SocW 495
Muslim Families

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Course Review:

This syllabus has been reviewed and approved by the following Muslim community leaders:

• Mohammad Sarhan – Director, UW Islamic House
• Hassan Hatem – President, UW Muslim Student Association
• Muna Mohamud – Education Associate, Hate Free Zone

Course Overview:

Within the field of social work, it is crucial for the practitioner to be aware of his or her own values and worldview.  Without this awareness, the practitioner’s decision-making process could be unknowingly affected.  More often than not such a lack of awareness could have negative implications for the client, due to unexamined values and biases unintentionally influencing the practitioner’s conceptualizations and decisions.  Members of marginalized groups are those who are most often affected by this process.  Muslims are such a group.

The Muslim population in the United States is increasing with each passing year[2] and, in direct reflection of the national statistics, Seattle’s Muslim population is also noticeably rising.  Muslims in general and, particularly Muslim refugees, such as Somalis and Bosnians, have become significant consumers of social services in the greater Seattle area.  Many of the UW School of Social Work’s BASW and MSW internship agencies work with Muslim families.  Former Dean of the School of Social Work, Nancy Hooyman[3] has stated, “I do not see how a social worker will not have to work with Muslims during their career.”  The changing population

points to the importance of expanding social work knowledge to changing diversities, including religion and ethics. 

Central to the UW School of Social Work’s mission is a commitment to promoting social and economic justice for poor and oppressed populations.  In addition, the School of Social Work’s core values include a deep respect for cultural diversity and multiculturalism[4].  To that end, the School of Social Work has offered courses focusing specifically on oppressed populations, including gays and lesbians, immigrants and refugees, African-American families, and persons with disabilities.  However, the School of Social Work has yet to offer a course focusing on social work practice with Muslims.  This course is a first step in a vital addition to the School of Social Work’s curriculum[5].

The course is designed with two goals:  1. to provide a sufficient understanding of Islam and Muslims in order to work with Muslim populations.  2. to provide a foundation based on self-awareness and critical thinking that is essential to working with Muslims and is generalizable to working with other populations in multicultural environments. In order to successfully address these goals, the course will examine how biases are created, maintained, and reproduced.  The strengths perspective will be a guiding principle within this course, as we investigate the strengths of Muslim communities and support these strengths as part of our work with Muslims.  We will explore Islam, which is a significant factor in the worldview of a quarter of the world’s population, since one in every four people in the world identifies as a Muslim[6].  The diversities found amongst Muslims, including degree of adherence to Islamic principals and countries of origin will be examined.   The effects of cultural imperialism will also be analyzed.  Present day issues affecting Muslims will be explored.  The interaction between the NASW Code of Ethics and the Islamic worldview will be considered. Throughout, we will apply this knowledge to providing more effective social services to Muslims across levels of social work practice.

Course Objectives:

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

1. Write about and discuss the foundations of the Islamic worldview and how it interacts with and differs from other worldviews.
2. Write about and discuss the role of family members; elders, men, women, children, and extended family within the Islamic family structure and framework as they affect social work practice.
3. Write about and discuss the distinction between Islam and marginal perspectives on Islam, and how the interaction of these perspectives affect Muslim populations in terms of social justice.
4. Write about and discuss the important characteristic of Muslim communities in Seattle in regards to social work practice skills.
5. Write about and discuss the effect and interaction of cultural imperialism on Muslim communities, both within the United States and abroad, and how these forces contribute to complex human welfare problems.
6. Write about and discuss the foundations of Islamic counseling within the context of an ethical and just professional use of self.
7. Write about and discuss the creation, maintenance, and reproduction of biases and their effects on social work practice skills when working with Muslims.  
8. Assessment and intervention skills with Muslims and compare and contrast how these may differ from other populations.

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