What is the relationship between TESOL and Islam?
The relationship between TESOL and Islam is a multi-faceted one. At the linguistic level, TESOL Islamia is of the view that the dominant mainstream varieties of the English language that pervade ESL programmes around the world are a repository of Anglo-Western culture along with its particular beliefs, assumptions, attitudes and views about the world and how it perceives ‘other’ cultures. The Muslim ESL classroom is therefore seen as a site of conflicting interests between two sharply distinct views of the world: on the one hand are the secular/Anglo-Saxon/Judaeo-Christian values that permeate mainstream English discourses, and on the other, the traditional Islamic view of the world derived from the Qur’an and the teachings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).At the pedagogical level, TESOL, TEFL, ELT, TESL and applied linguistics are essentially all products of the dominant English speaking countries of the West. The approaches, standards, rules, methods and techniques that u
