Saturday School at Bloomfield Muslim Unity Center

By Adil James, TMO

Bloomfield Hills–September   7–School is in session, and now Saturday and Sunday Schools are also going into session to begin the education of our children in Islamic information as well as secular knowledge.

The Bloomfield Saturday school is scheduled to begin very soon, September 14th, and finish May 3, 2014, after 29 weeks.  Tuition is $700 per year ($50 discount for additional siblings).  “There are scholarships and you can pay slowly–we are a not-for-profit, we want to serve the community.”

The school will be from 11AM to 2PM Saturdays.

There are scholarships available and the staff wants to make the school as available as possible to people.

There are three main areas of study, Arabic, Qur`an, and Islamic Studies.

About 40 kids were in the class last year, and this year about the same number of students are expected.

About 20 people attended the meeting about the school, at which Imam Masmary and several officers and teachers of the high school Saturday school spoke.

All of those who spoke at the event last Saturday appear to be very well prepared for their duties at the school.  The director of the program is Sarah Alfaham, who studied the running of not-for-profits during her schooling.  The teachers also appeared to be very well trained–for example one woman who spoke briefly at the introductory session Saturday was a hafiz recently arrived from Syria who has ijaza to teach–she will be teaching Qur`an and Islamic Studies.

She taught for seven years in Syria, has ijaza, will teach “tajweed, makharij, all about reading Qur`an.  “I focus on reading, not memorizing, simple tajweed.”

One teacher has taught second languages at the university level.  Another has trained in college to teach Arabic as a second language and has taught at the high school level.

An administrator pointed out that one of the beautiful things about the program is the many friendships that grew between the students who participated.  High school students, she pointed out, are very social–and this program is an open door to meet new friends.  “You can make new friends, play basketball and hang out.”

25 students are already signed up for this year–and more are expected to sign up.

To sign up, call 248-857-9200.

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