1. This isn’t for everyone, but is needed for a small cadre of serious students. For such people, it needn’t and perhaps shouldn’t be one of two qualifications, and for these people, they will hopefully be able to pursue a career in that line of study in academia. This, I concede can be very difficult, given the relative lack of funding for postgraduate continuation of studies in this area, but hopefully the sorts of people who will go on to teach at a university level will be able to find some way to fund their postgraduate studies.

For people who do not wish to pursue such a career, but want to develop some ‘Islamic literacy’ and the Arabic language skills that will hopefully equip them for Islamic studies undertaken on their own initiative for the rest of their lives, I think taking an undergraduate course in Arabic and Islamic studies can be a stepping stone onto that sort of line. On graduation, such people can pursue a mainstream career of some kind.

2. I don’t believe that career opportunities Islamic studies graduates are necessarily worse than those in other subjects. In the UK, or more specifically, in London, the highest paid jobs are probably those based in the City of London. None of these typical jobs, which I’m not necessarily promoting, usually require that one have a degree in any particular subject at all. All of them provide training for people straight out of university regardless of their subject. The worlds largest London-based law firm, Clifford Chance, has said in the last couple of years that 45% of their intake tends to be from non-Law graduates. The figure is probably similar in other sectors. It probably helps to go to one of the top twenty universities, but I think that our communities attitude that you won’t do well if you don’t pick something science-y or vocational like medicine is not justified in the UK, although it probably was justified in the subcontinental contexts in which our parents grew up.

3. Family discouragement is of course a serious concern, but in my own case, although my family was very very discouraging initially, within a very short time they became very supportive, but this will naturally vary from family to family, and it probably hinges on the misunderstanding of the graduate job market that I’ve discussed above. Of course one’s family may actually be fair to discourage one in some instances, and each individual has to judge his own circumstances accordingly.

I agree with you that the community needs to be more proactive on this issue–something that doesn’t seem to be happening at the moment. I also think that more young Muslims need to be aware of the opportunities to study ‘unconventional’ subjects. I had, in some ways, a similar experience to your own–I took deferred entry into medicine having studied three sciences and maths at A-level. It was only on my year out that I came to know the possibilities of what I could do besides medicine. Although things have turned out well for me, alhamduliLlah, I think that if I had better information from the community, i could have planned things a little earlier.

Perhaps something we can all try to do is raise awareness in our own communities of the importance of Islamic knowledge for which the avenues of learning are many, and if that leads some to pursue degrees in Islamic studies, we pray that they succeed in that, but for those who do not have that inclination, they should still try and develop an interest in the area in as much as it will necessariliy impinge on their lives.

والله ولي التوفيق

The problems one will encounter, however, are:

1. Financial – how does one dual qualify having to earn a living and study, perhps with the responsibility of family. It was only possible for me with a wife who worked in a well paid profession (dentistry!!)

2. Career opportunities with Islamic studies degrees are limited and do not pay well

3. discouragement from family – why?/to what end?/how much income will you lose?

I think solutions lie in communities encouraging the motivated few who wish to dual qualify, arranging scholarships, and there being sound career advice for young Muslims with potential.

Moreover, dual qualification should be planned and not random. For example, it is easier to dual qualify in Law and Islamic law since one may earn a living (in English Law) and there will be knowledge/practical overlap.

I wish Usaama well with his doctorate.

While we hear about Muslims who used to walk miles to recieve small bit of knowledge of Islam before, our era is witnessing a time consumed with lazyness and ‘modern’ issues/lifestyles or other more interesting stuff like celeb culture. Is this because WE are ‘living’ the life and they did not? Rather, it is the other way round.

What needs emphasis from this article perhaps is that Muslims going to higher education is not sufficient. Muslims knowing thier tradition and thier own teachings through Islamic studies at university before they are taught by the media and the local mullah. Learning about Islam should not be limited to knowing how to pray. Instead learning about the history and civilsation of Islam, the language and culture will enable one to become a model for the benefit of the soceity.

Furthermore, our heritage of Muslim etiquettes that we learn should manifest in our actions and behaviours not just with Muslims but with non-Muslims too. This will be the way then to teach Islam to the wider world for a better world. A lack of this has caused justification for the misconceptions of Islam and Muslims.

I feel this issue as a personal one since most of my batchelors degree was spent learning about Judaism when it was supposed to be about all three Abrahamic religions. This is, as the departmental-head reasons that, Muslim scholars simply dont enter academia to teach it, they just enter mosques. How much this is true is debatable especially when they were able to find a Rabbi to teach Judaism and a Dean to christianity – which shows the level at which other traditions are taught. However, the fact that there was only three Muslims studying religions/theology out of the whole university shows why the head of department may be right.

Like Usaama clarifies, I too think this is not expected of everyone. However, Islamic studies/Studies of religion is not really in our agenda. We value subjects according to prestige, money and power. The study of Islam should not come under the category of “interest”. But for a better future, study of religion should be our priority!