During the 2007 provincial election campaign, Conservative party candidate
John Tory proposed extending government funding to all faith-based schools
in Ontario. This was met with strong public and media opposition due to fears
of radicalization and indoctrinating students in religious beliefs considered outdated
and a threat to Canadian norms (particularly with Islamic schools). It is
with this anecdote that editors Graham P. McDonough, Nadeem Memon, and
Avi L. Mintz introduce Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent: Jewish, Catholic,
and Islamic Schooling in Canada. As they note, the impassioned debate surrounding
Tory’s election promise, as well as his ensuing loss, indicate that religious
education is a particularly contentious topic in an increasingly secular
society. And yet there is surprisingly little scholarly literature on this topic.
American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences