Have a little faith

It’s a religion practiced by more than 1.5 billion people the world over.

But when it comes to Islam, many Americans are often found to be ignorant — and sometimes malevolently so — of even the simplest tenets of the faith.

At Ralston Middle School, social studies teachers Jacki Groesser and Mindi Podraza have been doing their part to shed learning’s light on Islam and the world’s other major religions.

Last Tuesday, as they’ve done the past five years, Groesser and Podraza invited a Muslim speaker to visit their classes and talk a little about his faith for the 250 seventh-graders currently undergoing lessons on five religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism) in the world as part of an ancient history unit.

“There are so many great things about all the world’s religions,” Groesser said. “All religions have their good points and bad points, but I think what the kids come out of this seeing is that the religions have more in common than they have differences and they get to see a human element in the faiths.”

Born as they were on the eve of the United States’ involvement in two wars in Muslim countries, today’s seventh-graders don’t have much of a memory of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the media frenzy surrounding Islam — its adherents and practices and misconceptions about them — that arguably continues today.

But rather than being inured to it, students at RMS said they were intrigued to be talking to a Muslim — for most, the first they’d ever knowingly met — and genuinely curious about Sharif Liwaru’s faith.

“He was just a person like us,” seventh-grader Kyle Letak said. “He was funny. He had a lot of interesting things to say about Islam and I think we all learned a lot. It was a unique position for us to have a chance to talk to him.”

The students agreed Liwaru had related the precepts of his faith with humor and dash, explaining the Five Pillars of Islam — belief, prayer five times a day, charity, fasting, and making the hajj, the ritual pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in a lifetime — with object lessons from his own life.

“He had a story with every pillar,” said Sierra Hernandez, another student. “He made it real to us. We’d been hearing about it in class and this way we could see what it meant.”

Liwaru related stories of being married in a court and getting some odd looks for his wedding regalia, he also talked about current events and how Islam fits within the framework of the modern world. He hasn’t made the hajj yet, but he has plans to go sometime in the next five years.

He also handled a number of what-if questions from students such as: “What if you don’t get five prayers in per day?”

It’s not the end of the world, Liwaru said, but he does take some measures to ensure he’s always ready to fulfill his obligation.

“He has a prayer mat in his car just in case he gets stuck somewhere and has to pray,” seventh-grader Lydia Permenter said. “He told a lot of stories like that from his life and things he has done.”

Liwaru also passed around an ornately calligraphied copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book.

“It was very hands-on for the kids,” Groesser said. “He did a great job relating his faith to them with humor, but it’s clear he also takes it very seriously. He’s very sincere about his religion.”

As part of their studies on Islam, seventh-graders put together projects on Islam’s Five Pillars using different media and also put to paper their thoughts on the religion.

Before the unit began, Groesser and Podraza had students write down what they knew and felt about Islam. When the lessons concluded, they had students write another paragraph on what they had learned.

“We gave them back the paragraph they’d written before,” Podraza said. “They were pretty amazed at how they changed their perceptions and what they’d learned. There were a few kids who said they were embarassed by what they’d written before and said through the unit they’d learned so much more than they’d known before.”

Groesser said the unit, filled with the basics on Islam and Muslims and the practices of the world’s other religions, boiled down to one major lesson for the students going beyond the books.

“Tolerance,” she said. “It’s all about teaching tolerance.”

Seventh-grader Tracy Cavalieri said she felt it was important Liwaru came and spoke to her class and showed them all how big the world can be.

“It was good to have him here,” she said. “A lot of people asked a lot of questions about him and about Islam. That’s how you start to understand.”

Adam Klinker -Recorder Features Editor