Presentation by Hajja Atika Jiménez Montes at the ́International Hispano-Moroccan Congress ́, University of Seville.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY, IMMIGRATION AND EDUCATIONAL INCLUSION.

Hajja Atika, Isabel Jimenez Montes. Member of the Committee.
Representative of the Islamic Cultural Center of Seville.   When I was studying teaching, I read educational experiences in books, which were developed in other places, and I was interested in them with a certain admiration. And now I see myself here before you to talk to you about how this has happened in my life. I became a Muslim many years ago, that is, I accepted Islam, another culture? No, I am Spanish and so is my husband, we have been educated here in the West. Under these guidelines and with the vision of reality that you have, that we have. When my children were born, we lived with a small community, with other Muslims who had also accepted Islam, we are what are called converts. At that time the migratory phenomenon was incipient, at least here in Seville. I realized that Islam is not a culture… I am not going to go into details of the definition, because it is not the issue… it is a path, a paradigm of existence based on UNITY and on the BELIEF of Allah (s.w.a). We had, as a matter of principle, to preserve our children from the teaching that was given in schools during the first years. We formed a community and had the help of a great teacher, Elisabeth García Passaró. I will not explain the importance of those years in a child’s life for their future development. But before this audience, we know that giving them the opportunity of a wonderfully “illiterate” childhood immersed absolutely in the atmosphere of the word, of listening and narration, of the story, of their family history, which means conversation, closeness, look, deep experience of the passage of time, serenity, intimacy… but you future professionals already know it. Thus, when they arrived at school, at different ages, they were an enriching element in the classroom. The teachers lived it that way and told me about it. In the newsrooms, in their points of view in situations, in their behaviors and attitude of courtesy and obedience in difficulties… in short, in being different. Some went to school earlier and others were 12 years old, others… they took the university entrance exams for those over 25 years of age and are studying university degrees. There were no problems, those were other times. The director of the institute accepted them and we still remember, when we found the good work of all the educational factors… institution, family, student and community. This is called educational inclusion. One more possibility among all those that you have been able to refer to here. A clear way to recognize diversity. The different, the other I miss… as an element of coexistence. I will refer to the colonization of the peoples who have been subjugated, losing all their heritage, their way of life and even their properties and belongings, being submerged in reserves, refugee camps… but that is also another issue. These days, immigrants are experienced and felt as a problem and in the worst case if they are Muslims as terrorists. The media are already in charge of confusing and intimidating citizens. Creating fear, of the strange, in a people serves to increase the power of the state and curtail individual freedoms. It is not something new. They have been doing it throughout history… But this is not the issue either. In the West, here, with our system of freedoms, we do not consent to the manifestation of other beliefs; and in the closest case of our Moroccan Muslim neighbors, we have no dignified places to pray or bury our dead. I could give examples of rejection by citizens in these two matters. The project to build a cultural centre here in Seville would be the place and the most appropriate form of relationship for the immigrant with the city. It is through the Sevillian Muslims that it is possible to establish links of integration with the citizens without losing what their life and their beliefs mean. As a legitimate mediator to understand and resolve possible conflicts that may arise. I have acquaintances who have told me, even what the president of the Azarquiel association has just said, not what TV tells, that they have grown up in countries such as Morocco, Turkey or Jordan with children of other faiths, Christians or Jews near their schools. Coexistence is possible, as Muslims have shown in other times and we are doing it now with our families and neighbours; because Islam is always the middle way, the way of balance between this world and the hereafter. Extremism is for unbalanced and sick people… but this is not the issue either. All human beings are different, each one of us has a purpose in this world, what we have to do is articulate society with legal measures that allow different options to move from a position of assimilation and the worst case of pure assimilism to an active posture, which changes the hearts of each one… And we teachers know a lot about that.