Marie C. Baca/Daily Journal Nermine Elkatibe reads to students at the Muslim Children’s Garden pre-school and kindergarten in Foster City

It is easy to overlook the maroon building on Beach Park Boulevard in Foster City. The wooden structure is blank and anonymous, although it still bears the faint outline of a cross from when it was used as a Lutheran church years ago. No signs advertise its purpose. No open doors or windows reveal the activities within.

But if one listens closely to the breeze as it meanders across the nearby promenade, it is possible to hear voices singing in Arabic, and only then is it clear that those who are seeking the Muslim Children’s Garden have found the right place.

Every weekday, some 30 children from throughout the Bay Area gather here to attend pre-school and kindergarten at the only Islamic school in San Mateo County. They commute from San Francisco and San Jose, the Peninsula and the East Bay. Like other schoolchildren their age, they are taught basic reading and math skills, but here they also study Arabic, memorize passages from the Koran and learn about the values and culture of the Muslim community.

“Our students will know the difference between right and wrong for the rest of their lives,” said Nermine Elkatibe, who teaches Arabic, the Koran and Islamic studies. “To give them that and a second language at such a young age is an incredible gift.”

Elkatibe, like the other teachers at MCG, wears her hair under a headscarf, the traditional mode of dress for many Muslim women. But she also wears blue jeans, the better to keep up with dozens of high-energy children between the ages of 2 and 6.

The students themselves are a reflection of the varied population of Muslims that call the Bay Area their home. Their families come from Egypt, Palestine and Syria, among other countries. During an Arabic lesson, a red-haired boy named Tareq sits near a brown-haired boy named Adam.

“Some years we have more children from one country or another,” said Abeer Elafifi, the school’s director. “But in general, we are a very diverse group.”

MCG started as a playgroup run by the four Muslim women who now comprise the staff. Elafifi returned to school to receive her degree in early childhood education and the women officially opened the facility in the summer of 2001 — just a few months before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and a wave of hostility toward this nation’s Muslims. Despite the unfortunate timing, Elafifi said that the people of Foster City were nothing but kind during that difficult period, often leaving flowers on the school’s doorstep to show their support.

But while the neighboring community has been mostly encouraging of the school, the Muslims in the area have at times been indifferent to MCG’s goals.

“There is the perception that children who learn English and Arabic at the same time will have more difficulty learning to read and write,” said Elafifi. “Many of them do not appreciate bilingual education the way that Americans do, with the understanding that learning two languages can actually give children a great advantage in school.”

Shaima Eiman of San Bruno, who sends her two daughters to MCG, says that she has the opposite concern — that her children will be so advanced by the time that they graduate that will have difficulty fitting into a public school environment.

“The education here is equal to any competitive school in the area,” she said. “I am worried that they will be too far ahead of the other students, who are not at this level.”

Eiman is not the only MCG parent concerned about future educational opportunities for their children. Several parents noted that, to continue learning Arabic and Islam in elementary school, Bay Area students must attend one of few private Islamic schools in San Francisco or Santa Clara — schools that are often too far away for a daily commute. Many families cannot afford to send their children to non-Islamic competitive private schools, so for many of the students, MCG will be their first and last immersion into a formal education in Arabic and Islam.

At MCG, a full day of preschool five days a week costs $695 a month, plus a $50 application fee and $125 materials fee annually, and two $50 volunteering deposits. Parents earn back their volunteering deposit by helping out at the school for a total of 20 hours each year.

But parents say that the education their children are receiving is worth far more than the monthly tuition, and Elafifi agrees.

“The Muslim community here in the Bay Area is strong, but also young,” says Elafifi. “To be able to preserve our culture and religion by passing it down to our children is one of the most important things we can do.”