The internet is once again abuzz with yet another story involving Islam. This time not in a good light. Then again what's new. According to Buzzfeed news, an entire section on Islam has been removed from the proposed draft of a new social studies curriculum in the state. (See article 'Tennessee Removed An Entire Curriculum On Islamic History After “Public Input”' here.)

Honestly, when I read this article, my first thoughts were "Wow, I don't even remember learning so much about my own faith, let alone other faiths, in primary/secondary school... and American kids have been learning this all this while?" Singapore education aside, it's a shame that people are singling out Islam and actually voting for its history to be removed from the school curriculum. I'm no historian but anybody knows that when you remove one aspect of history, you're simultaneously rendering everything else irrelevant. How do you expect kids to understand historically significant events like The Crusades when they don't even have the chance to learn about Islamic empires?

...I'm no historian but anybody knows that when you remove one aspect of history, you're simultaneously rendering everything else irrelevant...

How do you also expect future generations to have an informed perspective of the world when they don't even have the opportunity to learn about it? When you remove Islam from the textbooks, you're giving uneducated people the chance to make things up about it. That's just doing a disservice to education and encouraging ignorance.

Furthermore, it also seems like Islam's contributions to the world are being discredited. The scholars of my religion introduced mathematics, astronomy, poetry, and the list goes on... It just feels to me like somebody's taking a big eraser and slowly rubbing everything away.

These kids are not expected to agree with the faith, just have a basic understanding of it in the global context. That's all.

Atikah Z is an Editorial Intern at GAYA Magazine.

#islam #muslim #hijab