”Dessa dumheter som finns får du plocka fram i alla religioner” : En kvalitativ undersökning om framställningen av islam i klassrummet

Sammanfattning: The essay aims to study how Islam is presented in the teaching and how these representations are interpreted based on Edward Said's theory of Orientalism and Mattias Gardell's theory of Islamophobia. Said's theory is based on a "we" and "them" perspective where Said believes that ideas have been created that represent the Orient or the Middle East, the Arab and Islam in a way where the West becomes its counterpart. Islamophobia is about perceptions that Islam would be a repressive, aggressive, and combative religion. The study has a qualitative approach that is based on five interviews with teachers who teach religious knowledge. Three teachers teach at the upper secondary school and two teachers teach at the high school. These teachers are not representative of all teachers throughout Sweden. In addition to interviews, observations have also been carried out in a class on two occasions at a high school. The pupils in the class are studying their third year at the upper secondary school, where all the students are over 18 years old and read a vocational preparation program. The result shows that there are many prejudices among students about Islam and that the teachers feel that Islam is the most difficult subject to teach about in the religious education. The reason why it is a complicated subject to talk about in the religious education is because Islam is a controversial subject today that is being raised in the media. The result shows that teachers' teaching on Islam is based on the representations that appear in the media. The teachers claim that the media depicts Islam and Muslims in a negative way, which results in many people perceiving Islam as a woman oppressive, male-dominated, aggressive, and combative religion.