Religious Education and Community Relations
A university recently started a certificate in Islamic studies aimed at people based in the local area. Students on the course range from public sector workers and police to people keen to learn more about the religious tradition. The course has proven popular, and the staff who run it have ambitions to extend it to cover other religious traditions. In particular, they have found the participants eager to ask questions that cannot be posed in other settings. As the two people responsible for running the course explain:
Interviewee B: They’re very wary…. [Many of the people we taught ] were like, “I wanted to ask this and I didn’t dare ask that and I didn’t want to assume or….” It’s about [being] politically correct and what can you say in what circles and, you know, will you be branded to be a racist or ignorant… When you’re doing a course at the University, it’s okay to have those dialogues and that… you know, that’s what you’re here for.
The fact that the university is not an institution with any particular religious affiliation has been important. It has meant that the course can cover the differences and contemporary debates within Islam in a way which is perceived at the outset as open and balanced. Because the institution offers a neutral space in which to discuss the issues the students taking the course can learn about the tradition—and as a consequence hopefully feel more assured talking about it—without having to worry about a subject being off topic, or about an agenda being advanced:
