Muslim Education in Democratic South Africa: Convergence or Divergence of Religion and Citizenship?

Abstract

South Africa's transition to democracy signaled many new beginnings to different people and communities. For the Muslim community, democracy beckoned toward an untraversed path of identity and expression—one unshielded by the seclusion unintentionally provided through apartheid. The changes, while not immediately obvious, were nevertheless profound, no more so than within a new realm of desegregated schools. The extensive migratory patterns of learners to previously “off-limits” schools soon revealed another pattern of exit: The more public schools diversified, the greater the increase in the number of faith-based schools. Although small in relation to the total number of independent schools, the percentage of Muslim schools was significantly higher than the proportion of Muslims in the South African population. In “mapping the terrain” of Muslim education in post-apartheid South Africa, the interest of this article lies, firstly, in understanding the underlying motivation for this proliferation of Muslim schools and, secondly, how the prevalence of faith-based schools might enhance South Africa's democracy.