The Muslim instructor of a popular educational course on Islam was told Thursday that Community Education of the Black Hills will no longer offer his course after it received a complaint that it was religion-based.

The six-hour course, Understanding Islam and Middle Eastern Culture, had been offered twice a year for the past three years as part of the community education program's language and culture curriculum. It routinely won rave reviews from participants but raised concerns after its February session, school officials said.

"We recently received a question from a community member regarding the fact that the Career Learning Center is a public educational entity offering a religious-based class," Tammy Sellars, director of the program, said in an e-mail. "The point was well taken, and after evaluating this concern, we have chosen not to offer classes that may have a religious base in the future through Community Education of the Black Hills."

The instructor, Ahmed Al-Asfour, was disappointed by the decision to end a class that he said had nothing to do with proselytizing or evangelizing for Islam. He said the class wasn't religious-based but was about understanding Middle Eastern cultures and Arabic traditions that are informed by the Islamic religion.

"I'm not there to convert you, but to teach," said Al-Asfour, who first conceived of the class as a way to counter media misinformation and knowledge gaps about Islam and Muslims that he has encountered in his seven years in the U.S. A native of Bahrain, he is a professor of business at Oglala Lakota College in Rapid City and holds a master's degree in administrative studies from the University of South Dakota.

He said he had taught the class many times without a complaint and was alarmed that one question from someone who didn't contact him could end the class. He called any assumption that he was teaching religion "pure ignorance on their part."

Ron Rosenboom, executive director of Black Hills Special Services, which administers the community education program, declined to reveal the identity of the person who complained but said he or she had not taken Al-Asfour's class.

"This is not right," Al-Asfour said. "Just because one person complains about it, but hundreds of people might want to attend the class, they cancel it?"

Ann Hodgman, a nurse practitioner in Newell, said she took the class because she had lots of questions about Islam and Muslims and is saddened that others won't have the same opportunity.

"It was just a great class. I had all kinds of questions, and they were all answered," she said. "I got an up-close, personal and authentic view of the religion from someone who lives it."

When asked if she felt the class promoted Islam, Hodgman said "absolutely not." The class, by necessity, discussed religion and culture in context, she said.

"You can't really separate them. You have to understand one to understand the other," she said.

Nuri Uzunlar, a professor at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology who serves as advisor to its Muslim students, called the decision to eliminate the class shortsighted, especially in light of America's current involvement in so many Muslim countries throughout the world.

Uzunlar said community education programs have a responsibility to support multicultural programs and thinks people living in the vicinity of Ellsworth Air Force Base are particularly interested in learning more about Islam, since their friends and family members are often stationed in Muslim countries.

"Our country is politically and militarily engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we have many soldiers from this area stationed there," he said. "They absolutely need to know what kind of acts are acceptable and non-acceptable in a Muslim community, because they will be serving there and engaging with the locals."

A class such as Al-Asfour's is critical to soldiers, he said, but also helpful to their families back home. And learning about Muslims from a Muslim is far preferable to reading it in a book or on the Internet, he said.

There are no other courses on specific religions offered through Community Education of the Black Hills, but its "Body and Mind" curriculum includes classes on Zazen meditation, which is based in Buddhism; yoga, which stems from the Hindu religion; and one on "shamanic journeying" has spiritual overtones.

"Is my class the only one going to be affected by this?" Al-Asfour asked. "What does that tell you?"

Rosenboom said other classes that touch on religion will be evaluated on an individual basis as needed.

"Our stance is that there are other avenues that are more appropriate for that kind of class," he said.

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com