The refugee children’s Islamic educational program at the Islamic Center of Irving is perhaps a unique and “One of a Kind” program in the entire Dallas/Ft Worth area. Of the thousands of Kosovan and Bosnian refugee families resettled in the United States several hundred families have moved to the Dallas /Ft Worth area. In almost all cases the families are with several young children. With parents barely literate in English, working near minimum wage jobs and busy adjusting to life in America the spiritual and Islamic educational needs of the children are in almost all cases ignored completely. The socio-cultural challenges facing these families in America coupled with the historical challenges faced by Balkan Muslims the outlook for Islam in the lives of these children is grim.

The program started nearly 5 years ago by the Grace of Allah (SWT) to fulfill the Islamic educational needs of these refugee children to prevent another tragedy on them. It is the opinion of many that unless an Islamic program is in place for these children a vast majority of them would leave the fold of Islam in a few years. Muslims all over the world were horrified, and rushed to help Kosovars and Bosnians when pictures of the atrocities in the Balkan were in the nightly news. This program is designed to fight a more devastating tragedy only Slowly & Silently; the drifting away from Islam by Muslim children.

The parents of these Muslim children were completely unaware of the real purpose of the “Sunday program for children”. Now Alhamdulillah, the same group of children has been attending an Islamic program at the Islamic Center of Irving. In addition to the group of children from Ft Worth, about another 40 refugee children of Kosovar and Bosnian origin from the Dallas metro area and Lewisville attend the program. Although the program got started to help Muslim refugee children from the Balkans in the past few months the program has expanded to include nearly 40 Somali refugee children too.

The program began with 9 Kosovan children in February 2000 presently nearly 100 refugee children (Kosovo, Bosnian and Somali) in the metro area benefit from it every week. Islamic Center of Irving has purchased 2 passenger vans (15-Seater) solely to provide free transportation to the children. On Saturdays and Sundays students meet in a classroom setting for 3 hours of instructions.

The program covers all aspects of Islamic education including the learning of Arabic. Islamic textbooks, notebooks, hijabs, lunch, and transportation are all provided free at no cost to the children. Picnics, soccer games and field trips are also organized periodically. The program is run mostly by volunteers, and a few paid instructors for the children. The program costs nearly $25,000 per year, and depends mostly on the Irving Muslim Community for financial assistance. Additional support for the program comes from organizations such as IANT and ICNA (Dallas chapter).

Important: We need volunteers to pick and bring refugee children to the masjid and drop them back to their homes every week end. One way service will also do. It will come out to be bi-weekly basis if more volunteers.
If interested, write an email to Refugees@IrvingMasjid.org