Amel Karboul

Part 3: Values of Islam

Arabic culture is deeply influenced by its Islamic heritage. The Qur’an and the Sunnah, (practice based on the sayings and deeds of the prophet Mohammed) are strong basic references for everyday life. There are, however, different schools and different levels of religious adherence within the Arab world. Some radical fundamentalists reject the West and its values in the name of Islam. Others justify democracy, women’s rights and freedom with references to the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Most Muslims are very moderate and live according to a liberal version of Islam. However, many things have happened in recent years that have made it easy for mistrust and fear to spread in both the Arab and western world. The western media’s concentration on terrorist attacks, the Taliban, and so on, have also contributed to giving western society the wrong impression about Islam as a whole. I meet many executives and coaches in the West who genuinely believe Islam is a violent religion and see Arabs as a threat.

Implications for coaching

• It is helpful as a coach working with Muslim clients to have a basic knowledge of Islam and its history. These would be the Five Pillars (faith, fasting, praying, financial aid for the poor and pilgrimage), the main sects and basic rules. For instance, I once had a young female client from a traditional Arab family who wanted to start her own business and had no role models around her. Her family wanted her to become a teacher or to work for the government. Together we studied the example of Khadija, the wife of the prophet Mohammed, who was herself a very successful entrepreneurial woman with her own trading business. This helped my client find her own way and convince her family.
• Religion is rarely a main topic of discussion in the business environment. As a non-Muslim it would be wise to refrain from lecturing Muslims about the true Islam. I once recommended an executive coach from the UK to an Omani friend and we all met for the first time at Frankfurt airport, during Ramadan. After discovering that we did not eat or drink from sunrise to sundown, my coaching colleague began arguing that this was totally unhealthy, citing studies that have shown that not drinking enough water harms the body. I was highly embarrassed and tried to change the subject as quickly as possible. Unsurprisingly, my Omani friend did not take my colleague on as a coach but more sadly, my coaching colleague could never understand why we were ‘so sensitive’.

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