Citizenship and human rights in Islamic education

The nature of English citizenship, the need for cohesion in society, and the place of faith community schools, particularly Muslim schools, are issues of import in contemporary English society. When these three issues come together, in an examination of the nature of an English Islam, they raise questions that have implications for the nature of contemporary English society and the role of English state education and citizenship education within this educational system. An institutionalised and systematised curriculum subject called citizenship education risks isolating an academic subject from the day-to-day experience of young people. If citizenship is not a lived experience in the school, on the street and at home, then the attendant spiritual and moral development cannot flourish. This paper explores some of the philosophical and theological foundations that inform a discourse on the nature of English citizenship, English Islam and their influence on children's spiritual and moral development.