ABSTRACT
This book sheds light on the impact of Islamic schooling on Quebecois Muslim youth’s identities and sense of belonging. It attempts to convey the influence of Islamic schooling on Muslim youth in Montreal in terms of their sense of Canadianness, Quebecness, and Muslimness, as well as their sense of belonging to their religion and to their countries of origin. The goal of the book is to paint a portrait of students who attended Montreal Islamic schools and, in doing so, to give a glimpse of how this educational system attempts to reconcile religious and cultural values with academic competencies and Islamic values with secular values. It seeks to show how Islamic schools shape students’ Canadian Islamic identities. An understanding of the complex and dynamic forces of identity construction can help us avoid both “exclusionary” alternatives and understand the challenges that Muslim youth face while trying to reconcile different elements of their emerging and evolving identities: Muslim, Canadian, Quebecois, etc.
