A practical guide on how to teach music to Muslims

For many people it comes as a surprise that teaching most Muslims is not the same as teaching any other religious group. Having taught Muslims in a state secondary school in England for several years, I was aware that for many of them music is a problematic area. In this paper I will explain briefly the background to this situation, but I will mainly be talking about how the music curriculum can be adapted to make it more acceptable to Muslims. I believe that tolerance is no longer enough and that what is needed now is sensitivity and understanding. For example, did you know that many Muslim girls have to give up playing instruments when they reach puberty, that is, if they have been allowed to play them in the first place? Did you know that singing any songs with lyrics about love is usually unacceptable, and that boys and girls should not be asked to perform together.

With the events of September 11th in America and the Bali bombing it is very easy to see that communities are in danger of becoming polarised. In England we see Muslims and non-Muslims moving further apart, but at the same time there are people in both communities who are more determined than ever to build bridges. It is my opinion that we, as music educators, are failing in our duty if we do not send our music students out of college prepared to teach people from all cultures.