Understanding how teachers perceive students with disability is essential to their inclusion and education, particularly with the rising debate between special and inclusive education (Florian, 2019). It was the recognition of the inequality and unfairness of systems that segregated students because of their differences that led to questions about the practice of special education (Vislie, 2003). Saudi Arabia is a signatory to international initiatives aimed at improving education for all and so in the drive towards Vision 2030 Saudi Arabia has embarked on a series of initiatives aimed at improving education. With the international drive towards inclusion, Saudi Arabia is now turning its attention to placing students with disabilities in mainstream schools. While this practice is to be welcomed, successfully including students with disabilities is not straightforward.

The Saudi context is one that is underpinned by Islamic values and Arabic tradition. Thus, this paper is part of my PhD thesis and will provide a snapshot from Muslim teachers involved in inclusive schools. Looking at this phenomenon from an Islamic perspective offered a unique opportunity to explore how these aspects intersect on the ground. This is an important omission, because as this study will argue, the Islamic cultural context found across the Middle East brings a unique and dynamic understanding of inclusive education. This is not to suggest that there is a homogenous approach to inclusion across the Middle East region; rather, each country in this geographical region implements inclusion in ways which consider local and national contexts, and this can result in different practices being adopted (Gaad, 2011). We know from the literature that the Middle East is not alone in this phenomenon, as differences in implementation exist globally (Carrington et al., 2015; Yada & Alnahdi, 2021). Studies of Islam and disability are quite limited, with a notable exception of Bhatty et al. (2009), who synthesise the historical, legal, sociological and theological literature relating to disability. Al-Aoufi, Al-Zyoud & Shahminan (2012) contend that within Islam, concern for the disadvantaged demonstrates a commitment to inclusion, and they cite acts undertaken by the Prophet to include those who were sick or disabled. Their paper also considers the right to education of those with disabilities, and argues that this right is clearly upheld in the Quran. Analysing text from the Quran, they conclude that:

-               ‘Individuals have a right to be treated equally: everyone is equally important, whether disabled or not disabled.

-               Individuals have a right to be educated regardless of disability.

-               Individuals have a right to be included within society and to have an effective, valuable role within it.'

Al-Aoufi, Al-Zyoud & Shahminan (2012:211)

However, there has been little debate about the concept of inclusion in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in general (Gaad, 2011). As countries implement inclusion based on international declarations, the additional lens of the Islamic faith within Middle Eastern countries is of importance not only to this study but to the field in general, and it brings an added dimension to the topic. Indeed, recently there has been a call to pay more attention to the Islamic perspective when fostering inclusive education, as the principles of inclusive education are seen to align with Islamic values (Ibrahim & Ismail, 2018; Abu‐Alghayth, Catania, Semon et al. 2022). This study is an attempt to tease out how Islamic principles influence teachers as they seek to understand and work with young people with disabilities when providing an appropriate education so that future work with staff can use these as a starting point for the implementation of inclusive education.

The aim of this paper was to gain and explore teachers’ perspectives and understandings of students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Qualitative approach was employed to collect data from a sample of specific educational settings involved in the implementation of inclusive education practice and to reflect on various realities from the participants’ perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain better understanding of students with disability in Saudi schools from the perspectives of those exposed to the experience of inclusive education. Although the focus of my PhD research was on inclusive education, Muslim identity appeared as one of the aspects that influence the inclusion of students with disabilities. In this paper, the focus will be around the findings of a section of interviews that were conducted face to face with 12 teachers in their schools. The participants were special and general teachers. Interviews questions were about participants’ thoughts about inclusion and disabilities. In this paper I will only be discussing the findings of Muslim identity preference data. Furthermore, the interviews were conducted in Arabic the language spoken by participants. For data analysis, thematic analysis was used in order to analyse the data produced from the interviews. Since the theoretical framework employed in this study is based on the disability models of disability and Islamic perspective, thematic analysis was relevant to analysing the findings of this research. In particular, it offers a better framework to examine the participants’ understanding and thoughts.

As practising Muslims and citizens of an Islamic faith-based society, teachers believed it was their duty to help students with disabilities. This aspect provides an important starting point for addressing inclusion and inclusive education. Teachers in this study reported lacking knowledge about the diverse learners in their classroom. Some teachers were not in favour of including students with disabilities into the mainstream classroom. Teachers expressed that they felt they had a duty to fulfil their obligations to Allah and help all students to learn. Across the responses, participants were aware of their responsibility to help students with disabilities (Bazna & Hatab, 2005; Morad & Nasri & Merrick, 2001). Further, some teachers reported that teaching students with disabilities is part of their job and that they get paid for teaching them. They have been given responsibility to teach these students by Allah and in fact they are having difficulty supporting the students. Thus, feeling guilt might be an obvious outcome from the situation (Ibrahim & Ismail, 2018). However, Muslims have also been influenced by their local cultures and other external factors. Muslim identity appears to motivate teachers to include students. Internationally inclusive education is promoted and based on ideas such as human rights (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002); democratic principles (Miles & Singal, 2010); equality and social justice (Miles & Singal, 2010; Avramidis and Norwich, 2002). . Thus, instead of introducing new ideas to implement inclusive education, valuing the local individual culture to promote education can be more effective (Carrington, et al., 2016).

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