ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights different approaches toward religious education as an answer to social ills that are basic to educational activities of Muslim voluntary welfare associations. In the chapter's first section, theoretical observations on religious education in Muslim Arab settings will be presented. Subsequently, a closer look will be taken at the interrelationship between religious education and indoctrination. The remainder of the chapter analyzes discourses related to various Muslim voluntary welfare associations’ educational activities in the realm of the development of children. The central question involves how notions of disciplining, empowerment, dependency and agency play a role in these discourses and practices, and what the possible implications of these notions are in terms of the shaping of reflexive (future) adult individuals and citizens. The chapter concludes by putting this question in the framework of modernizing developments in Jordanian society at large.
