Lessons from UTM Skudai

As some of you know, I attended a conference in UTM, Skudaim, recently. This conference was organized by practitioners and focused on leadership and management in Islamic education. Two interesting things to note:

1. Two private companies (CUCMS in Malaysia, MUIS in Singapore) explained in detail how they successfully implemented Islamic principles in business

2. In both cases, the top management had very good knowledge of Islam and up to date knowledge of management. The good knowledge of Islam - in practice - means that they relate their day to day operations to principles of Fiqh (Qawaid Fiqhiyah). The good knowledge of management means that they keep their knowledge fresh, they are able to unlearn old ideas and re-learn new ideas.

The overall feeling that I had is that Islamic management is currently being practiced. It is just that we don't have a lot of documented case studies, that's all.

Class projects: Tips on accessing Islamic websites

I have listed several Islamic websites under the heading "Excellent websites". Here are a few tips;

1. Dr Bilal Philips's website is the "mother" of this project - one of the excellent features on his site is that he rates many Islamic websites in English (he also includes deviant Islamic websites and anti-Islamic websites) and provides a decsription of the sites and the links.

2. Some of the websites that he rates (sunnah on line, understand Islam, Islaam.com,...) have been selected as being pretty good. They can be accessed via Bilal's site or seperately. You might want to fool around with other Islamic sites that Bilal Philips rates. Certain websites might not be directly relevant to your class project but may be useful in future. For example, no 14 on his list is "Madinah Arabic". This is a great website to learn Arabic on line.

3. The Deen show is not on Bilal Philips's list. It is quite good for more informal talks, suitable for non-Muslims or Muslims who are looking for more basic information about Islam.

At the beginning, you might need to spend some time identifying the websites that suit your level / your personality / your personal interests. Don't access other sites without permission from me (at least, not for the project).