What is this thing called IZWAYZ? Well, you already know a little, but this introduction is to provide quite a lot more information. Now, because of its nature IZWAYZ will always be a work in progress, but I can say what it is intended to be and how it got this far.
IZWAYZ is intended to be a website for muslim kids and young muslims (though not exclusively) from pre-school to young adult (as well as adults prepared to think like kids) that will be about Islam, but should help them to understand it in a way that is relevant to the lives they are living in Scotland and the UK, and even the world, a way that makes sense in the same way that things they learn in school make sense. Hopefully they will also find it fun, and be able to enjoy their lives as muslims in the same way that they enjoy other aspects of their lives.
Bearing in mind the constrictions of the original curriculum on which it is based, and the short page content of its format, I have made it as complete and wide-ranging an understanding of Islam as I can manage. For an informational skeleton I am using a curriculum I prepared some years ago for Glasgow's Islamic Education Council, turning that skeleton not into something completely finished, but putting of flesh and fabric on that skeleton in a process that will never end in my lifetime. But then, the whole point about Islam as a way of life is that it reaches into every corner of life and never ends. Like life itself, no matter how much you learn you can never know everything about it, and everywhere you look there is more to see and understand.
So if it isn't finished yet, what is it that we have here? Well, that depends on what you want it to be. The idea of IZWAYZ is that it can be used by all sorts of different people in different ways. Muslim kids will be able to use it in their schools, or in their madrassahs, or in their homes, alone or in groups, with other kids, or with adults who may be teachers or may be learners like themselves. Non-muslim kids will also be able to use it for whatever reasons they might have, perhaps to learn something about the world of Islam for a school project, or to find a way of understanding Islam that helps them find common ground with their muslim friends. This expanded introduction is not for kids however.
Schoolteachers and other education professionals, parents and other adults have different needs, and to a large extent that is the reason that this part of the IZWAYZ site is there alongside the main body of the site. I would like to hope that some of the material provided here will prove useful to teachers, whether they are thinking of using it to provide a greater integration of Islamic understandings into the education of young muslims, or as a resource to add a multicultural element to the subjects they are teaching non-muslims, for co-ordinated staff development at whatever level, for pragmatic purposes, or just for personal satisfaction. Hopefully there is no need for me to explain how the material can be integrated into their own subjects, not just RME and PSD, but Maths, Art, English, Environmental Studies, History, Geography, Modern Studies and so on.
Non-professional teachers, such as muslim parents, or those working in madrassahs or muslim weekend schools, will probably take a different approach to the material that is currently available here, and although they might well need a lot more advice on ways to implement the material available (for example, the diagram below suggests ways of converting a curriculum into educational projects) they will also be able to provide a much richer educational context of Islamic knowledge, and be able to broaden the scope of what is here by sharing their own understandings of Islam and teaching by direct example.
So what is contained in this B&B adjunct to IZWAYZ? Well, the present content is a bit of a hotchpotch for any number of reasons. It goes back nearly 45 years, through a range of hardware and software, originally on tiny Sinclair cassettes, then 5¼ inch really floppy floppies, cd's, and stuff on bits of paper only some of which I have managed to transcribe, with some notes written out fully, and some just outlines, and some barely more than jottings. But they were useful to me, so they may be for someone else. Anyway, after some years in the 80’s and 90’s, I actually went back to paper for lecture/talk notes, but using mind-maps that would take forever to transcribe (for example, below is a lecture I gave on Women in Islam - it starts with red and goes round through the rainbow). But this section of the IZWAYZ website was never meant to be pretty, just accessible, and I've managed to get a fair amount on it.
Finally (almost), who is Michael Malik? Well, as they tend to reply to such a question around here, "Who wants to know?" There was a time in the distant past when I was probably the best known muslim in Scotland, what with giving talks in mosques around the country, and universities, and hospitals, and visiting schools, and doing stuff with teachers, and being involved in all sorts of inter-faith dialogue, and having a regular spot on the radio, and even appearing every now and again on the TV. Those days are long gone, however, and quite frankly I am happy to have left behind the notoriety. But most of the stuff here dates back to those busier times, and if you really want to know more about me in those salad days, I've written a page about it here.
Biography
But I think you would be better off using the time to browse around these pages and see if you can find anything that interests you. I personally prefer the radio stuff, because it's fully scripted, mostly fairly short, not too information heavy, and I usually tried to keep it fairly light in tone. For young muslims, however, it may serve as an example of compression, as in the Thought for the Day scripts, including reference to a current news story, commentary to communicate an Islamic perspective to a wide-ranging non-muslim audience, and a brief quote from Qur’an or Hadith to show that opinion’s Islamic roots. All this to be read live with a strict two minute time frame, with no more than a few seconds allowed either way. For young muslims wishing to be broadcasters, this may be a useful discipline to learn.
Comparatively, the lecture stuff can sometimes come across as really turgid, being as how it tends to be reference heavy, is often written for muslim audiences, and just like the late lamented comedian Frank Carson used to say "It's the way I tell 'em". Then there's all sorts of odds and ends around the site, in the rediscovery of which I have sometimes managed to seriously impress myself, while some bits bored the socks off me. But different horses for different courses, and all that. You pays your money and you takes your choice. Except, of course, that you don't pay your money because it's all free. Unless, of course, you wish to help financially, and help pay for IZWAYZ administration, heat, light and phone bills, in which case you can do that through our Patreon page.
ENJOY