Ever since the World Trade Center was attacked, New York teachers have faced a unique and daunting challenge: how to discuss the nature of Islam in their multicultural classrooms. New York City is home to over 100 cultures, with Muslims comprising 16 percent of the city's population, and teachers are struggling to lead their students through the increasingly complex maze of current religious, geographical and political issues.

Part of the challenge, according to experts at a recent one-day workshop at Teachers College (TC), is that the practices, prayers and rituals of Islam are as diverse as the students in New York City schools. Sponsored by Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at TC, and a coalition of regional institutes, the workshop entitled "World Islam After the WTC" provided teachers with current analyses of Muslim states throughout the world to assist their teaching. "We felt (the workshop) would be a good way to reach out to the larger community," said Kevin Hallinan, assistant director for the Institute on East Central Europe, one of the hosts of the workshops.

The forty or so teachers who attended the event agreed. Representing over twenty public and private schools from New York City and Westchester, K-12 educators listened as scholars described daily life for Muslims in countries where they are a majority (such as Indonesia, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan) and where they are a minority (such as India and the Balkans). Lisa Anderson, dean of SIPA, explored the issues facing Muslims in North Africa, Peter Sinnott, associate professor in SIPA, discussed the Islamic ramifications for Central Asia, and Gary Sick, senior research scholar at SIPA, reviewed the diversity of Islamic life in Iran.

Panelist Louis Cristillo, a researcher at the The Muslim Communities in NYC Project (part of SIPA's Middle East Institute), said he'd been receiving numerous calls from the media and from schools to speak on the subject of Muslims in New York and specifically, on the backlash Arabs and Muslims have experienced since the WTC attacks. He hoped teachers could help students challenge their perceptions of diverse ethnic and religious groups. "The ethnic diversity of Muslims in the U.S. and in New York City cannot be overemphasized," Cristillo told the teachers. "Muslims here represent other countries of origin, many are not Arab speakers, and many were minorities in their native countries." Cristillo said Muslims themselves often cannot believe the range of diversity between Muslims in New York, and that such respect for diversity could be stressed in the classroom.

As a comparative study, Irwin Wall, adjunct professor of history, presented an overview of Islam in France, a country most like the U.S. in terms of multiculturalism. Knowing the issues facing Muslims—many of whom are second and third generation North Africans facing regular employment and housing discrimination—could provide a helpful perspective for the U.S. "Islam is the second religion in France, a nation which prides itself on not being religious," Wall said. "Though four to five million Muslims live in France, many of whom are citizens, there is a shortage of Mosques and often building permits are refused by local authorities."

Islam is diverse and must be understood within cultural terms, panelists and educators agreed at the workshop. Teachers were also led through breakout sessions to help develop specific curriculum for their classes, and went back to their schools with additional resources and multiple insights to navigate their students toward a better understanding of Islam throughout the world.