In the country where I live, Christian schools do not practice missionary activities. They teach Islam as a subject, and the recitation of Quran is compulsory every morning. What is the Sharee'ah ruling on enrolling Muslim children in these schools?

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Undoubtedly, children are greatly influenced by the school in which they receive their formal education. The values and manners that are taught to them by way of their education, whether they are good or bad, are equal in effect to that of the parents and perhaps they may even have a greater effect at times.  The formal schools which are based on non-Islamic curricula almost always fall short of inculcating proper values, manners and religious teachings.

In this case, what is to be expected of schools that are explicitly based on teaching Christianity? In this regard, Dr. Suhair Ahmad As-Sukkari, linguistics specialist at Georgetown University, mentioned that the English and French colonialists believed that the battle with Muslims should start from the school through destroying religious education, spreading foreign schools in all Arab countries, fighting the Arabic language, spending lavishly on teaching foreign languages and connecting  this type of education with progress, technology, modern sciences, expectations of wealth and higher income.

With most people deciding to enroll their children in formal education, the enemies of Islam (colonialists) used education to mentally invade Muslims. They provided various educational systems and styles to serve their aims in the first place. For example, there is secular education, foreign education and other types  which differ in name but share the same goal. There is no doubt that the power of the early Muslims who undertook the obligation of Jihaad was greatly influenced by the system of education that they had gone through. In this regard, the English writer, E.H.Janser, mentioned in his book ‏Militant Islam‏ that both England and France carried out many researches on the reasons behind the power and solidity of the (Muslim) Arab individual which enabled him to conquer the surrounding countries from India to the borders of China. They concluded that the secret behind this was the way of educating the Arab child and his memorization of the Quran before the age of five.

In principle, the missionary (Christian) schools are based on missionary methodology, even if they do not explicitly declare this fact to Muslims. Intending to deceive the ingenuous Muslims, they allow recitation of the Quran during the school morning assembly and teach Islam as a religion.  Simultaneously, they destroy all the values and manners with their curricula and the teachers they choose who are qualified to achieve their aims.

The student is influenced by his teacher and tries to imitate him in everything and, therefore, accepts everything that the teacher says. Realizing that they will not be able to stay in these countries forever, the colonizers established foreign (Christian) schools which received the children of the governing class. Their aim was to prepare them to play the same role as the colonizers in their countries. Unfortunately, their goals have been realized when they succeeded to create generations that are qualified to achieve the same task and think with the same mentality of the colonizers. The influence of such generations is even more destructive than that of their educators since they speak the same language as their people but think in the same way of their educators.

In this regard, the orientalist, Shanly, mentioned that destroying the Muslim youth in particular and the Muslim Ummah (nation) in general is the only way to invade Islam, subjugate Muslims, and put an end to this creed which destroyed all other old and new creeds. He added that the way to achieve this was to destroy the spirit of pride in their past and their Book, the Quran.

Having said this, it should now be  clear that Christian schools are nothing but a means of contemporary mental invasion. They do their utmost to change the values and beliefs of their students. Therefore, graduates of these schools become mere followers of their methodology, see through their eyes and think with their mentality. Once a student in one of these schools asked a Shaykh whether it was possible to pray in English. The reason behind his question was that he knew English better than Arabic. How malicious this isolation is and how malicious this invasion is!

Muslims must guard their religion and values and beware of this great danger and this widespread evil. They should know that Allaah The Almighty has bestowed upon them the favor of having children, has made them responsible for them and He will ask them about this responsibility. Therefore, they must start preparing the answers.

Allaah Knows best.