Mecca of learning

Stacy J. Willis

Friday, Jan. 19, 2001 | 11:13 a.m.

They are standing on the construction site talking about God, about science, about children.

Four Muslims -- two women wearing head scarves, a crisp-suited man and a construction foreman -- are traipsing through this partially completed Henderson building, through their partially completed dream of constructing the Las Vegas Valley's first Islamic school for children.

"This has taken years of work," Dr. Osama Haikal, president of the school and a local physician, said. "As a community, we are very proud of this."

The Omar Haikal Islamic Academy, named for Haikal's father, is scheduled to open in August. Ultimately, it is expected to enroll 250 K-8 children -- about 40 have already enrolled.

But this 28,000 square-foot, $4 million school near Warm Springs Road and Interstate 215 represents more than education -- it also speaks to the rising size and cohesion of the Las Vegas Muslim community.

Las Vegas is home to nearly 8,000 Muslims who fill three mosques. The nonprofit, private school -- which sits on 5 acres adjacent to Louis Weiner Jr. Elementary School -- is funded entirely by donations from local Muslims.

Nationwide, there are about 4 million Muslims, up from 800,000 only 30 years ago. Worldwide there are about 850 million Muslims. "When I came to Las Vegas in the mid-1980s there were just a few Muslim families here," Shaban Kaboud, construction foreman, said as he led Haikal and the school's principal and board secretary through the site. "It has grown a lot.

"The problem is that it is really difficult to practice your religion in a public school. It's nearly impossible. And we believe it is very important for our children to be educated in an Islamic atmosphere."

The school has 12 classrooms, a computer lab and a science lab. It also has a 5,600 square-foot multipurpose room that will be used for everything from basketball games to daily prayer.

Muslims pray five times a day. The school will be equipped with a ceramic bathing area, where children will be taught the ritual of cleansing before prayer.

"They will take off their shoes and roll their sleeves up, and the boys will go to one of the four faucets on this side and the girls will go to one of the four faucets on the other side, and they will wash," Haikal said. "It is a way to prepare for each prayer, washing your hands and face and feet in respect.

"Then they will put their slippers on, and take a prayer mat and go to the multipurpose room to pray."

Haikal has three children -- ages 10, 8, and 4, who will attend the school. Although the Muslim community had been considering building a school for years, Haikal took the reins three years ago after becoming disenchanted with the education offered in public schools.

"If there is one reason I consented to do this project, it is the science lab. As a physician, I know that you not only need to learn from books, but you need hands-on experience," Haikal, a gastrointerologist, said. "I do not believe the public schools here are strong enough in math and science."

He hopes to keep the student-teacher ratio under 17 to 1.

"We intend to be competitive for teachers. We have begun recruiting for teachers nationwide. We will offer a very competitive salary and benefits package to teachers, because we want the best," Haikal said.

Tuition is $2,500 per year for kindergartners and $3,500 per year for 1st- through 8th-graders. As a nonprofit organization, the school is open to non-Muslims as well as Muslims.

Muslims believe that the prophet Muhammed received divine revelation from God (Allah) in Saudi Arabia in the 7th century, and that the Koran is that sacred scripture. To Muslims, the Koran is confirmed by and confirms the Torah and the gospels of Jesus. They believe all true prophets have delivered essentially the same message of love, but they reject the idea that Jesus died to save humanity. Instead, they believe each individual is personally responsible to God.

Muslims espouse in five tenets, or pillars, of faith: There is one God and Muhammed is his prophet. One must pray five times a day -- sunrise, midday, afternoon, sunset and night. A 2.5 percent tax on annual income, called a "zakat" must be given to help the needy. Muslims should fast during the days of the holy month of Ramadan. And, if possible, one should make the pilgrimmage to the holy Mecca at least once in a lifetime.

Children at the Haikal Islamic Academy will attend classes on the Koran, Arabic, and Islamic history in addition to math, science and English, according to principal Mary Fareed. Fareed, who like most Muslim women wears a head scarf as a sign of modesty before God, was recruited from an Islamic school in Chicago.

Her sister-in-law, Elaine Fareed, is on the school's board of trustees and has enrolled her two children.

"My husband and I were thinking of moving to Baltimore a few years ago, and we were very attracted to the fact that they have a Muslim school," Elaine Fareed, who converted from Christianity to Islam three years ago, said. "But that was when the talk of building a school here started, and we decided to stay.

"It is that important to us. The fact that the Muslim community was building an Islamic school here -- a place for our children to learn their faith and receive a quality education -- was the major appeal for us to stay," Elaine Fareed said. "It is a milestone for our community."