Exploring Global Deaf Muslim: Religious Training and ASL Integration

This essay examines the Global Deaf Muslim organization, founded by Nashiru Abdulai in 2005, and its efforts to provide religious training and support to the deaf Muslim community in Canada. The organization utilizes American Sign Language (ASL) to convey Islamic teachings, enabling deaf individuals to understand the Quran and participate in religious practices like the pilgrimage to Mecca. While the organization has significantly contributed to the religious education of deaf Muslims, challenges remain, including a shortage of ASL interpreters and the persistence of social stigma. The essay concludes that despite these limitations, Global Deaf Muslim has revolutionized the lives of deaf Muslims by integrating them into the Islamic community, although some societal barriers remain insurmountable.

Running head: GLOBAL DEAF MUSLIM
GLOBAL DEAF MUSLIM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The purpose of this paper is to analyse how the deaf population of the Islamic religion are
trained to know more about their religion and practice their religious ritual in Canada by an
organization called Global Deaf Muslim. The population who are impaired in their hearing
senses act as an interest group in this paper and the paper attempts to explain how the population
is able to understand the words written on the Quran (holy book for Muslim) and how they are
also able to communicate with the rest of the world the by making use of the American Sign
Language (ASL). Therefore, the paper also attempts to draw some of the pros and cons of the
intended population considering the amount of limitations of such challenged people.
The human is made up of five major sensory organs that helps each individuals to feel the
world around them in a better way. As soon as one of the organs is impaired, the normal day to
day life of an individual becomes difficult. Hearing is one of the most important tools of
communication because as long as one is not able to comprehend what verbal message is being
sent to that individual, the person cannot comprehend it and reply back to the same. This paper
also explains how a group of population who share the same difficulty in their hearing quality are
brought together under one roof, that is, an organisation called the Global Deaf Muslim. The
organisation was founded by Nashiru Abdulai in the year 2005.
Every individual has the right to practice and follow their own religion (Saeed, 2017) and
this is the main vision by the organisation is guided. They ensure that all the deaf Muslims
around the world should be able to receive the teachings of their religion. According to Padden
(2016), the American Sign Language (ASL) that is used by the people of North America is the
most effective way of making people understand of what is being communicated to them and this
ASL is used by the members of the Global Deaf Muslim to reveal the words of Allah (Muslim
Almighty) to the deaf Muslims by making use of sign language. According to the five pillars of

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the Islam, the pilgrimage to holy Mecca is essential for a Muslim individual once in their life-
time (Menouar 2014). Therefore the Global Deaf Muslim ensures that each Muslim individual
who is challenged from their hearing sense, will be able to make this pilgrimage by receiving the
proper information and training to perform the journey.
However, according to Mallery (2019) the lack of ASL interpreters in North America is
one of the major drawbacks in communicating with the deaf people. This is also a hindrance for
the organization because if they do not have enough interpreters to can interpret the Islamic
ideologies to the deaf community of America then the process of making more deaf people
aware of the teachings becomes slower. Deaf people can be trained through sign languages but
the essence of being a part of community gatherings cannot be imbibed in them in any manner
(Fujimoto et al. 2014). They will always be aloof of it and regardless of all the efforts of the
organization, the deaf Muslims can never rejoice community gatherings like the normal human
beings do. Lastly, according to Taneja (2014), the social stigma that a deaf individual has to go
through in inevitable and individuals learn to live with it. Hence, the Global Deaf Muslim
organisation can eradicate most of the problem of the deaf Muslims but the organisation cannot
make the population from the social stigma that exists in every society.
Therefore, the paper concludes on the note that the Nashiru Abdulai has brought a
revolution in the lives of the deaf Muslims by educating them about their own religion and
making them suitable for the Islamic society, but Abdulai could not make the deaf individuals
overcome all the hindrances that comes with hearing impairment.

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Reference:
El-Menouar, Yasemin. "The five dimensions of Muslim religiosity. Results of an empirical
study." methods, data, analyses 8, no. 1 (2014): 26.
Fujimoto, Yuka, Ruth Rentschler, Huong Le, David Edwards, and Charmine EJ Härtel. "Lessons
learned from community organizations: Inclusion of people with disabilities and others." British
Journal of Management 25, no. 3 (2014): 518-537.
Mallery, Garrick. Sign language among North American Indians compared with that among
other peoples and deaf-mutes. Vol. 14. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2019.
Padden, Carol A. Interaction of morphology and syntax in American Sign Language. Routledge,
2016.
Saeed, Abdullah. Freedom of religion, apostasy and Islam. Routledge, 2017.
Taneja, M. K. "Deafness, a social stigma: Physician perspective." (2014): 353-358.