FEWC BLOG（旧SGHを含む）

  When you hear the word “Islam”, what do you come up with?  Praying people?  A Mosque?  A woman dressed in black?  And what do you think of the Islamic world?  If I ask average Japanese citizens these questions, unfortunately, I can expect answers like---‘somewhat scary’. These days, the sense of discrimination against Islam is spreading worldwide, and Japan is not an exception.  But it seems likely that people actually don’t know about Islam well, and that they consider Muslims as something dangerous based only on the news stories about Islamic extremists including ISIS. Perhaps some of them mistake things like this as Islam, but needless to say, it’s wrong image and I think it is a serious problem that such an image may be fixed in people’s mind and bring about real discrimination against the whole Muslims.  So I have tried to consider how to solve this problem.

  First of all, I believe that one of the major reasons for such misunderstandings is that education on Islam and Muslims is limited in Japan; there are few opportunities to learn deeply about religion, including Islam.  Besides, there are few chances to communicate with Muslims. These can be the reasons for lack of knowledge and misunderstanding.

  Then, my first suggestion is this; adopting religious education class to provide correct knowledge to all Japanese students from elementary to high school.  This figure shows you the policies on religious education in developed countries. (Showing the figure) As you can see, the policy varies from country to country.  And this is the case of Japan. (Showing the figure) Article nine of the Japanese Fundamental Law of Education says that we have to be respectful to each religion and must not persecute or compel specific religions.  Of course, this attitude toward religion is really important, but I also think that there should be one more article saying something like---‘we have to provide correct knowledge of world religions through education and promote real understanding of them among students. For the elementary school students, to make them become familiar with religious affairs, schools can provide activities where they can experience and feel world religious culture like putting on clothes, eating foods and so on, which is effective to eliminate any prejudice.  And for high school students, lectures on religion can be given by social studies teachers, which will be the base of understanding. In the lectures, the principle of ‘”never persecute or impose” specific religions must be always satisfied.

  I believe that this kind of plan will be effective in promoting students to know about world religions well, including Islam. However, just getting knowledge is not enough to really understand them. Also, most Japanese are not familiar with ‘real’ Muslims.  While Muslims occupy a quarter of the world population, now there are only about 100,000 to 200,000 Muslims in Japan. The chance to communicate with them is very limited. I learned in a lecture by Prof. Morimoto that Islam is a ‘life style,’ rather than just a religion and it consists of varieties of different groups. From his lecture, I thought that it will be difficult for average Japanese students to really understand them without more chance to communicate with Muslims. Therefore, I also suggest that we should introduce more Exchange Student Programs between Japan and Islamic nations to promote real understanding among Japanese students.

  In conclusion, to get rid of ignorance and misunderstanding and to promote real understanding about Islam and Muslims among Japanese students, I insist that lectures and learning activities on religion and culture be given in classrooms, and a wider range of exchange student programs be introduced.  Especially in today’s borderless world, it is necessary that each ‘world citizen’ gets correct knowledge and makes efforts to understand others.  Yes, there must be many difficulties and criticisms to carrying out the kind of plan I have suggested, but I believe that thinking of how to coexist with Muslims can be the first step to eliminate discrimination against Islam from all over the world.