Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Conventional Schooling vs Homeschooling
With the evolution of the industrial era, man needed many things that help him run the factories so he designed many tools; for example conveyor belt, rails to move the mass production from here and there etc. Similarly he needed people who cannot think so he developed School.
The term ‘Homeschooling’ doesn’t refer to the schooling at home, rather it defines a natural learning process that takes place outside the school. Homeschooling doesn’t mean to have a tightly coupled curriculum to be taught at home, it enables learning all the time and everywhere mentality instead.
In this article, I will list some defining differences that I found between Conventional Schooling and Homeschooling.
Conventional Schooling | Homeschooling |
Evolved since few centuries | Tried and tested for thousands of years |
The traditional structured school was first built in 17th century in the United States and it took tens of years to evolve in a modern-day school that we see today. The system is not that old and tested. | The historical learning system which we are referring as Homeschooling is tried and tested for thousands of years. So the questions should be asked to the schoolers not the homeschoolers as to what are the reason to opt for a new system when an old system already exists. |
Prepares for exams | Prepares for life and life hereafter |
The conventional schooling system focuses on the exams. All its efforts are centered to produce better results in exams. The same mentality is transferred to the learners and the ultimate purpose of the learners' studies is to perform well in the exams and get good grades. A typical learner at the contemporary schooling system must know how to write a good essay on Salah (an Islamic mandatory prayer) and at the same time he may no be praying at all. | Since there is minimal or no examination in the homeschooling, the studies are centered to actually learn the concepts and practical knowledge. This enables learners to learn education that benefits them in life, relationships and everywhere. They learn how to become good Muslim, good spouse, good parents, good children and good member of the society. |
Curriculum-based | Interest-based |
The conventional schooling paradigm is curriculum-based. Some people design the curriculum which is forced to the learners. | The homeschooling is interest-based. The homeschoolers design their own curriculum. |
Worthless education | Worthwhile education |
The sort of education that is generally delivered in the contemporary schools is limited to the exams or for the job market only. This is why we call iit worthless education. We will not find knowledge like what type of food is good for us, how many hours sleep is required in different slabs of our life, how to maintain good husband/wife relationship etc. in a schooling syllabus. If something is taught to the learners, they learn them for the sake of the examination. This is why we find many highly qualified professionals are very good in their jobs but very bad at home. They may have received straight A's in their Islamic education subjects but at the same time they may not pray even the mandatory prayers. | A worthwhile education is something that benefits in the life and extends the benefits to the life hereafter. Since there are no exams, the learners are learning for the sake of knowledge and act only. They may learn little but it will be reflected in their lives. Since they learn mostly from the general books instead of textbooks, they have the life skills to outperform in relationships and different aspects of their lives. |
Compromises the Ideological beliefs | Can be designed as per the Ideology |
When we send our child to a specific school, we are actually accepting their ideology and we are bound to act according to it. For example, a typical school has music in rhymes, cartoons and on different occasion like annual functions. If one believes that Music is impermissible in his ideology, he still has to compromise for the sake of his child’s education. So finally he is giving education to his child at the cost of his ideological beliefs. | The environment and study plan can be designed as per our Ideology and we are not bound to follow someone we don’t want to and hence we nurture our child without compromising our beliefs. |
Thirst of numbers | Thirst of knowledge |
Generally all the graduates of the school think the same, that is to get a good degree and get good job or establish a good business to earn some good money. | If homeschooling is done on the basis of worthwhile learning, they get education for the sake of meaning and to serve the society with their knowledge. |
Treats all learners equally | Maintains individuality of each learner |
With the revolution of the industrial age, the industries need people similar to products. All copies of a product are built in the factories in the same way. The raw material is gathered, some processing is done on the raw material, the material is then transformed into a finished product, the product is packaged and labelled and sent to the market for selling. All the products which are coming from this assembly line are the same. At each step the quality of the product is verified. There is a QC at the end which ensures the quality of the final product and certifies that this particular product is capable to introduce in the market. Same goes with the students. They enter the school and follow the steps that are called grades. Each grade has 100% same curriculum for all the learners. At the end of each grade, the school assesses the performance of the learner and at the end there is a final exam that qualifies the learner that he or she is able to be introduced in the market. These learners may have varying interests, strengths and abilities but they are all vanished during the education process and finally they are such a product who wants to sell himself/herself at a good price in the job market. | The homeschoolers on the other hand do not follow a defined and structured curriculum. They design their own curriculum based on their interests and strengths and usually they outperform in their fields. The forefathers of the Islamic society used to use the same procedure and hence the Islamic history has brilliant scholars and scientists. |
Nurtures part of child | Holistic approach |
The schooling system nurtures only part of the complete education that is courses and subjects and the social circle. | With the homeschooling, we can nurture the child holistically that is to develop the learners' spiritual, physical, social and intellectual abilities. |
Teaching-based | Facilitation-based |
If we keep giving high blood pressure medicine to someone who doesn’t have this disease, someday his body will be tuned to control the blood pressure only when such medicine is taken. Children are born as natural learners. Too much teaching seriously affects the learning pattern of the child and eventually he is tuned to learn only when he is taught. | The homeschoolers receive facilitation instead of instructions from their parents and mentors. As parents, we need to provide them access to the right environment, people, technology and resources and rest is taken care by the children themselves. They themselves can make their syllabus, study plan, research methodologies and schedule. |
Teacher initiated study | Self initiated study |
In contemporary schooling, teacher is the one who selects a topic from his/her planner and start teaching the learners, no matter they are interested and ready to absorb that particular subject or knowledge. This sometimes leads to just taking the lecture without the actual learning been taken place. | In homeschooling, the learning starts as a result of self-initiated inquiry which enables guaranteed learning. |
Complete self disconnect | Connection with Self |
Generally the students in the contemporary education system do not have the capability to connect with their own self. Connection with the own self means to think deeply about our own existence and initiate a process of self accountability. There are three reasons for this disconnect; (a) They do not have enough time to think because they are usually caught up in their studies, homeworks, tuitions etc. (b) They are victim of such an education paradigm that enables them to do step by step defined activities only. (c) They do not have connection with the books and mentors who can enable the process of thinking among them. | The above mentioned three problems are generally not found in a well managed homeschooling paradigm; (a) Since they are not going to the school so they have plenty of time for themselves (b) They become open-minded as a result of the freedom they have during their studies (c) They are less connected with textbooks and more connected with the mentors and the books that teach life skills. |
Artificial Learning | Natural Learning |
In the traditional schooling, the learning is mostly artificial. The learners learn about plants without actually planting or exploring the real plants. They learn about planets without actually seeing them through a telescope. They learn about healthy and junk food and at the same time they watch their teachers having junk food during their free time, so it's almost impossible to find a person who quits junk food after getting it learnt from the school. The learning is limited to the white board and the exam sheets. | In the homeschooling, the learning is mostly natural. The learners are facilitated with the right tools and equipments so they see and feel the real objects around them. In order to learn about plants, they plant their plants and start exploring them. In order to learn about science, they do experiments to learn the particular concepts. |
Hardly Creative | Full of Creativity |
Before a century and even before, it was easy to predict the future. The development in the science and technology was moving with a smooth pace. At that time, it was comparatively easier to decide what skillset the future generation may require and hence the same can be prepared. With the revolutionary advancement in the fields of science and technology, it is now difficult to predict even after 10 years. New technological concepts are emerging every day and old are vanishing out. Each new day brings us new professions and some of the existing professions that were available are no more. Keeping this in mind, it is difficult to decide what skills a particular learner should have to proceed in the future. This is why if a person is creative, he will find his way in all good and bad situations. A typical schooling curriculum is hardly creative. The learners have to follow a defined syllabus and answers the questions that are specified in the syllabus. They are usually not allowed to go beyond the defined syllabus. Most of the time they are required to produce the answer in the answer script that their teacher wants to read. Similarly they are also required to memorize certain things and produce them in the exams. This practice seriously affects their creativity. They do it for years and finally their minds are squeezed to perform only similar activities. | The homeschooling in contrast focuses on producing self generated portfolios. It can be art, literature or a scientific theory. The length of the content they learn may be small but their thinking process is ignited and they know how to create new ideas and solutions based on these ideas. |
Weak connection with parents | Strong bonding with parents |
If we look around, we will find that the school going children hardly find a good family time to sit and discuss/play with their parents daily. Their time has been taken by their studies and exam preparations. If they sit for an hour with their mothers or fathers, it's usually for either homeworks or exam preparation. Hence as a result of the disconnection with the parents, their knowledge and wisdom is not transferred to children. | Homeschoolers are learning not by their parents but with their parents. They work like peers. They both learn together and as a result they establish a very good family bonding. The bonding and the relationship results in the transfer of the knowledge and wisdom to the children. |
Weak connection with nature | Strong connection with nature |
The subjects are usually taught in the classrooms and the trees, mountains, rivers, animals and birds are explained in the text books. | The students are taken near to the nature to experience themselves and learn. The role of text book is secondary in this regard. |
Self-centered | Relationship-centered |
The ranking system in the schools develop self-centeredness in the learners. They put their efforts to leave everyone behind and get the best rank. If we closely look at a learner who is a position holder in his/her class, we will find him seeing all his peers as the competitors. | In homeschooling, generally the Club model is adopted where learners gather and work together to produce a combined output. This togetherness can be with parents, siblings and/or with peers hence creating better relationships between them. |
Do as directed mentality | Do as you think better mentality |
In conventional schools, many times learners are required to solve particular problems with the method specified in the question only. For example 'use the method of factorisation to solve the following quadratic equation'. They are not allowed to choose a method that best suits to solve this problem. Thinking and 'inventing' their own method to solve the problem is considered as sin in the examination and the learner may get zero in that question. This ignites the 'do as directed' mentality' in the learners which is the exact requirement of the industry. | Homeschoolers have the freedom to think and choose the method that best suits to solve the particular problem. They are even encourages to design or invent their own methods. |
Bombardment of undesired information | Delivers only desired knowledge |
If we ask our parents how many subject they used to study at school, it was lesser than those that we were taught at school. If we ask our grand parents, it was even lesser than their children. If we see the subjects of our children these days, they are more than what our parents or we were taught. In the 21st century, there is a bombardment of the information. The learners are required to study too many subjects with too much information within each subject regardless that information is useful in their personal or professional life or not. For example, I studied Sindhi language for almost 9 years at school and I never used this language even once in my life. | Homeschoolers do not learn everything. They focus on the desired learning that will benefit them in their lives and lives hereafter. |
Stress-full learning | Stress free learning |
The throat-cutting competition in secondary and higher secondary schools puts so much pressure on the learners that are under severe stress specially during their exams. If we do a survey of the past news, we will easily find many cases when children went into depression after not getting proper marks and even some committed suicide. | The homeschoolers learn in relaxed and stress-free environment because they have no exams and hence no competition. They believe in cooperation not competition. |
Age-wise grouping | Interest-wise grouping |
How strange is it, No? In traditional schools we group learners on the basis of age, neither on the basis of interests nor on the basis of abilities. All learners within a particular age range will be taking all the subjects of that particular grade. | In the traditional system, people of all ages use to sit with their mentors. Take an example of our ancestors. People who have interest on a particular subject use to sit in the company of that particular scholar/mentor. The same happens in our Mosques. If there is a lecture of Hadith, people of all ages who are interested to learn Hadith are welcome to the group. With this process, the knowledge penetrates deep in the hearts of the people. |
Provides ability to answer | Provides ability to question |
The traditional schooling system prepares learners to provide answers to the questions asked. | The homeschooling learners learn the ability to raise questions which leads them to question some of the established norms of the society that they may think wrong. |
Hijacked the childhood | Freedom to enjoy the childhood |
A typical school works for at least 6 hours, if we add the time of travelling to and from the school then it may increase to 7 to 8 hours. The child usually comes with a homework that may last for 1 hour. Many families handover the children to the tutor that again takes another hour. The child may be attending other education schools for example Madrasa for Quran recitation or memorization. So the child finally ends up with 10 hours of education per day. Where's’ the childhood gone? The child doesn’t have enough time to play with his parents, friends and cousins. He doesn’t have time to run behind a cat or take a shower in the rain. He even doesn’t have time to sit with the grandma and listen her childhood stories. | The child enjoys the childhood. Since the focus is on creativity not on the length of the content, hence he has plenty of time to make experiments and learn from the experiences. He is not supposed to learn everything everyday. He is tuned to find learning patterns everywhere when when it is raining or when he is sitting with the grandma. |
Parents’ training is not required | Parents need to be continuously trained |
Ideally the nurturing of children is the responsibility of the parents. In the current era, people are also distracted and they don't want to spend so much time on their children, rather they found it easy to pay the school and let it nurture their children. Hence they outsource this divine responsibility to the people who work for salary. When the responsibility is outsourced, there is no need for their training as well and hence parents don't work to improve their intellectual skills. | In the homeschooling paradigm, the nurturing process is moved along with the parents and hence parents need continuous training. Finally it's not just the child who is developing the spiritual, physical, social and intellectual skills rather its parents as well who develop these skills in parallel. |
Herd mentality | Personalized mentality |
Going to the school without having clear reasons why to go is itself an example of herd mentality and this is just the start. Since the beginning the child is tuned to accept and do what everyone else are doing. So they go to the schools, they sleep long on the weekends, they make birthday parties and they do a job in a certain company because the big herd around them is doing this. | Homeschooling is an start of the personalized mentality which can be deeply inculcated it the child as he grows in this journey. Since he is not fully exposed to the herd, he can be educated to maintain his personalized mentality based on the ideology and reasons and not because everyone else around him is doing such things. |
Why shouldn’t I migrate to a Western country?
Visiting a western country can be amazing. The travelling experience itself can have priceless meaningful lessons that we cannot learn from the books. But migrating to a western country like Australia or Canada permanently is an entirely different experience. It has its impacts not only on the whole life of ourselves but on the generations. This is why one should seriously think before migrating to a western country if he is considering to do so. All the pros and cons must be addressed at the time of decision making. One must consider the spiritual, social, educational, physical and emotional impacts in a broad spectrum.
Here with the word ‘west’ I do not mean the geographical west but the society that works on the similar moral grounds.
Many of my friends and colleagues are not only migrating to Australia these days, they are also insisting me to do so. I must therefore, for my own clarity, write the right reasons for not migrating to Australia or any other western-style country. The reasons that I will discuss are based on my understanding and defined under my circumstances. It is not necessary that they all are the right reasons for everyone who doesn’t want to go.
Am I not living a thankful to Allah’s life in my homeland?
1) According to Islamic teachings, it is not permissible for a Muslim to live between non-believers, if in his homeland he can live a normal life that most of the people are living. According to the Shariah ruling, if one is unable to earn even for his basic necessities or he is imprisoned unjustly or his property is taken away then only he is allowed to migrate. The detailed ruling can be read in the book Fiqhi Maqalat by Mufti Taqi Usmani, page 233-237.
According to a Hadith:
“If a person does resemblance or lives with non-believers, he is like them.”
Another Hadith:
“ ‘I make myself separate from any person who lives between non-believers’, The companions asked ‘O Rasullulah (SAW) What is the reason for that?’ He replied ‘The fire of Islam and the fire of Kufr cannot live together. You will not be able to distinguish that the fire is from Islam or Kuft’ “
.
Another Hadith:
“Do not leave your offspring among non-believers”
In the light of above Hadiths and Shariah ruling, when i examine my own circumstances, I found that I do not fall into the criteria when a person is allowed to migrate to a non-Muslim country. I have provisions more than my actual needs, I am not imprisoned, neither my life or property has been taken away. Hence the Shariah ruling is very clear for me that it is impermissible to live between non-believers in these circumstances.
Since the ruling is clear in this subject, the only above mentioned reason should be enough and no furthers reasons should be required but for my own clarity, I will write the other impacts as well that will help in understanding the above mentioned Hadiths as well.
Why should I live in a country which was not made on the name of Islam when on earth there exists a state that was established on the name of Islam with huge sacrifice?
2) I should never forget that my family is originally migrated from India. Once my father along with his mother and some brothers and sisters left India and migrated to Pakistan. It was a hard time for them because they reached Pakistan empty handed leaving behind all their properties and some relations in India. There were stories of sacrifices. Why did they do this? They had their home there, they had their property there, and they had their relatives and friends there. But still they left everything and migrated to a newly established state in an uncertain situation. Most of them had already spent almost half of their lives before migration, so I believe they migrated not only for themselves but specially for their generations. They wanted their sons and daughters to be grown up in a Muslim community where they are free to practice their Faith. For this purpose, they left their belongings and relations. If I migrate to a non-Muslim country now, what answer shall I give to my father? My father is no more in this world, but if he were, he could have asked is this why we suffered so much hardships of migration that our next generation will re-migrate and run away from this place?
Why should I surrender my freedom of practicing Islam?
3) I should understand that the kind of freedom of practicing Islam we enjoy in Islamic country is not enjoyed in any of the non-Muslim countries. Up to a large extent, we may be allowed to practice the personal matters of Islam freely however we face problems while practicing the collective matters. For example, in a Muslim world, the Muazzin speaks five times a day, loud and clear, that our Lord is Great. In a non-Muslim world, we can not announce our Lord, our Creator and our Sustainer is the Great. Similarly not all the places have mosques, so the prayers with congregation is also compromised. Even if many places have mosques, there is lack of Jama Friday mosque in many areas. Hence people have to travel long distances in order to pray Friday prayers. For those people who are consistent, this is a source of getting additional rewards of travelling but for the general people, it becomes a reason for slowly and gradually quitting the Friday congregation prayers and leads them to pray individually. Companies that don’t allow their employees to go for a few hours for Friday prayers strengthen their reason of quitting the congregation.
Why should I see something that I don't want to see and that can produce impact on me?
4) Stephen R. Covey describes a concept of ‘seeing is being’ in his very famous book ‘The 7 habits of highly effective people’. This concept is so true in all the aspects of life. If someone constantly sees something, there’s a good probability that he will become like that. So there is a great chance that if I live between the non-believers I will become like them, and if my children live among them and see them, they will become like them. This is why if we meet people whose forefathers had migrated to U.S. or U.K. years before, we find many of them as Muslims just by name. Of course if a particular person keeps himself away from evil and keep connected with pious people, he will be saved from such effects, but we should consider the probability of the effect.
Why should I intermix with someone whose culture is not conform to my values?
5) When different cultures live together, they are intermixed with each other and normally the one which is big in number gives more impact on the other. If we study the history of the civilizations, we can clearly find this link. For example, the Muslims and the Hindus of south east Asia lived together for about a thousand year so they transferred their culture and values to each other. Muslims not only gave Hindus their values but also adopted many Hindu customs. Now even after separating from Hindus for about seven decades, we are not able to get rid of Hindu cultural impact and today we notice such impact at the times of sorrow and happiness. The same happens when we live in the western society. The western culture starts inculcating slowly in us and speedily in our children. The first impact that can be seen clearly is the dressing and the second is the language. Soon after migrating to the western society, our brothers and sisters adopt their dressing styles and change it from the eastern taste to the western one. They may feel odd one out between them so they try to look like them. I even noticed some people who visited only for few weeks change their dressing to look similar to them up to some extent. We should seriously think that if a small visit has such effect, what effect they will experience when they actually migrate permanently.
Why should I nurture my children somewhere that can impact their beliefs?
6) Upbringing my children in such an environment can be a major issue as well. We try to keep them away from bad things at home but finally they go to the schools and colleges where they are exposed to the evil. I am not saying that evil is not there in a Muslim society, but the force of evil in a Muslim society is not as powerful as that of in a non-Muslim society. Secondly in a Muslim society, an evil deed may exist but still it is not official and lawful however on the other hand, many evil deeds are officially allowed and recognized as a matter of personal interest of the people. I myself have seen school books where a family is defined as man-woman, man-man and woman-woman. Similarly in the name of sex education, they are not teaching not to have off-marriage sex, instead they teach them how to have safe sex. Moreover the Islamic schools are the schools that offer a subject called ‘Islamic Studies’ and that's it. A child may learn some basic understanding of Islamic concepts and may learn some Arabic Duas as well but the spirit of Islam is not inculcated in the students.
Why should I act cowardly and run away from the problems?
7) One of the main reasons for the people to migrate to the western world is the problems they are facing in their homelands. Problems like poverty, unemployment, high crime rate, safety of self and family, safety of money and property, poor infrastructure and low quality education are some of them in third world countries. First we should understand that all the places have some problems, it’s just the matter of the kind of problems that particular place has. Once we understand the problems of both the worlds, we’ll be able to compare which one has deep effects on ourselves and our family. Secondly a problem always brings an opportunity. The more the problems exist in a society, the more opportunities exist to work on. Instead of becoming self-centered people and running away from the problems, we should face the problems bravely and work to solve them to make our place a better place for our generations.
Why should I sacrifice my relations at the cost of material?
8) Western society is built on the grounds of materialism. Material or money is their driving force. This is why we see everybody working in the western world. Husband and wife both are at the office and kids are at home. When kids grow up as teens, they themselves go to earn money. We see the money controls the relationships. They want to have the power to buy more. This ends up in serious relationship problems and the ratio of complete relationship collapse is much higher in the western world. First they don’t want to make relations, this is why many of them live together without even a relation. And when they have, they don’t have time for their very own relations. Hence we see the day care and old age homes are everywhere. Humans are like assets, when they have their financial value they keep them at home. When they don’t have any financial value, they sent them to an old age care center. If I live in such kind of environment, my relation with my very own relations will on serious threat as there is a great chance that slowly and gradually the same concepts will inculcate in my and my children.
Why should I live so far from my homeland so it's becomes difficult to visit?
9) Distance is another considerable parameter for me. Initially people may visit their homelands one in a year but later it ends up in once every few years and eventually a disconnect with the homeland because it is hard to visit frequently. They are not present at the times of happiness and sorrow. I myself had witnessed people attending their parents’ funeral on video call instead of their physical presence.
Why should I take a risk of getting settled there when my children may not accept to come back later?
10) Some people give reasons that they will go there, live for few years, get the nationality or something and come back. This is practically very difficult and this is why we don’t find a good number of people doing this. Once we are settled somewhere, its really difficult to leave everything and start from zero at another place. Secondly we may come back and adjust as we have our roots in our society but our kids who are grown up in a different world since the beginning just don’t accept this change and normally they are unable to adjust in traditional society.
Why should I bear the oath for a country I have serious ideological conflicts with?
11) When we apply for the nationality of a country, we bear the oath that we will respect and follow all the laws of that country and we will be faithful with the ruler. Some laws in these countries are extremely liberal for example allowing man-man or brother-sister to marry with each other etc. By taking the oath, we are also endorsing to respect such laws. Secondly, almost all the western nations are the front line ally of NATO that is fighting in several Muslim countries and doing mass killings. So why should I follow the laws of a certain nation which is involved in the direct killings of the Muslims in the different countries and the number is increasing with the passage of time?
There are the reasons that are stopping me to take any step to move towards the western world. Of course there can be some good reasons to go there as well, but when I weigh them together, the No wins.
Why should I surrender my freedom of practicing Islam?
3) I should understand that the kind of freedom of practicing Islam we enjoy in Islamic country is not enjoyed in any of the non-Muslim countries. Up to a large extent, we may be allowed to practice the personal matters of Islam freely however we face problems while practicing the collective matters. For example, in a Muslim world, the Muazzin speaks five times a day, loud and clear, that our Lord is Great. In a non-Muslim world, we can not announce our Lord, our Creator and our Sustainer is the Great. Similarly not all the places have mosques, so the prayers with congregation is also compromised. Even if many places have mosques, there is lack of Jama Friday mosque in many areas. Hence people have to travel long distances in order to pray Friday prayers. For those people who are consistent, this is a source of getting additional rewards of travelling but for the general people, it becomes a reason for slowly and gradually quitting the Friday congregation prayers and leads them to pray individually. Companies that don’t allow their employees to go for a few hours for Friday prayers strengthen their reason of quitting the congregation.
Why should I see something that I don't want to see and that can produce impact on me?
4) Stephen R. Covey describes a concept of ‘seeing is being’ in his very famous book ‘The 7 habits of highly effective people’. This concept is so true in all the aspects of life. If someone constantly sees something, there’s a good probability that he will become like that. So there is a great chance that if I live between the non-believers I will become like them, and if my children live among them and see them, they will become like them. This is why if we meet people whose forefathers had migrated to U.S. or U.K. years before, we find many of them as Muslims just by name. Of course if a particular person keeps himself away from evil and keep connected with pious people, he will be saved from such effects, but we should consider the probability of the effect.
Why should I intermix with someone whose culture is not conform to my values?
5) When different cultures live together, they are intermixed with each other and normally the one which is big in number gives more impact on the other. If we study the history of the civilizations, we can clearly find this link. For example, the Muslims and the Hindus of south east Asia lived together for about a thousand year so they transferred their culture and values to each other. Muslims not only gave Hindus their values but also adopted many Hindu customs. Now even after separating from Hindus for about seven decades, we are not able to get rid of Hindu cultural impact and today we notice such impact at the times of sorrow and happiness. The same happens when we live in the western society. The western culture starts inculcating slowly in us and speedily in our children. The first impact that can be seen clearly is the dressing and the second is the language. Soon after migrating to the western society, our brothers and sisters adopt their dressing styles and change it from the eastern taste to the western one. They may feel odd one out between them so they try to look like them. I even noticed some people who visited only for few weeks change their dressing to look similar to them up to some extent. We should seriously think that if a small visit has such effect, what effect they will experience when they actually migrate permanently.
Why should I nurture my children somewhere that can impact their beliefs?
6) Upbringing my children in such an environment can be a major issue as well. We try to keep them away from bad things at home but finally they go to the schools and colleges where they are exposed to the evil. I am not saying that evil is not there in a Muslim society, but the force of evil in a Muslim society is not as powerful as that of in a non-Muslim society. Secondly in a Muslim society, an evil deed may exist but still it is not official and lawful however on the other hand, many evil deeds are officially allowed and recognized as a matter of personal interest of the people. I myself have seen school books where a family is defined as man-woman, man-man and woman-woman. Similarly in the name of sex education, they are not teaching not to have off-marriage sex, instead they teach them how to have safe sex. Moreover the Islamic schools are the schools that offer a subject called ‘Islamic Studies’ and that's it. A child may learn some basic understanding of Islamic concepts and may learn some Arabic Duas as well but the spirit of Islam is not inculcated in the students.
Why should I act cowardly and run away from the problems?
7) One of the main reasons for the people to migrate to the western world is the problems they are facing in their homelands. Problems like poverty, unemployment, high crime rate, safety of self and family, safety of money and property, poor infrastructure and low quality education are some of them in third world countries. First we should understand that all the places have some problems, it’s just the matter of the kind of problems that particular place has. Once we understand the problems of both the worlds, we’ll be able to compare which one has deep effects on ourselves and our family. Secondly a problem always brings an opportunity. The more the problems exist in a society, the more opportunities exist to work on. Instead of becoming self-centered people and running away from the problems, we should face the problems bravely and work to solve them to make our place a better place for our generations.
Why should I sacrifice my relations at the cost of material?
8) Western society is built on the grounds of materialism. Material or money is their driving force. This is why we see everybody working in the western world. Husband and wife both are at the office and kids are at home. When kids grow up as teens, they themselves go to earn money. We see the money controls the relationships. They want to have the power to buy more. This ends up in serious relationship problems and the ratio of complete relationship collapse is much higher in the western world. First they don’t want to make relations, this is why many of them live together without even a relation. And when they have, they don’t have time for their very own relations. Hence we see the day care and old age homes are everywhere. Humans are like assets, when they have their financial value they keep them at home. When they don’t have any financial value, they sent them to an old age care center. If I live in such kind of environment, my relation with my very own relations will on serious threat as there is a great chance that slowly and gradually the same concepts will inculcate in my and my children.
Why should I live so far from my homeland so it's becomes difficult to visit?
9) Distance is another considerable parameter for me. Initially people may visit their homelands one in a year but later it ends up in once every few years and eventually a disconnect with the homeland because it is hard to visit frequently. They are not present at the times of happiness and sorrow. I myself had witnessed people attending their parents’ funeral on video call instead of their physical presence.
Why should I take a risk of getting settled there when my children may not accept to come back later?
10) Some people give reasons that they will go there, live for few years, get the nationality or something and come back. This is practically very difficult and this is why we don’t find a good number of people doing this. Once we are settled somewhere, its really difficult to leave everything and start from zero at another place. Secondly we may come back and adjust as we have our roots in our society but our kids who are grown up in a different world since the beginning just don’t accept this change and normally they are unable to adjust in traditional society.
Why should I bear the oath for a country I have serious ideological conflicts with?
11) When we apply for the nationality of a country, we bear the oath that we will respect and follow all the laws of that country and we will be faithful with the ruler. Some laws in these countries are extremely liberal for example allowing man-man or brother-sister to marry with each other etc. By taking the oath, we are also endorsing to respect such laws. Secondly, almost all the western nations are the front line ally of NATO that is fighting in several Muslim countries and doing mass killings. So why should I follow the laws of a certain nation which is involved in the direct killings of the Muslims in the different countries and the number is increasing with the passage of time?
There are the reasons that are stopping me to take any step to move towards the western world. Of course there can be some good reasons to go there as well, but when I weigh them together, the No wins.
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