European Journal of Scientific Research - EuroJournals

Islam and Education from Religious Man’s Perspectives 383
• In each school a room can be converted into a praying room where students can practice praying
there.
• It should be a must to take pedagogy courses for the teachers who offer religion courses to be able
to make students love religion. It would be perfect if Imams themselves study pedagogy and offer
these courses.
• The credit of religion courses should be increased. Religion courses should be a must course like
mathematics course and like mathematics and Turkish courses, a high grade should be required to
pass religion courses.
• The books studied at school are very useful as the authors are professors from Turkey who studied
religious issues in depth. However, the religion teachers do not show any attempt to cover all the
topics in detail and skip a lot of important issues. Those topics which are studied in class are
covered in a very surface
• level without going into details. This method should change.
• In summers or at the weekends, special religion courses should be held with the permission and
cooperation of the government and children should be sent to these courses. In this way, we may
have youth who both give importance to their government and to their religion.
• If girls and boys study separately, our religion will be affected in a very positive way and things
will be better in many ways.
• Opening religious schools should not be banned.
Suggestions made for Families to improve Religious Education
Imams then provided insights for what families do to improve the religious education of their children.
• Firstly Imams all agreed that the young parents themselves first should be given training on
growing well behaved, decent children first by attending to seminars, conferences and discussion
groups which need to be supported by government officials.
• Families should work cooperatively with the religious establishments to be able to help their
children grow in a morally acceptable ways.
• According to Imams, the best school is home and the best teachers are the parents so after getting
enough experience and knowledge on our religion, the parents should inspire their children about
the beauties of Islam and the importance of behaving in a decent manner.
• Families can also hire private religion teachers for their children at an early age.
• It is also suggested that families should encourage their children for drinking a cup of tea once a
week with Imams, retired elders in mosques to chat on certain topics in a supportive atmosphere.
This would be highly effective to guide the youth to a desirable direction.
The Effect of European Union on Religious Values
Imams were asked to comment on what will happen to our religious values if we join to European
Union. Data indicate that a sizeable majority of Imams believe that our religious values will be affected
positively if we join to European Union. They claim that the quality in religion education will increase
because in order to be able to explain our religion to foreigners, we will definitely feel the need to
study our religion in detail. As there will be continuous contact with Christians, our people will master
their religion more. On seeing that Christians are more devoted to their religion, our society will start
to realize the values they lost. A few Imams gave Turks living in Germany as an example at this point.
They discussed that Turks living in Germany together with European people are more religious than
Turks living in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus or Turkey because of observing the importance
foreigners show to their religion. One Imam said we will be more free, so we will be able to wear
whatever we want. If the girls who are studying in the universities here want to cover their faces, they