Caribbean Islamic Education in the Digital Age

This analysis examines the critical challenges and opportunities facing Islamic education in the contemporary era. It argues that the digital revolution, while granting unprecedented access to information, simultaneously threatens the traditional teacher-student knowledge chain (isnad) and exposes learners to unvetted content, making it difficult to discern authentic scholarship. The modern educational landscape, still dominated by secular, Victorian-era bureaucratic models focused on standardization, is contrasted with Islam’s historical apprenticeship approach, which emphasized legacy, mastery, and ethical formation.

A central tension identified is between a modern paradigm of research-for-its-own-sake, often devoid of an ethical framework, and Islam’s directed model of knowledge-seeking, which is consciously tempered by divine accountability and jurisprudential regulations. Furthermore, the current fragmentation among Islamic institutions, each following different scholars and curricula, hinders the development of a unified, recognized body of qualified scholars.

The conclusion calls for a proactive future strategy: the development of standardized core syllabi across major Islamic sciences, the establishment of a recognized international accreditation body, and a cautious approach to external influences that seek to set the research agenda. By integrating the ethical strengths of its tradition with structured, collaborative modernization, Islamic education is positioned to catalyze a new golden age of human development, effectively transmitting knowledge for the betterment of global society.

This paper was submitted to the Islamic Education Workshop - Networking Conference with International Institute of Islamic Thought at the St. Joseph Mosque, Trinidad, on 11/07/2017