On Becoming Muslim American

There’s no room for any “superiority” complex in Islam

BY BASIMAH ABDULLAH

The ever enthusiastic Basimah Abdullah took lessons in sailing (Photo © Basimah Abdullah)

Every person has an interesting life, and I’m no different. For more than 20 years I’ve been the principal at Milwaukee’s Clara Mohammed School (CMS).

My study and life have been under Imam W.D. Mohammed’s leadership. I confess that my scriptural logic and perspective stem from that leadership.

As an educator, I am often asked how I became Muslim, even, “You seem like an intelligent woman.” I explain it was my intelligence that brought me here. But actually, it was my mother.

My single teenage mother never forgave herself for being unable to marry my father. Back in the fifties, you needed parental consent to marry. Their parents wouldn’t allow it, and thus my father joined the Navy, for once he was in it they wouldn’t need permission. But my mother’s shame grew with her expanding waist and, after a fashion, she went to live with her dad and his family in Los Angeles. I remember going to night school with her so she could graduate from high school.

Throughout my childhood, my mother attended church and many of the prominent “tent revivals.” I was baptized several times. She was seeking forgiveness and a way of life to bring her peace — Apostolic, Baptist, Presbyterian and even Fahame, a mixture of Moorish Science Temple, Christianity and Islam. And as warped as it may have been, it was our first introduction to the wonderful world of Al Islam.

During my freshman year at college, she started putting “With the Name, Allah” on her letters. I thought, “Here we go again.” I was mostly prepared when I returned home sporting my Angela Davis afro, shorts and a tank top. By the time I woke up the next morning, however, she had replaced all of my clothes with ugly “Goodwill” dresses, for “We’re Muslims now. That means we don’t drink, smoke or eat pork.” She had met a person in the old Nation of Islam and was she excited! I was just a wee bit skeptical. This was the summer of 1975, when the Nation’s leadership was passed on to Imam W.D. Mohammed. The first time I heard him speak about the Bible, I was hooked. Loving scripture was ingrained in me from childhood. But I grew up with Aesop’s fables, and so I was always listening to and seeking a story’s underlying meaning. The imam’s understanding of the Quran and our beloved Prophet’s (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) teachings — I was totally gone. My mother finally found peace. Some may have a difficult time living as a Muslim, but it’s been my salvation. I often joke when asked if I feel others are prejudiced against me because of my religion. I state that I’m also African American and female, so that they can just pick one. Islam teaches us a logic. Once you understand it, no one can make you feel inferior.

The CMS, housed on the site of Masjid Sultan Muhammad, Milwaukee’s first mosque, was named after Elijah Muhammad’s wife Sister Clara Mohammed. Her initial homeschooling effort with her own children eventually developed into a school program and later on into an educational institution. Our branch in Milwaukee serves families of all faiths from the Harambee neighborhood – which since the 1930s, has been a hub for African American culture and heritage — and surrounding areas.

Living and working in Milwaukee, I have faced only one incident of ignorance regarding my faith. I had been working with several independent school administrators for about five years before Salaam School (this school is predominantly immigrant Muslims) began to participate. The other Muslim administrator and I were at a meeting, and another principal said that she had been wanting to ask a question about Islam for a while. The Muslim sister looked at her, then me and asked what the question was. It was such a simple question.

Somewhat confused, the sister asked her why she had never asked me. The woman blushed and began

stuttering. So, I answered for her that most Caucasian Americans don’t consider African American Muslims to be “real Muslims.” We all laughed, but the embarrassed questioner admitted that is what she had thought. She wasn’t trying to be insulting; she was just operating under a stereotype. Other than that, when I am invited to be on a panel or a board it’s because they feel comfortable with me. Besides, I fill two diversity quotas simultaneously!

One reason I fell in love with Islam is that there’s no separation between religious and work life. If what you do in life isn’t aligned with your faith, then you’re either living a lie or don’t really believe. I had wanted to teach ever since I saw the [1962] movie the “Miracle Worker” with Patty Duke, to work in a setting that recognizes that all knowledge is from the Creator. Teaching and reminding students that they are indebted to God, their parents and the community is crucial, for the surrounding culture teaches our children that the world revolves around them.

However, my problem is with educating instructors, for they need to be properly prepared. The greatest influence the refugee students have had is to give my American students the permission to not know everything. All teachers have a “we don’t laugh at each other” policy. The new immigrants, believing that education is a treasure, keep asking until they understand. They struggle with their reading and, regardless of how long it takes them, are always eager to try. Those African American children, who normally would hide their poor reading skills by acting up, now struggle together because they don’t fear being teased. Unable to understand the Creator, we don’t understand ourselves. Not knowing enough about what we are, we don’t know what shapes us. In short, we’re ignorant yet think we know, follow foolishness and think it’s cool, think it’s okay to insult our human dignified names unless someone outside the race does it, and believe we’re free when what we have is a form of culturally produced enslavement of the mind. Everything is connected under the Creator; however, our poor perception of Him makes everything else “off.” How you perceive the Creator defines how you perceive yourself, your family and neighbors. Our relationships are unhealthy because our thinking is unhealthy. We involve students in community efforts and, as a learning community, are big on being good citizens. Thus we discuss local, national and world political and human situations. We have worked with the Wisconsin Chess program, ONE REASON I FELL IN LOVE WITH AL ISLAM Ocean Bowl, and the Mock United Nations programs IS THAT THERE’S NO SEPARATION BETWEEN out of UW-Milwaukee. However, we recently changed

RELIGIOUS AND WORK LIFE. IF WHAT YOU administrations and are establishing other connections. More than two years ago, we started working

DO IN LIFE ISN’T ALIGNED WITH YOUR with organizations that screen students for vision and FAITH, THEN YOU’RE EITHER LIVING A LIE OR dental problems. Regrettably, we don’t see the expected camaraderie DON’T REALLY BELIEVE. from the city’s Muslim Arab community. Their children play and run around during ritual programs; ours are not allowed. At the end of their programs, Arab speakers socialize loudly so that we can’t hear the translation.

Most Milwaukeeans don’t know how the CMS’s Given such rudeness, we no longer participate as a community. And so, unforstaff perceives Islam. We are more than aware that tunately, we don’t grow closer. But as long as there are people who behave as they traditions and rituals are a large part of its practice. do, this won’t change. Most are content to assume that only those who came On a deeper level, we “feel” that they “think” they know Islam and the only before us can understand God’s Word. We try to have way we can come together is if we acknowledge their “superiority.” Coming into a Arabic and Islamic studies, but many outsiders feel religion that is the opposite of the one that sanctioned our ancestors’ enslavement, that only “true Muslims” can teach Islam. we will not accept another master.

We infuse Islamic reasoning throughout our cur- We must come together as equals under this way of life. This is not to say they riculum instead of confining it to religious studies. don’t have something we could benefit from, but we’ll reject it if they come to us Those of us who converted as adults are well grounded as the “white man” did. Been there, done that! in the Bible and can see both its beauty and how My hope for the city’s future, regarding people of color and the Muslim comthe Quran is a natural progression from the previ- munity, is that we raise the next generation to model true Islam: “Let there rise ous scriptures. Many in the Muslim world behave as out from among a band of those enjoining what is right and forbidding what is though God doesn’t recognize other faiths. This will wrong” (3:104). be their downfall. While this is the best country in which to practice Islam because of our great

Our understanding of Islam enables us to help Constitution, Milwaukee is the worst city in which to practice it because of the our Christian staff become better Christians and dominant culture’s race to savagery. This influence is so great that I know believers show our children how different people can work of all faiths who often ask, “When comes the help of God and His victory?” That together and get along. Being small and poor, we is not the question, though. The question is when are we going to look in the struggle to find the resources we need. At least 70% mirror and realize that we are the heroes we’ve been waiting for... ih of our students are refugees. We defused an early problem with the Somali and Somali (Bantu) students Basimah Abdullah is principal at Clara Mohammed School, Milwaukee, Wisc. by modeling proper Islamic behavior toward each [Editor’s note: This article is based on the author’s interview with the Wisconsin Muslim Journal other and others. of July 6, 2018, entitled “Basimah Abdullah: On Faith, Race, and Education in Harambee.”]

Leaders Paving the Way for the Post-Covid-19 New Normal

Are schools planning and ready for some semblance of the pre-pandemic situation?

BY AZRA NAQVI

As it holds the world hostage in its traumatizing grip, Covid-19 has delivered all kinds of challenges to our doorstep.

The number of lives lost and impacted is remarkable on its own; the situation, however, has been exacerbated due to the multifaceted nature of its results. Industries, institutions, establishments and even traditions have been impacted and, in some ways, changed forever. According to the World Health Organization (https://www.who. int/), as of January 2021, 82 million people have been infected and over 1.8 million of them have died.

The education system, globally and nationally, has failed to escape its clutches. According to Lee, Covid-19 has negatively impacted over 91% of school and college students nationwide (“Mental health effects of school closures during COVID-19,” thelancet.com/child-adolescent, April 17, 2020). Looking closely at the research report released by The Islamic School League of America by Brifkani and Khan (“The impact of Covid-19 on enrollment in full-time Islamic schools for the 2020-21 academic year,” ISLA Research Report, p. 28, IH Jan./Feb. 2021), 79% of North America’s Islamic schools lost students, primarily in the younger grades. Thus, we must collaborate and educate ourselves to make informed decisions about our students’ well-being.

Now that the vaccine is available, hope arises that things might finally normalize to an extent. As we reflect on our past and contemplate the new normal to navigate change, an adaptive leader must assess the school’s landscape and help people experiment with new things. Such a period is known as adaptive change — a problem isn’t always apparent, and the solution is unknown. Adaptive change, as opposed to technical change, requires a shift in an organization’s belief system, habits or priorities (see R. A. Heifetz, A. Grashow, & M. Linsky, “The practice of adaptive leadership,” Boston: Harvard Business Press, Boston, 2009).

The pandemic has left us with many uncertainties, for there were no experienced teachers to guide novice teachers in setting up the new online and hybrid learning system. We were all in uncharted territory. When faced with such an unprecedented situation, an effective leader finds a way to preserve and take the best from the traditions, identities and history to the future; analyze the actions needed to revive what we have lost; and critically examine our former practices.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING Teachers must look hard at their students’ emotional situation before expecting them to learn in this stressful environment. First, children cannot learn if they are under stress, especially toxic stress — prolonged exposure to stress that they cannot handle without any support or coping mechanisms. Second, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/), 2 in 3 American children experience traumatic events by age 16 — Covid-19 has exacerbated those numbers. Teachers may not fully comprehend the children’s home situation — they may have a sick family member or one who has died, or maybe their parents are facing financial hardship and cannot fully attend to their children’s needs.

The pandemic has taught us to be extremely sensitive to and prioritize the child’s social and emotional needs. A large body of evidence suggests that positive, reciprocal and responsive human relationships have a profound impact, especially during the child’s early years (Paul Tough, “Helping Children Succeed,” New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016).

Educators must acknowledge that children are born with the potential to become successful if their developmental needs are met. One component of this is developing the foundational skills, behaviors and attitudes that are essential for a successful life. Not all of the children entering school have these foundational skills. Therefore, school leaders must find a way to ensure that students’ cognitive and noncognitive skills develop as they pass through their grades. learning model of instruction that allows students to develop at their own pace. This can be accomplished by applying a formative assessment approach to teaching. This approach should be used frequently to identify gaps in knowledge and provide rapid feedback to clarify misconceptions in learning. NWEA MAP (https://sso.mapnwea.org) testing can be used as an interim assessment to make benchmarks and recognize student progress during the year.

TEACHERS MUST LOOK HARD AT THEIR STUDENTS’ EMOTIONAL SITUATION BEFORE EXPECTING THEM TO LEARN IN THIS STRESSFUL ENVIRONMENT.

One research-based strategy is to provide a consistent, nurturing and supportive environment that fosters their noncognitive skills by better preparing teachers to conduct a robust, systematic one-on-one mentoring program with their students. A program that welcomes, accepts and values each student will enable both parties to build a relationship of trust and support. A teacher’s consistent interaction with his/ her students will help increase the students’ desire to persevere and develop motivation and grit, a skill that is a known predictor of long-term success A. Duckworth, "Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance," San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2018).

LESS STANDARDIZED TESTING AND MORE PERSONALIZED LEARNING Last spring, state and local governments decided to cancel testing due to schools closing nationwide. Thus, teachers could focus on the child’s needs and teach for mastery. Many private schools, which administer standardized tests from private vendors, also suspended them. In short, all students had to get better at self-directed learning, a skill that no standardized test can assess or measure. Madeline Will states that “students are getting more opportunities to work independently and at their own pace — and in the process, they are becoming better problem-solvers” (www. edweek.org/technology/6-lessons-learnedabout-better-teaching-during-the-pandemic/2020/11).

Once the pandemic ends, the first priority is to play catch-up by using a personalized

Even with all forms of formative evaluation in place, academically, we are going to see significant gaps. But before we can address those, we have to get our heads around where the pandemic has left us and then prepare the healing process with more compassion, humility and sensitivity to our student’ social and emotional situations.

TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM While the pandemic may leave behind damaging ramifications on schooling, it has had a few positive outcomes, such as an opportunity to rethink how to use digital technologies to support teaching and learning in schools and what “digital education” might look like in the future. Teachers and educators have found creative ways to deliver instructions online with relatively simple technologies. New tech tools have made differentiated instruction more manageable in the classroom than it was just a few years ago. Many educators have now fully explored the technology resources available online and are confident enough to try them out and benefit from using technology to guide instructions.

Technology has not replaced the traditional pencil-and-paper approach, but it has given teachers a new resource: their ability to use its tools to formatively assess students, pinpoint learning targets and create instructional groups to deliver partial group presentations and seminar-type instructions. Technology can give students more voice and choice for demonstrating their knowledge creatively — making video recordings of their responses on Flipgrid; creating an online petition on a global platform for change to stand against injustice; or writing blogs about current issues using Wix, Bloggers and other online platforms.

COLLABORATION ACROSS THE GLOBE Collaboration among educators and school leaders worldwide has never been so vital. All school leaders are facing high demands to run schools in the absence of any set direction for them to follow. The perfect analogy, one that resonates with me, is comparing a school leader’s job to rebuilding an airplane “while you are flying it” (T. Wagner et al., “Change Leadership,” San Francisco: JosseyBass, 2006, p.xv).

School leaders are being asked to initiate high-quality instructions by implementing initiatives and system changes, and rebuilding our schools while they are filled with students. Therefore, they are considered visionary change agents and adaptive leaders who can drive the organizational and institutional changes necessary to improve student outcomes. Such experiences give them unique insights that can be shared with other leaders worldwide.

The key lesson we have learned is to connect school leaders around the world via peer groups to share best practices rapidly — a proactiveness that should remain long after the crisis is over. Specifically, many Islamic schools have joined organizations such as the Council of Islamic Schools in North America (CISNA; https://www.cisnausa.org) and the Islamic Schools League of America (ISLA; https://theisla.org) to utilize their services. These organizations provide a platform for meaningful collaboration among educators, online webinars and professional development opportunities, and other services to ensure institutional effectiveness leading to student success.

I have attended more online webinars and leaders’ discussion-groups in the past few months than I ever did in the past. In fact, I have seen and learned from inspiring school leaders acting to ensure their children’s safety and well-being and minimizing disruption in education due to online learning.

Covid-19 pushed us all out of our comfort zone and forced us to make decisions that can positively impact the coming generations. Our children’s future is forever changed, and thus we need to lay down the new foundation. ih