As students return to school next week, the Annoor Islamic School in North Wichita is readying classes for reading, writing, and memorizing the Quran in Arabic.
Michael Barton, Principal of Annoor Islamic School, said students learn their core subjects — English, math, science and social studies — and have electives, PE and art, throughout the day.
"And then on top of that, we have them study Arabic Islamic studies," Barton said, "so they can learn the practices ... the beliefs ... and the history of the religion. They also do Quran class, where they memorize the scripture and learn how to recite it properly."
Ibrahim Rasheed is part of the Summer Intensive Memorization program. and will enter seventh grade this fall.
"Its talking about ... [the] month when the Prophet Muhammad was born," Rasheed said while describing a passage from the Quran.
Barton, who's been the principal for 10 years, said religious instruction is essential.
"We want our kids to be able to be functioning members of society who also maintain their religious identity," Barton said.
The class is co-ed, with girls sitting on one side and the boys on the other. Third-grader Deena Barton, the principal's daughter, also reads from the sacred Islamic book, from right to left, then she reads the translation of the words, centered around praise, while Barton looks on.
"The students, by the time they go from kindergarten to eighth grade, they've done about 60 pages memorized," Barton said, "so about 10%. ...Only the kids in the special program do the entire book."
Ammar Barton, a 7th grader and the principal's son, memorized the Quran in three years. He's one of four students since 2019 who have completed the assignment. The Quran is just over 600 pages.
"Our kids here — even if they're not from Arabic-speaking homes — these kids are hearing Arabic from the time they're two years old. If they come to preschool ... it's not something strange to them," Ammar said. "It's something normal for them and they're starting so young. It's just natural for them."
Barton said students should be devoted to God, love their creator and know him very well.
"We want them to be people that understand that they're accountable to God for their actions, so that they interact in the world in a way that God would be pleased with," Barton said. "So they're just to everyone, they're fair to everyone, they're truthful, they're honest, they're compassionate. That way, we believe when we die, we go on and we're going to go back to meet our creator. We come to him in a good state."
Muslims pray five times a day and Barton said they have been able to work it into the school days for the students.
"One of those, it's called Dhuhur, it's the midday prayer. It follows during the school day, but it's built into our schedule. We have it ... every day. The mosque prays at 1:45 p.m. and we go and join them, all of the students. Also on Friday, we have our big congregation day so everybody comes together, we listen to a sermon, and we pray together and that happens at two o'clock so we bring all the school down there and they kind of end their day with that service on Friday."
Barton, who converted to Islam when he was 24, was born and raised in Wichita.
"At the time, I was an educator. I was teaching Spanish at a middle school and a private school. Then later, I worked at Wichita East High School as an ESL teacher and becoming active in the community. We had the school here already and they were needing some support in administration. I thought this makes the most sense too because I get to keep my two passions, my passion for my faith, [and] my passion for education."
There are about 160 students enrolled in the tuition-based school and Barton expects that to grow.
"The Muslim community, at least in Wichita, we're a smaller community ... so we're pretty close knit. It feels like you're in a small town almost. I have [had] a parent teacher conference and I've also had dinner at that parent's house, you know? We've broken fast with them. So, we have the community feel that's a different dynamic sometimes that you get maybe in [a] bigger or larger Wichita community, where you might not know the parents, or you might never see the kids again after you teach them."
Barton says the best part of his job as principal is seeing the students develop their faith and worldly knowledge.
"The most important thing about education is seeing the growth in kids. I think thats really where the reward is. They say nobody gets into education to get rich, but you really do feel rich, at least in your heart. When you see how much the kids have grown and you're a part of that. When I see kids that I taught in the past or helped in the past and they come back and tell you how much this helped, the impact you had, thats a huge reward for you. It does make it all worthwhile; all the effort and work you put in."
