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Arabica in America

By Osama Duwaji

As the marker squeaks along the white board, squiggly black words appear, and the eighth-grade students watch as their teacher Sofiane Hafiani utters the Arabic words he is writing. The words twist and bend, cascading from right to left like waves crashing on a beach. The 15 students begin to copy the descending Arabic poetry, or sh’ir, while their teacher reads the verses with a booming voice. “Your homework for Tuesday is to memorize the first 15 lines of this poem and to recite them next class,” Hafiani says.

The unfazed students of Al-Noor Academy, a small private Islamic school in Mansfield, Massachusetts, finish copying the poetry down and then scurry along to their next class. Hafiani’s classroom is decorated with photos of the sacred mosque in Makah, Saudi Arabia. A large bulletin board near the door is covered with Arabic poetry similar to the verses he just assigned. The sunlight from the first warm Monday of the year reflects off the board as it shines from the room’s three windows, giving the Arabic script a surreal appearance.

“See these poems,” he tells a lingering student in his slight Arab accent as he points to the bulletin board. “These were the best seven poems written by the Arabs at the time of Muhammad. They were all hung on the doors of the grand mosque for everyone to read. The poem we’re studying now is one of them. ” The student grins, nervously wiping his hand over his hair, and then mutters something in Arabic to which Hafiani smiles and replies, “You’ll get there someday.”

Hafiani looks as if he escaped from the 17th century. He stands at about five and a half feet tall with longish black hair combed back and away from his bespectacled brown eyes. His goatee is long while the rest of his face is bare and white. As he walks around with an upright back and carefully measured footsteps, he looks a little like Napoleon. Although his personality commands respect, he will smile at his students when they succeed and tease them when they make mistakes.

Hafiani is originally Algerian and came to the United States in 1993 as a bright 22-year-old looking to continue an education in math and science. He majored in chemistry and physics in an Algerian university but eventually left the country looking to earn a higher degree as most Algerian students do when they show academic potential. After studying at the University of New Hampshire, he graduated with a degree in computer science but admits he never bothered pursuing that career.

“I was always much more interested in Arabic literature and Islamic theology. Should I have gone into the sciences? I mean sure, my wallet would have been full, but my heart would have been empty,” he says.

When he arrived in the United States, Hafiani became aware of the dire situation of many Muslims living in North America. “I was shocked at the lack of religious educators in the Muslim communities, specifically ones who were good with the Arabic, and I found that this was an opportunity for my real interests to resurface,” he says.

On his journey to help build the American Muslim identity, he has worked as a Muslim summer camp counselor, a religious advisor, and a weekend Arabic school principal before finding the place where he feels he can make the most impact: the rising number of full time Islamic schools.

While Hafiani lacks a degree from an Islamic institution that would help him achieve his goals, he has nevertheless become renowned in the greater Boston area for his unmatched knowledge of Arabic and his deep understanding of Islamic rulings. His role as a teacher in Al-Noor has prompted his desire to pursue a degree from an Islamic university overseas. “I’d like to meet up with higher powers to help me sharpen my curriculum,” he says.

As the next class shuffles in, it is obvious that these students have much more advanced Arabic skills. The ten 11th graders all pass-in their midterm essays, which were typed in the school’s Arabic word processors. Hafiani speaks to them only in Arabic and when a student accidentally speaks in English, she is forced to give up 50 cents which in turn goes towards building the school’s new basketball court.

The students seem to be unaware that it is Monday morning. They stare wide-eyed with their backs erect and their hands flailing as Hafiani captivates the class and engages them with questions about last night’s reading. He occasionally cracks jokes on students who supply incorrect answers. The students laugh at each other, but they all take their turns being the victim. After the class, the board is once again infested with squiggly black words, and Hafiani carries a jar clinking with three dollars worth of quarters down to the principal’s office.

Al- Noor Academy is located on a dead-end street in residential Mansfield, about 20 miles south of Boston. Islamic schools conform to the regular teaching requirements such as English, math, social studies, and science. But they also offer Arabic and Islamic studies classes in an effort to help build an American Muslim identity.

Al-Noor resides in what used to be an unused multi-story house that a group of Muslims bought it in 2000 to serve the growing number of Muslims in the area. They renovated and expanded the house to include classrooms, offices, and a large prayer hall that faces Makah. The school is both a middle and high-school and has a combined total of 85 students whose parents come from very diverse ethnic backgrounds. Most students are Pakistani and Arab, but other students are Turkish, Somali, and even Caucasian American.

Islamic Academy of New England, which is located six miles away in Sharon, Massachusetts, was built four years before Al-Noor and is the first Islamic school built in New England. Today it hosts 120 preschool, kindergarten and elementary school students on what used to be a 50-acre farm, giving these younger students much greener pastures than those Al-Noor offers.

Back at Al-Noor, Hafiani’s stroll through the school’s main hallway is interrupted several times by students who want something clarified or simply want to offer a “Salam Alaikum,” the Muslim greeting that means peace be onto you. He marches past several classes being held in English about American history, biology, and algebra. The school is close-knit, and Hafiani knows every teacher and student he runs into.

As he reaches the main office five minutes later, Hafiani finds the principal, Justin Velanzola, standing near a bulletin board posting the names of students who made the honor roll. Velanzola stops what he’s doing and the two men exchange greetings and shake hands. He then brings Hafiani into the main office where they each drink their morning cup of coffee while talking about how the school’s soccer team fared the night before in its first match.

Velanzola joined the faculty of Al-Noor six years ago as a social studies teacher but now serves as the principal. After his predecessor retired, most of the staff, including Velanzola, thought Hafiani would become the school’s principal. Velanzola said that “his popularity with the school board, the parents, and the students in addition to his understanding of the way Islamic schools work made him a much better candidate.” But Hafiani rejected the nomination even after the Al-Noor board insisted that he accept the position. Hafiani was much more interested in teaching Arabic and religion and once again opted out of another potential career.

“My role as an educator is simply more important to me. We’re trying to build a generation of American Muslims [who]understand their religion well enough to be able to present it better to the rest of the world,” Hafiani says proudly. “And you never know, this could be the stepping stone for putting together a brighter world where people understand each other. I see teaching Arabic, as irrelevant as it may seem to Muslims in the U.S., as the first step in the long journey.”

Superintendent and co-founder of Islamic Academy of New England and Al-Noor Academy, Dr. Abdul Badi Abusamra, said that the main problem with Islamic schools is the “lack of teachers who understand Arabic and Islam and can teach them to second and third generation Muslims who need to be convinced that this stuff is important. We’ve got plenty [of teachers] lined up for math, science, and social studies. One of the reasons he [Hafiani] is so important is that he makes Arabic and Islam challenging, stimulating, and relevant.”

Hafiani’s next class is 12th grade advanced Islamic studies. Unlike the other religion classes he teaches, this one is taught completely in Arabic. By the time his students reach their senior year, their Arabic is strong enough to use the classic Islamic canons as primary sources for their learning. Reading these texts in Arabic is equivalent to reading the Bible or the works of St. Paul in Latin.

This class doesn’t use a textbook, and Hafiani doesn’t look at any notes or books while teaching the class. His curriculum is his own.

“The needs of Muslims here in the U.S. are very different than the needs of Muslims anywhere else in the world. I never found a book that comprehensively explains what a Muslim in the U.S. in the 21st century needs to know. So I give them the tools they need and then go by what I think is important,” he says. His curriculum is eclectic and draws from different chapters of Arabic books of Islamic theology that the students are expected to read for homework every night.

After the class, Hafiani’s star pupil, a senior named Muhammad El-Asmar, stays to ask Hafiani an additional question about the reading. El-Asmar calls Hafiani by his first name, revealing a relationship that is built on both education and friendship.

El-Asmar, who’s been through most of his grade school in the Islamic schools, said “I remember before Sofiane [Hafiani] came we used to have some really unqualified teachers. I’m guessing they would just hire the first guy that walked into the mosque who spoke Arabic. But when he first came, the students were, like, wow this guy knows his stuff. And, he’s cool too.”

Hafiani chuckles at the compliment. “Let’s hope they don’t find a better teacher, and then I’ll be the one to get fired,” he says.

Another one of his 12th grade students, Sofia Mansur, said that “everything we learn in this class is relevant to what’s happening in the world right now. He teaches us the Arabic so we can go directly to the original Islamic sources, and then he makes that reading relevant to what’s going on in the world today. We always talk about the hot topics… Does Islam condone violence? Does Islam support oppression of women? Is Islam compatible with the 21st century? He teaches us that Islam is very different than the way the media portrays it, and he gives us undeniable proof to reinforce that. He’s a voice of moderation.”

After school, Hafiani and six of his students, known as the “Hafiani fan club,”walk over to the nearest Dunkin Donuts where he treats them to iced coffee to celebrate the arrival of spring. They all sit at a table in the far corner where you can see Al-Noor and together they sip their mocha iced lattes and iced coffees as they watch students walking out of school.

Hafiani shares a story about the time he borrowed a friend’s car and almost died from carbon monoxide poisoning because it had a muffler problem. An hour later, the ice from the iced coffees has melted and the talk shifts to issues that confront them as Muslims in America.

Ahmed Mufti, an 11th grader and member of the Hafiani fan club, said that “whenever you are with Sofiane [Hafiani], you just let him do the talking. He’s brilliant. He’s the type of guy who’ll understand your problem before you can even fully explain it.”

Hafiani eventually calls an end to the meeting because it is time to pick up his sons Jubayre and Malek, ages 10 and 6, from school. They both attend the Islamic Academy of New England, so Hafiani motors over in his beige ’97 Toyota Camry to pick them up. On the way there, he tunes to WBUR for the latest news on what’s happening in the world but finds the spring fund drive underway so he shuts it off.

After driving through streets carved right into the woods of Sharon, Masachusetts, he reaches the school and finds his sons waiting side-by-side behind the glass front doors looking very impatient. They’re the last kids to get picked up, and they seem ready to let their father know that. All is well once they notice he’s walking towards them carrying a Dunkin Donuts bag.

They have brown hair unlike their father’s black, but they look very much like he does and share his facial expressions. Aside from their English, they only speak classic Arabic because Hafiani wants their ears tuned to quality Arabic from early on.

“I only speak to my kids in classical Arabic. I think it’s pretty neat. Having a kid that speaks classic Arabic is like having a kid that speaks in Shakespearean English,” he says smiling sheepishly and watching from his rear-view mirror as his kids munch on honey- glazed donuts.

* * *

On Friday, the Al-Noor high-school students present their research projects on current Islamic issues to an audience of roughly 200 people in the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon. Hafiani is the host and coordinator of the event and starts by welcoming the four judges onto the stage. The judges are the imams, or knowledgeable spiritual leaders, of four other mosques in the area. As Hafiani stands next to the imams, you get a sense of his potential.

Hafiani begins the evening with a speech in Arabic, and a silence falls over the packed social hall. He then switches to English and delivers an equally moving speech about the importance of educating children in Islamic schools. With that out of his way, he announces the names of the students who will present and their respective topics.

Hafiani’s students perform excellently, and the judges announce that all of the presentations were remarkable, making it very difficult to choose winners. The winners, mostly graduating seniors, are awarded ten-volume sets of an Arabic book of Quranic interpretation written by a famous 14th century scholar named Ibn Katheer.

Superintendent Dr. Abusamra then comes up to the stage to surprise Hafiani with a plaque honoring his work and achievements in Al-Noor. Hafiani steps up to the microphone and addresses the audience after accepting the plaque. “You know what this means?” he asks. “More difficult Arabic homework,” he says smiling, and the audience roars with laughter.

Students who graduated from Al-Noor have gone on to attend top colleges and universities in the area including University of Massachusetts, Suffolk University, Northeastern University, Boston College, Boston University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Despite this success, Al-Noor has yet to become accredited.

Superintendant Dr. Abusamra says “accreditation really needs to be the next step for this school; otherwise it becomes really hard to continue progress. The roughly 300 full time Islamic schools in America are all moving to become official, and those that have are seeing the most success.”

As Hafiani works with the school board to get Al-Noor accredited, he finds himself looking much farther into the future. He wants to make an “institution that trains other Arabic and Islamic studies teachers,” he says.

“Twenty years from now, we should have Muslims all over America standing up side-by-side with their fellow Americans against violence and injustice instead of avoiding the microphone. If we’re organized and can teach these kids efficiently, there’s no reason they can’t step up to the plate,” he says.

Until then, Hafiani can be found marker in hand, scrawling on a whiteboard as he recites the lyrics of an ancient poem to crowds of listening students.

Works cited

Abusamra, Abdul Badi. Personal Interview. 18 April, 2008.

Al-Noor Academy website.
http://anahs.org/

El-Asmar, Muhammad. Personal Interview. 14 April, 2008.

Hafiani, Jubayre. Personal Interview. 14 April, 2008.

Hafiani, Malek. Personal Interview. 14 April, 2008.

Hafiani, Sofiane. Personal interview. 14 April, 2008.

Islamic Academy of New England website.
http://www.iane.org

Kocian, Lisa. “Going Mainstream”. The Boston Globe 18 October, 2007.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/18/going_mainstream/

Mansur, Sofia. Personal Interview. 14 April, 2008.

Mufti Ahmed. Personal Interview. 18 April, 2008.

Velanzola, Justin. Personal Interview. 14 April, 2008.

Worth, Robert. “Arabic Lessons.” The New York Times 6 January, 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/books/
review/Worth-t.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

7 Bristol ln. East Walpole, MA 02032

Fuad Al-Rasheed
Al Jumuah
P.O. Box 5387
Madison WI, 53705-538

Dear Mr. Al-Rasheed,

Sofiane Hafiani is a rising Arabic and Islamic studies teacher from Al-Noor Academy, an Islamic school located in Mansfield, Ma. I recently spoke to Hafiana about his goals as a teacher. I am enclosing an article about him.

Upon arrival to the United States Hafiani became aware of the dire situation of many Muslims living in North America. “I was shocked at the lack of religious educators in the Muslim communities, specifically ones who were good with the Arabic, and I found that this was an opportunity for my real interests to resurface,” he says.

While Hafiani lacks a degree from an Islamic institution that would help him achieve his goals, he has nevertheless become renowned in the greater Boston area for his unmatched strength in Arabic and his deep understanding of Islamic rulings. His role as a teacher in Al-Noor has prompted his desire to pursue a degree from an Islamic university overseas. “I’d like to meet up with higher powers to help me sharpen my curriculum,” he says.

Hafiani’s story sheds light on the struggles facing the American Muslim community while highlighting the successes of the new Islamic schools. This article expands on the theme of American Muslim teenagers in your recent publications and offers insight into the small percentage of these teenagers that find themselves in Muslim schools.

Sincerely,
Osama Duwaji