because of the newness of Dutch Islamic schools. Few pupils are referred to special education in Dutch Islamic schools.

The use of foreign languages inside Dutch Islamic schools is a disadvantage for students, as approximately 70 percent of teachers are non-Muslims who are not well acquainted with the foreign language and culture of origin of immigrant Muslim families (Driessen and Valkenberg 2000). This fact adds to tensions in using non-Muslim teachers at Islamic schools and teacher qualifications in Islamic and non-Islamic schools are similar (Dronkers 2016). Dutch Islamic schools also face the challenge of retaining principals and teachers (Merry and Driessen 2016). A demand for bicultural, bilingual classroom assistants and teachers exists in British Islamic schools (Hewer 2001). Dependence on elective courses in lieu of fully structured Islamic religious instruction courses may be helpful to teachers in the short run. Berglund (2015, p. 11) said, “Restricting teaching about religions to elective courses, however, severely limits the number of teachers with academic training on Islam, which can significantly impact the understanding of social and political events, minority-majority relations, and art and culture in today’s globalized society.” Hence, researchers should evaluate what kind of teacher preparation is best for Islamic schooling. Teacher retention is a first order issue facing US Islamic schools (Abd-El-Hafez 2015), thus shifting the focus of these schools away from academic quality (Merry 2007).

Faced with increased state involvement and bad reputation, since 2008 the Islamic primary schools in the Netherlands have prioritized their attention to improving school quality instead of expanding their numbers (Merry and Driessen 2016). The good news for these schools is evidence of no involvement in extremism and two Islamic primary schools’ being conferred the title of ‘Excellent School’ by the Ministry of Education. Merry and Driessen (2016, p. 857) note, “only 32 out of the 6800 primary schools in the Netherlands enjoy this distinction.”

Cristillo (2009) pointed out that only one in five mosques in the US founded a full-time Islamic school. Islamic schooling as also affected by how active and influential the local mosque is. Parents often send their children for weekend religious instruction at mosques in the absence of full-time Islamic schools. Not all mosques have full-time Imams10 and two factors could act as a proxy for the quality of Islamic schooling: (1) the existence of a full-time Imam at the mosque and (2) the proximity of the local mosque to an academic institution of higher learning.

Studies in England have cited low achievement and high dropout rates of students from the Islamic faith in the public school system (Abbas 2004; Anwar and Bakhsh 2002; Haque and Bell 2001). However, the Dutch Islamic schools have a positive value added for student achievement (Dronkers 2016). A comparison of math performance of grade three students in public and Islamic schools in the Canadian province of Ontario showed equal or slightly better achievement for students in Islamic schools (Mohamed 2005).

The quality of Islamic schools in the US could be higher than in other western nations; Muslims in North America are socioeconomically well off, less ethnically clustered, better educated, and come from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds in comparison to their counterparts outside North America. The housing patterns of Muslims in western nations outside the US are more likely to be clustered around language and/or national origin than religion. McAndrew (2010) noted that Canadian Muslims in Quebec share neighborhoods with fellow country members of other religions. Racially and linguistically clustered housing patterns are likely to affect the Islamic schools negatively as parental culture takes preference over religion while children born and raised in a foreign country identify themselves more with the fundamentals of religion and the culture of the locality. Yet, Canadian Muslim students in Quebec public schools show overall positive educational outcomes which reflect selective immigration policies (McAndrew 2010). Hussain and Read (2015) note that British Islamic schools provide fewer opportunities for children to interact with other cultures in comparison to the US. The educational attainment of the Muslim mother may affect the child’s schooling positively, especially if the mother is educationally active versus passive. Further research is needed to establish the differences in Muslim parental involvement across the western countries.

Government regulations and urban politics affect the formation of new Islamic schools. Even though Van Kessel (2004) estimated demand for 120 more Islamic schools in the Netherlands, the results have not materialized. Nevertheless, this situation has allowed the Islamic schools to improve their quality rather than focus just on quantity. Dutch Islamic school boards have one or two schools under their authority that allows them to focus on maximizing the non-cognitive skills of students through resilient leadership, mission orientation and increased cooperation among teachers (Merry and Driessen 2016). The quality of academic instruction across Islamic schools is heterogeneous. (Shah 2012, p. 51) notes that British Muslim schools have “variations of size, resources, pedagogy, student demographics, staff expertise, status and many others.” Such patterns of heterogeneity are likely to be found across Islamic schools in other western nations.

The literature reviewed in this section shows that various factors at the administrative and communal levels affect the quality of Islamic schooling. Table 5 suggests that the quality of Islamic schooling can be improved with combinations of adequate government support, administrative reforms, developments in pedagogy and curriculum, improvements in policies for schools and staff, and communal transformations. A clear education policy framework may be helpful for the stakeholders in Islamic schooling. Provision of quality local options for funding, curriculum design, training and professional development of teachers and school leaders is likely to positively influence the quality of Islamic schooling. Not all Muslims seek Islamic schooling. State support, oversight and transparency related to Islamic schooling could help the integration of Muslims into society, without compromising educational effectiveness. An informed analysis on quality of Islamic schooling needs to incorporate information on the themes and variables summarized in this section.

4. Discussion

School choice is a journey that requires parental commitment and access to high-quality schools for delivering benefits to students (Wolf 2018). The rise of Islamic schooling may be similar to the rise of Catholic schooling in the US in the late eighteenth century, accompanied by skepticism. An exception is the Nation of Islam founded Islamic schools in the US. The movement represented the right of equality for African-Americans. The nature and degree of involvement of Islam, local mosques and Islamic theologians is a contentious issue among policymakers. Urban politics, Islamophobia and possible segregation of Muslims further fuel the debate of civic values and integration in Islamic schooling. This tension is unlikely to settle down soon. The descriptive research in this paper should allow researchers to engage in complex questions.

The review has some limitations. The research on religious education and school choice and in this case the research on Islamic schooling is politically susceptible. Without an adequate number of studies on the same issue, it is difficult to ascertain whether the findings generally hold. External validity is an issue of concern for social scientific research. In this case, the threat is to internal validity as the studies lack rigor and do not provide sufficient variation in their narratives. Although five experts validated the findings in the review, the findings are susceptible to over interpretation.

Directions for Future Research

The need to further research Islamic schools reflects the increase in Islamic schools in the Western Hemisphere, both from increased Muslim migration and increased Muslim concerns regarding their needs (Meer 2010). Some Muslims living in western countries become more religious because they seek to preserve a religious identity. Consequently, such Muslims demand Islamic schooling for their children. Table 6 lists guidelines for future research concerning Islamic schooling based on the reviewed literature. This review has not analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of these schools as well as the debates around Islamic schooling. Neither has the review covered the rise of Islamic schools in the west from a sociological perspective. Although Islamic schools were identified as formal and informal, the review has not analyzed the latter. Future research should differentiate between the cultural and religious needs of Muslims. It should also differentiate between their global11 and local needs. Researchers should also highlight whether Islamic schools meet their academic objectives by satisfying parents, and by meeting social and economic goals. Both qualitative and quantitative research is needed for better causal analysis.

Much less is known about Muslim children’s attitudes towards Muslims and non-Muslims. Elashi et al. (2010) studied in-group and out-group attitudes of Muslim children in a US Islamic school but larger number of studies across heterogeneous Muslim populations are needed for informed policymaking. Another area requiring further research relates to school counseling and mental health services. Dawson (2017) notes a general mistrust of counseling among Muslim students attending US public schools because the students fear that counseling may lead them away from their religious beliefs. Comparing teachers’ evaluations of 191 first-grade immigrant students attending US Islamic and public schools, when teachers perceive value differences with parents, public school teachers are found to hold lower academic expectations concerning students’ academic competence than do Islamic school teachers, (Sirin et al. 2009). To address the often-prejudiced perspectives of non-Muslim teachers who work with Muslim students, inclusion of teachers’ perspectives in the education of Muslim students may be helpful in formulating better practices for Islamic religious instruction (Niyozov and Pluim 2009). The larger percentage of Muslim students in British schools has been found to affect the performance of Muslim peers positively, even in low-resourced settings (Hewer 2001; Meer 2007). Versteegt and Maussen (2011) found it misleading to categorize Islamic schools as orthodox religious schools in the Netherlands because they do not have separate textbooks on general subjects, and they also have a large proportion of non-Muslim teachers. This finding is likely to be true in other western nations.

Further areas of research include comparing the cognitive and non-cognitive skills of Muslim children who receive instruction in Islamic schooling versus those who do not. Comparison of Islamic schools with secular public schools based on measurable outcomes is also an area for further exploration. Researchers should also try to explore the possible mediators of Islamic schooling and see how religiosity, environment and peer composition affects the individual outcome. The content of Islamic religious instruction differs in various modes of Islamic schooling. How these differences relate to the student outcomes is an area of further inquiry. An experimental evaluation of a school voucher program in India found a positive impact on the academic achievement of minority Muslim students (Muralidharan and Sundararaman 2015). In contrast, no positive impact on academic achievement was observed for Muslim immigrant students in Catholic schools in Flanders, Belgium (Agirdag et al. 2017). It is not clear how household-level and school-level inputs become reoptimized over time for immigrant or minority Muslim students studying in majority non-Muslim or Islamic schools. Whether minority Muslim students may benefit from school choice interventions in particular or private schooling, in general, is an understudied question. Lastly, quantitative and survey research should look into better evaluation and policy recommendations of civic values related to Islamic schooling.

5. Conclusions

This review reveals a variation in education policy issues by region as well as cultural issues within the Muslim communities. There is significant heterogeneity in Islamic practices of Muslims as well as Islamic schooling both within and across western nations. The review of Islamic schools in the cultural west will help educational and school choice policy by taking into account the variation in issues related to Islamic schooling. Future studies should explore the literature in languages other than English and link Islamic schooling to education outcomes for making policy recommendations based on causal analysis. Due to increases in the Muslim population, the western nations need to provide local options for Islamic teacher education, training, and professional development either within existing schools or in new schools of choice. Local options will help to provide transparency and accountability towards the state. Training and professional development of principals and administrators in Islamic schools is also worth consideration as studies have shown that effective school leadership plays a key role in student learning (Branch et al. 2013).

Further, Islamic textbooks and curriculum need to be written in the language of the country and by professional educators trained within the country’s educational system. This requirement is not to limit the scope of knowledge but to provide stakes to the state as well as to the Muslims living within the state. Quality Islamic schooling cannot take place without the availability of Islamic courses at the university level. The Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA)12 rightly encourages imams of US mosques to continue their educations in universities and to acquire higher educational attainment in the form of doctoral and professional degrees. Clear and focused goals may help school leaders become better managers and parents, and, in turn, better choosers of schools for their children.

Another policy recommendation is to disassociate schools that maximize cultural values from schools that maximize religious values due to heterogeneity in parental preferences. Such a model of classification seems to exist in Sweden. More parental involvement could also be achieved by bringing mosques and schools closer together and educating Muslim mothers, especially given the fact that immigrant mothers face difficulties in adjusting to an alien culture. (Osler and Hussain 1995, p. 16) said, “Schools with Muslim pupils should seek to include Muslims, and particularly Muslim women, on their governing bodies.” O’Neill (2010) found that Muslim mothers played a positive and leading role in establishing two Islamic schools in the US.

It is a commonly held misconception that mosques run Islamic schools. The reality is that the majority of Islamic schools in the US are independently governed (O’Neill 2010, p. 68). Education and socialization can go hand-in-hand with parental involvement in both a mosque and a school. The mere existence of Islamic schooling should not be seen as a sign of parental satisfaction. The involvement of the Muslim community and local and urban politics must be taken into account. (Kuburić and Moe 2006, p. 162) said “Muslims, for instance, supported the introduction of confessional religious education in Serbia; initially opposed it in Croatia, until they got a special agreement with the state; and express indifference in Slovenia, where they lack the human resources to provide teachers.”

There has been an increase in Islamophobia and political prejudice against Muslims living in the west, especially in the current decade. However, in some cases, religious organizations such as Protestant school associations or Christian legal advocacy groups have supported Muslims, whereas, in others, proponents of multiculturalism and social inclusion have made efforts to integrate the Muslims (Glenn et al. 2018). The debates surrounding Islamic schooling can be better addressed using systematic research, such as the current review.