It Starts With a Question: Critical Conversations About Practice with Muslim Clients/Communities

Overview: This interactive session focuses on social work practice with Muslims. Participants will have an opportunity to test their knowledge about Islam, to participate in role playing exercises covering issues emerging within social work practice and most importantly to ask their own questions about Islam and Muslims, in a safe space.Proposal text: Background
The inclusion of religion and spirituality (r/s) within broader content on diversity has been mandated both by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) and by the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). According to the 2015 EPAS, r/s are to be addressed within both the implicit and explicit curriculum. The NASW Code of Ethics incorporate religion to be addressed within client diversity, with an emphasis on sensitivity to this dimension within social work practice. Despite these professional mandates, it is evident that social work graduates do not receive sufficient exposure to and training about how to integrate the values, beliefs and traditions of their clients who self-identify as being religious or spiritual (Canda, Furman, & Canda, 2019). Hodge et. al (2021) conducted a content analysis of social work journals over the period of 2008 to 2017 and cite the professional literature as one place that is severely lacking in content on r/s. The authors assert that this paucity of content could be detrimental to how well the profession can meet the CSWE and NASW mandates for educational and ethical standards addressing r/s. Of particular interest in this session, is the even lesser attention given in social work education to competent practice with Muslim clients and communities.

Rationale
As the population of Muslims grows in the United States, it is critically important that the training of future social workers includes a focus on culturally competence practice with Muslim clients, constituents and communities. According to the most recent estimates, the U.S. Muslim population is between 3.45 Million (Mohamed, 2018) and 11 Million (Bagasra and Mackinem, 2020), and the range is quite high, and no accurate count exists since the US census does not include a question on the respondent’s religion. There is also tremendous racial and ethnic diversity among Muslims with over 80 countries being represented (Husain, 2019). Blacks comprise almost one-fifth of the total U.S. Muslim population (Mohamed and Diamant, 2019). This session provides an opportunity for participants to learn about the history of Muslims in America, about their values, beliefs and traditions and about contemporary issues impacting their lives at the individual, family and community levels. The session will be highly interactive. Participants will have an opportunity to test their knowledge about Islam, to participate in role playing exercises about issues which may emerge during social work practice with this population and most importantly to ask their own questions about Islam and Muslims, in a safe space.