Abstract
This chapter provides a critical overview of Western colonialism and its impact on Islam and Islamic education from the nineteenth century. The colonization of Muslim countries has left lasting and indelible marks on Islam and Islamic education. Not only did colonialism call into question the domination of the Islamic discourse in Muslim countries, it also imposed on these countries secular laws, modern state apparatuses and Western-type education. Consequently, these changes generated a number of dilemmas and challenges for the Muslims during and after the colonial period. In the case of Islamic education, the key debates and controversies center on the place and mission of Islamic schools against a backdrop of independence, state-building, and modernization; the relationship between and integration of “secular” subjects and religious subjects; and the “right” way to reform the Islamic schools. This chapter explains how various and competing social imaginaries of Islam and Islamic education such as “Orientalism” and “reformist Islam” were constructed and promoted by both the colonial powers and Muslims. To illustrate the existence of and resulting dilemmas and challenges from the social imaginaries, appropriate examples drawn from former colonized countries such as Egypt and Singapore will be given.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmad, K. (Ed.). (1980). Studies in Islamic development. Jeddah: International Centre for Research in Islamic Economics, King Abdul Aziz University.
Alatas, S. F. (2006). Knowledge and education in Islam. In A. R. Noor Aisha & A. E. Lai (Eds.), Secularism and spirituality: Seeking integrated knowledge and success in madrasah education in Singapore (pp. 166–179). Singapore: Marshall Cavendish.
Al-Attas, S. M. N. (1999). The concept of education in Islam. Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC).
Ali, S. (1984). Conflict between religion and secularism in the modem world and the role of education in preserving, transmitting and promoting Islamic culture. Muslim Education Quarterly, 2(3), 51–57.
Aljunied, S. A. O. (1970). Al Hidayah. Singapore: Magazine of Madrasah Aljunied.
Ashraf, S. A. (1987). Education and values: Islamic vis-a-vis the secularist approaches. Muslim Education Quarterly, 4(4), 4–16.
Azra, A., Afrianty, D., & Hefner, R. W. (2007). Pesantren and madrasa: Muslim schools and national ideals in Indonesia. In R. W. Hefner & M. Q. Zaman (Eds.), Schooling Islam: The culture and politics of modern Muslim education (pp. 172–198). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Chee, M. F. (2006). The historical evolution of madrasah education in Singapore. In A. R. Noor Aisha & A. E. Lai (Eds.), Secularism and spirituality: Seeking integrated knowledge and success in madrasah education in Singapore (pp. 6–28). Singapore: Marshall Cavendish.
Cook, B. J. (1999). Islamic versus Western conceptions of education: Reflections on Egypt. International Review of Education, 45(3–4), 339–357.
Daun, H., Arjmand, R., & Walford, G. (2004). Muslims and education in a global context. In H. Daun & G. Walford (Eds.), Educational strategies among Muslims in the context of globalisation: Some national case studies (pp. 5–36). Leiden: Brill.
Elmessiri, A. (2002). Secularism, immanence and deconstruction. In J. L. Esposito & A. Tamimi (Eds.), Islam and secularism in the Middle East (pp. 52–80). London: Hurst &.
Erfan, N., & Valie, Z. (1995). Education and the Muslim world: Challenges and responses. Leicestre Islamabad: The Islamic Foundation and Institute of Policy Studies.
Esposito, J. L. (2002). Introduction: Islam and secularism in the twenty-first century. In J. L. Esposito & A. Tamimi (Eds.), Islam and secularism in the Middle East (pp. 1–12). London: Hurst.
Gauhar, A. (1982). Islam and the secular thrust of western imperialism. In S. Azzam (Ed.), Islam and contemporary society (pp. 213–230). London: Longman.
Halstead, J. M. (1995). Towards a unified view of Islamic education. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 6(1), 25–44.
Hodgson, M. G. S. (1993). Rethinking world history: Essays on Europe, Islam, and world history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Janin, H. (2005). The pursuit of learning in the Islamic world, 610–2003. Jefferson: McFarland & Company.
Keane, K. (2002). The limits of secularism. In J. L. Esposito & A. Tamimi (Eds.), Islam and secularism in the Middle East (pp. 29–37). London: Hurst &.
Moten, A. R. (2005). Modernisation and the process of globalisation: The Muslim experience and responses. In K. S. Nathan & K. Mohammad Hashim (Eds.), Islam in Southeast Asia: Political, social and strategic challenges for the 21st century (pp. 231–255). Singapore: ISEAS.
Mutalib, H. (2008). Islam in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Panjwani, F. (2004). The ‘Islamic’ in Islamic education: Assessing the discourse. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 7(1), 19–29.
Rahman, F. (1982). Islam & modernity: Transformation of an intellectual tradition. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
Ruthven, M. (2006). Islam in the world (New ed.). London: Granta Books.
Saeed, A. (1999). Towards religious tolerance through reform in Islamic education: The case of the state institute of Islamic studies of Indonesia. Indonesia and the Malay world, 27(79), 177–191.
Sikand, Y. (2005). The Indian madrassahs and the agenda of reform. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 25(2), 219–248.
Tan, C. (2009). The reform agenda for madrasah education in Singapore. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 3(2), 67–80.
Tan, C. (2012). Functionalising Islam: The schooling experiences of Malay Muslims in Singapore. HIKMA - Journal of Islamic Theology and Religious Education, 3(5), 174–186.
Tan, C., & Abbas, D. B. (2012). Madrasahs and the state: Which worldview? In J. Tan (Ed.), Education in Singapore at the beginning of the 2010s (pp. 89–99). Singapore: Prentice Hall.
Ten, C. L. (2010). Secularism and its limits. In M. S. Heng & C. L. Ten (Eds.), State and seclarism: Perspectives from Asia (pp. 7–21). Singapore: World Scientific.
Thobani, S. (2007). The dilemma of Islam as a school knowledge in Muslim education. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 27(1), 11–25.
Turner, H. R. (1995). Science in medieval Islam: An illustrated introduction. Austin: University of Texas Press.
White, B. W. (1996). Talk about school: Education and the colonial project in French and British Africa (1860-1960). Comparative Education, 32(1), 9–26.
Zakaria, R. (2008). Indonesian Islamic education: A social, historical and political perspective. Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag Dr. Muller.
Zoohri, W. H. (1990). The Singapore Malays: The dilemma of development. Singapore: Kesatuan Guru-Guru Melayu Singapura [Singapore Malay Teachers’ Union].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Tan, C. (2018). Colonialism, Postcolonialism, Islam, and Education. In: Daun, H., Arjmand, R. (eds) Handbook of Islamic Education. International Handbooks of Religion and Education, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64683-1_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64683-1_22
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64682-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64683-1
eBook Packages: EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education