Encyclopedia of Islam

Council on Islamic Education

   

(acronym: CIE)

The Council on Islamic Education is a nonprofit 

American Muslim organization founded in 1990 

to provide curricular advice and to assess instruc-

tional materials used in K–12 public schools in the 

U

nited

 s

tates

. It is based in Fountain Valley, Cali-

fornia, and its founding director is Shabbir Man-

suri, who first came to the United States in 1969 

to study chemical engineering. A group of highly 

qualified Muslim scholars, most of whom hold 

tenured appointments at leading American uni-

versities, provides CIE with the expertise needed 

to undertake its mission. Although it understands 

itself to be an organization that provides advice 

for curricular planning and textbook development 

in a variety of K–12 subject areas, it is primarily 

concerned with ensuring that Muslims and Islam 

are represented in a fair and balanced manner in 

textbooks and other instructional material used 

in world history and religion classes. Seeking to 

operate in conformity with the decision of the 

U.S. Supreme Court in the First Amendment case 

of Abington Township v. Schempp (1963), the CIE 

favors teaching about religion in public schools 

as an aspect of human history and culture and 

not teaching religion for devotional purposes, 

which is not allowed in public schools by the 

First Amendment. In addition to consulting with 

textbook publishers, the CIE conducts pedagogi-

cal workshops and participates in regional and 

national social studies and educational confer-

ences. Together with the First Amendment Cen-

ter, which has offices at Vanderbilt University in 

Tennessee and in Arlington, Virginia, it published 

a study in 2000 entitled “Teaching about Religion 

in National and State Social Studies Standards.” 

Among its other publications are teachers’ guides 

on Muslim 

holidays

, Muslim 

Women

, Islamic lit-

erature, the c

rUsades

, and Islam’s contributions 

to the formation of Western civilization. The CIE 

has rejected charges made by critics who say that 

the organization promotes a negative view of the 

United States and Western civilization as well as