Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
For a Muslim student who has a sound understanding of the beliefs of Islam, and possesses a quite awareness of what is halal and what is haram in Islam, there is nothing wrong with his attending Catholic schools.
The late well known Saudi scholar, Sheikh `Abdullah Ibn Jibreen, stated:
Undoubtedly, Catholic schools pose a great danger to any Muslim who is ignorant of Islam and its teachings, because they give lessons and impart information that vents air to the dogmas spread by unbelievers and their beliefs, as well as their scathing attacks launched against Islam and Muslims.
However, for a Muslim student who has a sound understanding of the beliefs of Islam, and possesses a quite awareness of what is halal and what is haram in Islam, there is nothing wrong with his attending such schools, as long as he finds himself tempted by a need to go there to learn a skill or profession or to gain specific knowledge while he is confident that he will not be swayed by the torrent of what he is taught there.
What’s actually worrisome is the case of a Muslim student who has inadequate knowledge about his religion, and does not understand the plots of the unbelievers and their tricks against Muslims. No doubt, such a student is prone to fall prey to the traps, unlike the case of a Muslim student, who is armed with the adequate religious knowledge he has; this will normally help him to adhere to the beliefs and practices of Islam.
In conclusion, it’s clear now that studying in those Catholic schools is permissible as long as the aforementioned guidelines are observed.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.