RIYDAH, 13 June 2006 — The Arabic language is rapidly gaining followers all over the world, particularly in the Muslim Ummah. Muslim parents in many of the Asian countries teach their children or send them to Arabic school to learn how to read the Holy Qur’an before attending formal classes.
Thanks to the booming economy in the Gulf, Arabic is attracting the attention of non-Muslims, too.
This is what happening in the Philippines, according to Ismael Saleh, the secretary-general of Jamiatul Muslim Mindanao (JMM), the first Islamic University in the Philippines.
Speaking to Arab News on the occasion of the JMM’s 50th anniversary, Saleh said that the university is the first institution in the Philippines to introduce and teach Arabic to many generations of Filipino Muslims.
Saleh said that the JMM is guided by the idea that Islamic education — which emphasizes, spiritual, moral, physical, intellectual social and technical development — is a panacea for ignorance, poverty, illiteracy, and other social ills.
The JMM was established by financial backing from the Agama Islam Society in 1956 by the late Ahmad Basher, Saleh’s late father-in-law, and his devoted companions from the Ulama (Ustadj) and Traditional (Cali) Group.
Saleh pointed out that the JMM aims to offer Islamic-oriented education to the several Muslim tribes in Mindanao, devoted to their religious, social, cultural and economic development. It also serves as an institution of learning that instills mental and physical disciplines befitting a Muslim through the observance of Islamic ethics and morality. The school also has literacy program in Arabic and English for adults and school dropouts.
The school’s secretary general also said the JMM serves as a center for Arabic language and Islamic studies in the region and offers short-term manpower training for Muslims to develop skills needed in the export labor market in the Middle East.
The JMM’s long-range plan, says Saleh, also seeks to turn the school into a depository for Muslim literature, arts, scientific journals and sacred texts. The JMM also provides facilities and expertise for researchers on Islamic heritage and Muslims in the Philippines.
The university’s programs are aimed at implementing the kind of education recommended by the First World Conference on Muslim Education, held in Jeddah in 1977, which was concerned in part with the teaching of spiritual and material aspects needed by Muslim Filipinos.
The JMM is an active member of the League of Islamic Universities based in Cairo. The university was voted a member of the league’s executive council in Amman, Jordan in 1999.
