Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent: Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic Schooling in Canada

6. London Islamic School: Millstone or Milestone?

145 CHAPTER SIX LONDON ISLAMIC SCHOOL: MILLSTONE OR MILESTONE? Asma Ahmed “My father came to London because of London Islamic School. I knew how you looked like before the first day of school, we went on the website and I saw your picture,” said Zach to his teacher one October morning. Zach’s father is the breadwinner for his family. When I was beginning to research the London Islamic School in November 2009, Zach’s father had been unemployed since he came to London in August. He had been willing to risk unemployment to ensure that his children could go to the Islamic school of his choice. Zach has an older and a younger sibling. His older brother began associating with disreputable friends and, to the distress of his parents, eventually left home. He had only a superficial knowledge of Islam, and his confidence in the faith had withered. Zach’s father vowed that his other children would not struggle like his older son. He researched the cities in southwestern Ontario to find a friendly, academically strong, religiously moderate, and professional school for his children. He chose the London Islamic School (LIS), in London, Ontario. There are many stories like Zach’s. Muslim youth who lose confidence in their faith and are not rerouted or assisted by their family or members of the community often find themselves lost and engulfed by peer groups that have no affiliation to their faith, especially in the modern West. I encountered Zach in my fourth year at LIS. I was working there and enjoying the experience while I was doing my master’s, working with like-minded individuals to help educate and raise the next generation. I had begun reading FAITH AND CITIZENSHIP 146 Tariq Ramadan, and his books on integration and the challenges of youth in the West helped me to better understand their identity crisis. LIS was growing , and it was attracting the children of young first- and second-generation Muslim Canadians. Given my privileged position as a participant observer at LIS, my experiences and those of my family as immigrants to Canada, and my interest in how people acquire their identities, I decided to focus my research on LIS, its activities, and the experiences and expectations of those who attend the school. I selected Tariq Ramadan’s work to guide discussion in this chapter due to his extensive work on integration and the plight of Muslims in the West. His books, articles, and lectures revolve around integration and post-integration issues and stress the necessity of Muslim contributions to Western society.1 Ramadan asks, “who will restore to them [these and other youth] the elements and sense of their identity? Who will reconstruct it or, at least, give them some milestones which should permit them to find, consciously and freely, their own way?”2 He argues that central questions such as the following need to be addressed and satisfactorily answered: Are Muslims truly capable of living in secularized societies? Are their values compatible with those of democracy? Can they live side by side and mingle with their non-Muslim neighbours? Can they combat the shocking behaviour exhibited in their name, in the form of terrorism, domestic violence, forced marriage, and the like? Can they free themselves from their social ghettos, those breeding grounds of unemployment, insecurity, and marginality?3 I sought to explore such questions in the context of the purposes and educational activities of an independent Islamic school. I was interested in considering what Islamic schools are and why they exist. The main focus of my inquiry was the LIS and its purposes. More specifically, I sought to explore Muslim youth integration and the development of a robust Canadian Muslim identity, employing LIS as a case study. I utilized three research tools in my inquiry: key informant interviews, literature and document analysis , and, to a lesser extent, participant observation. I recruited 27 key informants , composed of five parents, ten students (including five graduates), six staff members (including the principal), four Board members, and two non-Muslims. LONDON ISLAMIC SCHOOL: MILLSTONE OR MILESTONE? | AHMED 147 Public Apprehension of Islamic Schools I could not ignore public suspicion over possible ominous purposes of Islamic schools, which was akin to the proverbial “elephant in the room” throughout my inquiry. In the conceptual frame borrowed from Ramadan, Islamic schools in the West that operate with the single-minded doctrinal focus of the stereotypical...