Islam and education policy reform in the southern Philippines

The devolution of control over education policy in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao of the southern Philippines has led, in recent years, to efforts to Islamise education in the region, a trend reflective of similar efforts in other Southeast Asian Muslim countries but often seen as worrisome by secular observers concerned about the alleged radicalising influences of Islamic education. This essay critically examines two approaches to the Islamisation of education proposed by Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas and Fazlur Rahman, arguing that Islamisation of education in Muslim Mindanao is more likely to take a pragmatic than fundamentalist course.