The Well-Being of Children and the Limits of Paternalism

In Chapter 4 I argued for the developmental, cultural, and social needs of Muslim children. Now I will endeavor to wed those needs to the attendant duties and prerogatives of Muslim parents to educate their children as they deem appropriate, without transgressing on the children’s immediate or future interests. This point needs underscoring, especially in light of the fact that so many children in Islamic schools are children of immigrants. Later in this chapter, I will examine why Muslim parents place their children in Islamic schools, as well as how they participate in their children’s education. Chief among these parents’ aims is the provision of a total Islamic environment for their children’s education, including the reinforcements necessary for a strong cultural identity. What makes Muslim parents arguably unique in the discussions surrounding parents and religious schools—be they Jewish, Catholic, or Protestant—is their recent immigrant status (though as I demonstrated in Chapter 2, the socioeconomic status of Muslims is on the whole strikingly different between Europe and North America).