Senator Barack Obama and I have at least this in common: we both started our educations in Christian and Muslim schools, and completed them at Harvard. As a child, White House-aspirant Obama lived in Indonesia and attended Muslim and Catholic schools. He eventually graduated from Harvard Law School.

As a second grader, growing up in Apartheid-era South Africa, I broke the color barrier at one of the country's most prestigious elementary schools, a historically whites-only and Anglican-affiliated institution. After my mornings at a private white Christian school, I attended an afternoon Madrassah (a Muslim religious school).

These days, everyone from American Secretaries of Defense to Fox News anchors seems to have an opinion (usually unenthusiastic) about Madrassahs. With all the fuss about Barack Obama and his own background, I thought it would be useful to describe my own childhood Madrassah experience.

Lenasia, South Africa, the racially segregated township for Indians in which I was raised, was dotted with Muslim mosques, Hindu temples, and Christian churches. (It was near Lenasia, adjoining Soweto, that in the early 20th century Mahatma Gandhi established his multiracial, multi-faith experimental commune "Tolstoy Farm.")

My family lived directly across the street from the largest mosque in Lenasia, called Nurul-Islam ("The Light of Islam"). At the five prayer times, we could hear at least a dozen staggered calls to prayer coming from the amplified speakers of nearby mosques. Though we lived as a religious minority in a racially oppressive state governed by fundamentalist Christian nationalists, we were free to practice our faiths�within our Apartheid ghetto.

In my neighborhood, Muslims and Hindus rented the same public school building, appropriately called Trinity Secondary School, for their childrens' religious education. The Hindu kids would learn Sanskrit and texts like the Bhagavad-Gita, while we Muslim kids studied Arabic, Qur'aan, Prophetic history, and the basics of ethics, belief and practice. Sometimes, our recess would overlap, and we'd play hopscotch or tag together and buy junk food from Mr. Das's snack stand.

My favorite part of the Madrassah afternoon was storytime. Sometimes, the stories were Islamic accounts of Biblical tales I may have heard in the morning divinity class at my white private school. The stories were basically the same every church-going Christian or temple-going Jewish kid learns by heart: of Adam and Eve, of Noah and the Flood, of Abraham and his sons, of Moses and the Exodus, and of David and Goliath.

Our Madrassah teacher would also weave more contemporary tales, often based on Hadith (Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad). I recall the one about two neighbors. One was outwardly very religious, covered her hair, didn't wear nail polish or make-up, and made a public display of her faith. However, she always criticized her neighbor, who was outwardly very worldly and would (gasp!) even go to the movies every Friday. The worldly neighbor was kind to her cat, generous to the sick and the elderly, and never spoke ill of anyone.

"Who would go to Heaven?" my teacher asked. The Prophetic tradition told of two women, one destined for hellfire because she imprisoned her cat and refused to feed it, and the other a prostitute who attained Paradise because she once filled her shoe with water to slake the thirst of a stray dog.

The bleak public image of Madrassahs in the eyes of many opinion-makers in the United States bears little resemblance to my own childhood experience. My Madrassah education was a time of joy, discovery, and learning. As a Madrassah student, I not only learned Islamic rituals but also gained exposure to Islamic virtues like justice, liberality, modesty, and contentment. These are universal virtues we could all, Muslim or not, do well to acquire. Our world would be such a kinder, better place.

I not only learned Islamic rituals but also gained exposure to Islamic virtues like justice, liberality, modesty, and contentment.

These are good qualities, indeed, but they are not enough. The prostitute possessed a virtue you omit in your listing that your teacher was trying to impress on you: the quality of compassion for others, which extremists of all religions refrain from practicing.

Your childhood madrassah, assuming the values of the teacher you quote are transmitted successfully to his students, is of course little security concern to "many opinon-makers in the United States". Rather, it is schools which produce students like these that are of concern:

I then asked: Who wants to see Osama bin Laden armed with nuclear weapons? Every hand in the room shot up. The students laughed, and some applauded...

What would you do if you learned that the C.I.A. had captured bin Laden and was taking him to America to stand trial?

A student who gave his name as Muhammad stood up: "We would sacrifice our lives for Osama. We would kill Americans."

What kind of Americans?

"All Americans."

Did your madrassah teach you what to do when confronted by students like these? Would you report on them to the secular authorities? Would you keep silent? Would you support them in their madness, willingly or out of compulsion?

The fact is that currently followers of Christianity and Judaism keep such genocidal maniacs in check. That's what the war in Kosovo was about. That's why the Israelis wouldn't let mass-murderer Baruch Goldstein be easily buried and essentially excommunicated him posthumously.

Jews and Christians have learned, with great horror, the importance of doing so. Must the current - or next - generation of Muslims learn the same way?
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The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. is working on an exhibit specifically about the Muslim rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. One of these survivors is an acquaintance of mine who contributed to the exhibit, to make sure their story isn't lost. You may wish to contact the museum yourself for more information.

Response to Solomon2:

Did the schools you attended as a child teach about the importance of not occupying others' lands and not oppressing them? Were you taught to avoid imposing apartheid on your fellow human beings, about not detaining people indefinitely without trial, or shooting children and activists? What about not imposing "democracy" with bombs? Let's look at our own sins before casting stones.

Abu Nurah, I am respecting the wishes of our host and the author by keeping to the subject of the article: Muslims and their madrassahs. Yet I detect a burning desire in you to understand my schooling in comparison, so I will answer you briefly:

Did the schools you attended as a child teach about the importance of not occupying others' lands and not oppressing them? Were you taught to avoid imposing apartheid on your fellow human beings, about not detaining people indefinitely without trial, or shooting children and activists?

Yes, actually they did! They also taught the difference between what something is and what something is called, and the importance of the seeking to know the truth before making moral choices.

In a previous conversation here, one Muslim maintained that "Islam instructs the Muslims to learn, investigate and question everything, and not to take anything on face value. " Have you the courage, Abu Nurah, to seek the truth as well as ask questions? Even if you don't like what the truth may be?

What about not imposing "democracy" with bombs?

We were taught that imposing democracy with bombs could be very effective. Just ask the Japanese, the Germans, the Italians, the French, the Koreans, the Filipinos, the Panamanians, and the Indians. Also that it doesn't always work, at least not the first time.

Let's look at our own sins before casting stones.

What do you think or imagine could have been in our schooling that was a sin?

However, is it not more important to consider the larger matters of my previous comment rather than the comparitively small issues addressed here?

Solomon2 says:

>>We were taught that imposing democracy with bombs could be very effective. Just ask the Japanese, the Germans, the Italians, the French, the Koreans, the Filipinos, the Panamanians, and the Indians (sic). Also that it doesn't always work, at least not the first time.

...is it not more important to consider the larger matters of my previous comment rather than the comparitively small issues addressed here<<

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So the incineration of 200 thousand Japanese and the genocide of Native Americans are "small issues", eh? I bet you were taught in school that only Jewish life is sacred, hence your indifference to the suffering of others. Rather than worry about what is being taught in madrassahs, I think we would all be best served by understanding what breeds the callousness and arrogance apparent in your last post. You didn't attend one of those Zionist summer camps as a kid did you?

Anyway, this is not fruitful dialogue... Go ahead, take one last swing, but I'll do as the Muslims should do when confronted with ignoranceL: I'll say Peace to you and be on my way.

AN, I agree that it is not very fruitful to converse with you. Our host desires to stimulate a conversation about Islam and Muslims yet it seems too many readers get hung up about other religions instead of sticking to the main topic.

I'll do as the Muslims should do when confronted with ignoranceL: I'll say Peace to you and be on my way.

So in Islam it is only important to question things, not to seek answers? However, please do not underrate yourself. At least you are speaking up. I don't see the statistics our host does, but I imagine there are many other Muslim visitors who read what is posted at altmuslim.com and say absolutely nothing.

Is their silence out of ennui, shame, or fear of embarassment? I note, Abu Nurah, that you have not denied the truth of anything I have written. If you did not feel anger at the thought of the issues you mentioned, would you not be one with the silent Muslim majority?

Rather than worry about what is being taught in madrassahs, I think we would all be best served by understanding what breeds the callousness and arrogance apparent in your last post.

You have something there. However, I think the prejudice, denial, and avoidance evident in your comments will blind you to such understanding.

To return to the main topic, I will say that it is the lack of compassion for others that is most evident when I consider the politically and militantly active Muslims of today. I see little evidence of public compassion between Sunni and Shiite, and nothing public at all from Muslims towards Jews or Hindus. The lack of advocating compassion between peoples - denying the private feelings of such between individuals - breeds hatred and warfare today, as we see throughout the middle east.

And what is this missing compassion? It is the forgiveness, generosity, and unconditional empathy for those "others", Muslim and non-Muslim, who have suffered or who it is planned will terrible misfortune, be it at the hands of Muslims or at the hands of other peoples. Hezbollah and Hamas anticipate with relish the effects of putting civilians in the line of fire. Shia and Sunni "leaders" accentuate their differences to clash with one another. Oh, the list goes on and on....

Why do Muslims no longer speak of compassion for others?

CNN sent an investigator to the school in question and found out that it wasn't a madrassa after all.

Salam Abu Nurah,

>>Did the schools you attended as a child teach about the importance of not occupying others' lands and not oppressing them?

Your reply is a red herring and is quite off topic in my opinion. Solomon2 actually has a point about this. Mas'ood's madrasa seemed quite good, but others are not. Sol's question is valid. Can we provide him with a good answer or will be obscure a very real problem for us with pointing fingers at others??

My point is that it is not what Muslims are being taught that is the issue. What is a greater cocern to me is what non-Muslims are being taught. The damage wrought by non-Muslims such as Bush &Co; is far greater in my opition. Whence is that arrogance and lack of concern for others. Zionists are taught that only Jewish blood matters and not the blood of gentiles. I think we need to look at these things. May be off topic here, because after all most your topics center around muslims being the source of the problem, but I think worth examining. Solomon2 shows incredible bias. I will not be lured into responding to questions that only serve to distract from the real source of the problems.

Salam, lately I share your concerns as well. However, in any case, I find in talking to people on these issues that we will never be able to stand on firm ground as long as we have skeletons in our closets; its very debilitating and strips us of credibility. what other groups do should not be used to close our closet doors and let those skeletons continue to fester. We need to bury those skeletons for good and justifiably stand with heads held high.

Sol, there is no standardization among madrasahs, so sometimes people are taught to resist such extremism and sometimes not. I cannot possibly give you a list either way. So, it would be a fertile ground for some research if you're up to it. The lack of standardizations is both good and bad in my opinion. Bad because it allows Usama-lovers. But, the Good is much more beneficial because its a very capitalist model: don't like this madrasa? Fine, move your kids to that one which offers economics along with Quran memorization (in Indonesia, they often have martial arts classes, usually penja silat). If governments get too far into the business of regulating madrasas, they'll kill whatever innovation i think they will soon, once again, be capable of.

<To return to the main topic, I will say that it is the lack of compassion for others that is most evident when I consider the politically and militantly active Muslims of today. I see little evidence of public compassion between Sunni and Shiite, and nothing public at all from Muslims towards Jews or Hindus. The lack of advocating compassion between peoples - denying the private feelings of such between individuals - breeds hatred and warfare today, as we see throughout the middle east.>
this argument can be turned on any faith. Certainly we see no compassion for Palestinians in Israel, no compassion for the thousands of blacks slaughtered by mostly Christian whites in the south or the tens of thousands of Muslims massacred by Christian Serbs, Jews murdered by White European Christians in Germany........need we go on. You know what they say about cleaning up your own back yard.

>>You know what they say about cleaning up your own back yard.

Surely you understand that applies to us as well! Please see my last comment before this...

These days, everyone from American Secretaries of Defense to Fox News anchors seems to have an opinion (usually unenthusiastic) about Madrassahs.

Ha! You make it sound like there's a large spread of type between the current (and immediately past) Sec. of Def. and Fox news. Not only do they each have an address on the same street, but in fact they're roommates.

alt.muslim is a tremendous resource for non-muslims. I'm deeply impressed with the restraint this community shows (or perhaps I'm deeply impressed with the amount of work the moderators do) in discussing such potentially volitile and explosive issues. This website is becoming a great resource for me as I work to become more familiar with Islam and the greater Islamic community. Thank you, and please keep up the great work.