The Effect of Education on Religious Behavior and Religious Attendance of Muslim in the US
Putting a distinction between indoctrination and unbiased education has been a challenge to curriculum developers in educational institutions in America. Religion and education are diverging issues but also can be incorporated but with a given amount of limitation. Issues arise as to whether curriculum in private or public educational institutions should be designed in a manner as to incorporate different religions. This poses a challenge to curriculum developers considering those both private and public educational institutional harbor individuals who confess to different religions and some who do not confess to any religion (Norris & Inglehart, 2011).
Education curriculum developers thus develop curriculums that do not favor any particular religion. The curriculums are developed to suit the heterogeneous student population. This has had a positive effect on religious behavior and religious attendance of Muslims in secular educational institutions (Haddad, 1994). Individuals confessing to the Islamic faith have now been able to freely associate with individuals confessing other religions due to the influence from the system of education.
Education enables individuals of diverse races or religions to come into direct contact. Continued contact of the diverse groups leads to assimilation with the larger group assimilating the smaller group into the immediate system. According to Durkheim (1995), the more individuals interact with a particular social group, the higher the likelihood of those individuals conforming to the practices of the social groups. Since education enables such interaction, individuals confessing a given religion get to understand their religion and the religion of other individuals better thus allowing individuals who confess a religion different from their own to interact freely with them. This has seen Islamic adherents who initially could not mingle with other reduce their stance on religion to a private affair.
References
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Haddad, Y. Y. (1994). Muslim Communities in North America. New York: Suny Press.
Norris P. & Inglehart R. (2011). Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide.
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