Papers Published
Abstract:
The rise of Muslim institutions of higher learning in the 21st century represents a major change and challenge to traditional Muslim education. There are two Muslim credentialing centres for Muslim universities, and both are based in Africa – the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW) in Rabat, Morocco, and the League of Islamic Universities in Cairo, Egypt – and each maintains a membership of nearly 200 institutions of higher learning. Although these institutions play an essential role in educating Muslims about their faith and providing them with crucial life skills, several important questions remain regarding the pedagogical vision of these institutions. If the Islamisation of knowledge constitutes the epistemological borders of Muslim education (Al-Faruqi, 1982), then how does it fare against its nemesis – the globalisation movement – that characterises the trends of modern universities? Similarly, what qualifies an institution to be labelled ‘Islamic’? Is it a Muslim majority presence among the student body, or its Islamic content? Furthermore, what are the developing models in these institutions, and how do they fit into the institutions’ missions and functions? This study examines these questions by analysing the processes and the discourse through which marketing model institutions have evolved in the 21st century