Muslim sex education: just say no

ISLAMIC schools in Australia have adopted a sex education policy aimed at overturning the influence of Western sexual values on their students.
Under the policy, non-Muslim teachers would be banned from teaching sexual health classes. Students would be taught that pre-marital sex and homosexuality were anti-Islamic and therefore prohibited.
Otherwise, Muslim teenagers were in danger of forming their attitudes to sex from un-Islamic sources such as newspapers, magazines, television and the internet, the policy said.
"Thus Muslim youth may end up getting the wrong notion of sex, as for example, safe sex is OK," the document, Sex Education Policy: an Islamic Perspective, says. "It is imperative that the Islamic attitude to sex should win the race over the Western attitude to sex in reaching the minds of Muslim youth."
The policy has been adopted by private schools that are members of the Australian Council for Islamic Education in Schools.
One of the report's authors, Mohamed Hassan, the principal of Minaret College, in Springvale, Melbourne, said Islamic sex education classes would not include discussion about "safe sex" - the use of condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases - because it encouraged promiscuity.
"If you are going to tell kids that safe sex is OK, you are more or less encouraging them in this behaviour. But it is not acceptable outside marriage," he said.
Meanwhile, experts in teenage sexual health have warned that sexual diseases will become rampant among young Australians if state governments continued to avoid introducing a universal sex education program into all schools.
A leading adolescent health expert, Professor Susan Sawyer, said the rising rates of sexually transmitted infections among under 25-year-olds, could soon reach levels found in the US.

Informal Islamic Education and its Role in Human Resource Development in Society: A Theoretical Evaluation

Abstract: This article attempts to focus on Islamic education in the informal setting, its
correspondence with human resource development and the role of this development to create a
sound and balanced environment in society with  moral and spiritual values. Firstly, the paper
addresses education and its function in general and then education from Islamic perspective.
Secondly, it discusses the character of informal Islamic education, the role players of the field of
informal Islamic education, their  status as teachers, the role of  a teacher, the competencies of a
teacher, and teacher - learner relationship in the light of Islamic culture and heritage. Finally, a
proposal on the specific subject of Informal Islamic education and the strategies of imparting it are
presented in the article.
1. Introduction:
Education enlightens people on culture and values. Islam has its own attitude towards
education that education is the instrument by which people can be trained in the Islamic
way of life. It aims at producing human  resources following the Islamic teachings
especially spirituality and morality. The target can be materialised through the different
channels of education, i.e., formal, non-formal and informal. So, Islamic education in the
informal process is not negligible and its role deserves to be considered significant
comparing with that of formal Islamic education. We observe that while formal Islamic
education is imparted, teachers and institutes are engaged and the methodology is applied,
but no technique is usually applied for presenting Islamic teachings though in society a
great number of people with their missionary zeal are dedicated to imparting these in the
informal way. However, these people have the opportunities to apply the teaching
methodology and   technique to carry out their noble duties effectively. Considering this,
the paper emphasises the status of the role players of informal Islamic education,
methodologies and techniques and the certain  aspects of this process of teaching to be
followed by them for developing human resource that surely can play an important role to
build a healthy environment in society.
2. Explanation of Paradigms
a) Education:
Education is a social function. Thus it serves the society which maintains it. Its first and
foremost role is to conserve the existing  culture [and values], by transmitting it from
generation to generation. But an equally important role is to renovate this culture so that
it may keep pace with changing times. As a cultural undertaking, education is, therefore,