The latest developments from Saudi Arabia concerning the revision of its national school curriculum are encouraging. To us, this represents a welcome first step toward addressing a much larger global challenge: the need to rethink and improve the Islamic curriculum used in schools and religious institutions around the world.

For too long, some of these materials have contained interpretations and teachings that can be divisive, self-defeating, inconsistent with the spirit of the Holy Qur’an, and out of step with the values needed for peaceful coexistence, intellectual development, gender equality, and socioeconomic progress.

I speak about this not simply as an observer, but as an educator who has experienced the challenge firsthand. My wife and I were among the founders of Islamic Leadership School, a K–12 institution and the first accredited Islamic school in the Bronx. We took on the project with enormous faith, determination, and a deep sense of responsibility. We wanted to create a school where Muslim children could receive an excellent education without having to choose between their academic development and their spiritual identity. It remains one of our most meaningful achievements.

But building the school taught us something we had not fully anticipated. The challenge was not simply establishing an Islamic school — it was finding an Islamic curriculum that we could confidently place in front of our children.

Only months after establishing Islamic Leadership School, I happened to watch a PBS television interview featuring one of the most prolific writers whose books were widely used in Islamic schools, libraries, and mosques. The journalist asked him about his books being used in schools, libraries, and Friday sermons around the world in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. His response was striking.

Those words stopped me. Our Islamic Studies curriculum had been built largely around his books. I remember telling my wife, “We have a problem.” And that was when we began looking at the issue differently.

The question was no longer simply, “Is this an Islamic book?” The more important question became, “Is this the kind of knowledge we want to place in the minds and hearts of our children?” That distinction matters.

Children do not simply memorise what we teach them. They carry it with them. It shapes how they understand their faith, how they see other people, how they understand women and men, how they respond to disagreement, and ultimately how they participate in society.

Our experience convinced us that Islamic education needs a curriculum that is religiously grounded while also being intellectually responsible, age-appropriate, relevant to contemporary life, and capable of preparing young Muslims to live confidently and peacefully in a diverse world. Unfortunately, such a resource remains limited.

This experience eventually contributed to our decision to establish the secular STEMDUP Academy, drawing on our real-life experiences as educators and on the lessons we learned from building an Islamic school.

We have never believed that the answer is to abandon Islamic education — quite the opposite. We believe Islamic schools have enormous potential to nurture children who are academically capable, spiritually grounded, intellectually curious, and committed to their communities. But that requires us to be willing to examine what we teach, why we teach it, and whether the materials we inherited are still serving the children we are educating today.

Perhaps that is the opportunity presented by the current conversation around curriculum reform. This is not about rejecting our faith or our intellectual heritage. It is about having the courage to distinguish between the eternal principles of Islam and human interpretations that may no longer serve the needs of our children or our societies. Our children deserve nothing less.

The work continues.