FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Man Brings Learning of Islam to Schools

Shabbir Mansuri, in the last three years of what he calls his American journey, has made a difference when it comes to teaching about Islam and Muslims in public schools.

Since founding the Council on Islamic Education in 1990, Mansuri, a native of India, has held workshops across the country for teachers to provide information about Islam.

He has also created a speaker’s bureau of college-age Muslim students who visit junior high schools and high schools to make presentations.

About 250 Southland educators attended an open house held recently at the organization’s new Fountain Valley office to introduce its work in the educational field and to create awareness about using the council as a resource.

Mansuri has worked with publishers to make vital changes in public school social studies and history textbooks to portray Islam and Muslims accurately and in a balanced way.

This year, for instance, Mansuri’s organization helped revise a 1994 sixth-grade social studies book used in public schools across the country, except in California.

“I am proud to be a Muslim-American,” said Mansuri, 47, a Fountain Valley resident who came to the United States in 1969 to attend USC. “This country has allowed me to participate and address the issues of misinformation and stereotyping of Muslims--and to be part of the solution.”

Mansuri said materials are inadequate for public schools to teach about different cultures and religions.

Educators agree that there is a need for an organization that can provide these things.

“There is a lack of materials and experience in teaching about Asia, Africa and Middle Eastern countries,” said Catherine Follett, director of curriculum and instruction for the Fountain Valley School District.

Follett added that she would like to see other groups offer expertise to help teachers become more effective and sensitive when teaching these subjects.

The organization opened offices in September in two classrooms at the former Arthur D. Nieblas School and has two full-time employees: a teacher consultant and an intern.

Supported by Orange County Muslim business leaders, the council last month published its second edition of the “Handbook for Educators: Teaching About Islam and Muslims in the Public School Classroom.”

“We’re trying to put more emphasis on providing more tools for teachers to address this particular issue,” Mansuri said. He added that plans include offering more resource materials.

Mansuri, married and a father of three daughters, said there are more than 1 billion Muslims in the world who are of many different ethnicities and from such different countries as Africa, China and Iran.

“You have to bring the universal perspective of Muslims” into the classroom, said Mansuri, who estimated that there are about 500,000 Muslims in Southern California, a majority of them in Orange County.

By receiving sensitive and accurate material about Islam, he said, children get a more balanced picture.