School’s in for The Swap

What happens when six Muslim families, four Catholic families and two atheist families participate in a bold experiment to walk a mile in the others’ shoes?

That’s just what happened in Term 2 last year in Brisbane.

The Swap, a concept steered by Ali Kadri, CEO of the Islamic College of Brisbane, was filmed by Southern Pictures.

Kadri had been a participant in Southern Pictures’ previous SBS documentary The Mosque when he explained activities he had been overseeing at ICB.

“There was interaction between our school and the other schools. We used to go to each others’ schools, especially the Catholic school. Students used to come here for different occasions but we never actually had students come and do lessons with us,” he tells TV Tonight.

“I spoke to the documentary makers about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it and they said, ‘Look, would it be cool if we made a series out of it?’ I said I’d have to check with my students and parents because not everybody wanted to do TV. Not everybody was 100% on board with the idea of the swap itself. I presented it to a few people in the school board, management, and the staff body who agreed to it, then the parents and the students, more importantly.”

Indian-born Kadri migrated to Australia as an international student in 2002, and is now in his third year as college CEO. He’s a big fan of living in Brisbane.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else to be honest. I mean, it’s a beautiful place.”

But he is recognises differences in the melting pot of multiculturalism and the need to respect different belief systems.

“I think I’m a conservative Muslim,” he suggests.

“But I’ll be honest with you, I think to respect other people’s faith and belief is a fundamental part of my faith belief. And I speak on behalf of Islam, right? So, in my very conservative opinion, it’s within my faith, to respect other people in their differences.

“When you criticise someone, you don’t criticise a person, you criticise an action, which you disagree with. So all I’m trying to do is to educate people in handling differences in a respectful manner.”

The series sees secondary school students spend time in each others’ classes, religious ceremonies and even homes.
This give students some insight into other religions and brings context to dress, customs and lifestyle.

“They didn’t spend overnight with the families. They did visit them and they did attend classes in each others’ schools and other functions. In the first episode, the non-Muslim students attended the prayer session, and a special scripture class. Whereas our students went to a Catholic school attended a Catholic mass, and also a scripture class.”

But Kadri faced plenty of hurdles to convince parents and students that it was a worthwhile project.

“The idea of sending the students to a different school was concerning and then to be on TV doing that was concerning as well. So, it took a long time,” he acknowledges.

“I had to address a lot of concerns from parents, and a lot of conversations and assurances. We made sure there was plenty of supervision so the kids were never put in danger, both physically and psychologically. It took a fair bit of convincing, and quite a few conversations.

“There’s an idea to do a school camp, and we haven’t done a high school school camp in a decade and parents were reluctant. I actually had to sit down with them and call them and convince them. Only a very little bit of it made it to the final cut, but there was a lot of background talking.”

The first episode even highlights a cultural divide over use of music and acceptance of LGBTQIA+ people which troubles the students visiting the Islamic College of Brisbane.

Kadri says while it is considered a sin in Islam, “It is very important that while we hold true to our religious beliefs on the LGBTQI issues, at the same time, we are not disrespectful or exclude people who are of that orientation.

“It’s very important that we realise and recognise that we live in a country which is quite diverse, a country, which is secular. That simply means that it accepts all kinds of lifestyles and values, faith based and otherwise. And it’s important to have that as part of our education system.”

Incredibly, Kadri maintains that of the 1700 students at ICB,  “we don’t have any student who has come out as LGBTQI orientation.”

But he says if someone in their community did identify as LGBTQIA+ they would not be condemned.

“Islamically speaking, our faith does not allow us to excommunicate people, exclude people, or condemn people to any sorts of judgments, because judgment is with God.”

The series also boldy opens with stereotypes of Muslims (“closed with their views or even information”) and a typical Aussie (“a bogan who wears thongs and is alcoholic) before it sets about breaking down misconceptions.

“A lot of times people who hold negative views about Muslims or Islam don’t know any Muslim person. Likewise, if somebody holds negative views, or thinks that every Caucasian Australian is a bogan, they don’t really know an Australian Caucasian person. So in the absence of all that, they build a stereotype,” he continues.

Kadri, who features on camera to supervise the experiment, maintains that the students were all supported throughout the filming and carefully selected to be suitable.

“There were some students who we initially thought would be ideal for The Swap, but they didn’t become part of the final (mix) from our end because they were not comfortable or the parents were not comfortable. Some parents thought it’s going to bring unnecessary attention and they didn’t want that,” he says.

“The casting process was quite thorough in the beginning to ensure that we only choose people who knew exactly what they were signing up to.”

The Swap screens 8:30pm Wednesday on SBS