To those who study the integration of immigrants in Western countries, both Muslims and Canada are seen to be exceptions to the rule. Muslims are often perceived as unable or unwilling to integrate, mostly due to their religious beliefs, and Canada is portrayed as a model for successful integration. This book addresses the intersection of these two types of exceptionalism through an empirical study of the experiences of Muslims in Canada. Replete with practical implications, the analysis shows that instead of fixating on religion, the focus should be on the economic and social challenges faced by Muslims in Canada.

In Producing Islam(s) in Canada, twenty-nine interdisciplinary scholars analyze how academics have thought, researched and written on Islam and Muslims in Canada since the 1970s.

State, Religion and Muslims offers a comprehensive insight into the discrimination against Muslims at the legislative, executive and judicial level across the 12 Western countries situating discriminatory practices in their institutional framework with a multidisciplinary look.

Muslim communities have become increasingly salient in the social, cultural, and political landscape in Canada largely due to the aftermath of 9/11 and the racial politics of the ongoing “war on terror” that have cast Muslims as the new “enemy within.” Islam in the Hinterlands features empirical studies and critical essays by some of Canada’s top Muslim Studies scholars who examine how gender, public policy, media, and education shape the Muslim experience in Canada. Touching on much-debated issues, such as the shar’ia controversy, veiling in public schools, media portrayals of Muslims, and anti-terrorism legislation, this book takes a distinctly anti-racist, feminist standpoint in exploring the reality of the Muslim diaspora. A timely collection addressing some of the most hotly contested issues in recent cultural history, Islam in the Hinterlands will be essential reading for academics as well as general readers interested in Islamic studies, multiculturalism, and social justice.

The Religions of Canadians draws on the expert knowledge and personal insights of scholars in history, the social sciences, and the phenomenology of religion to introduce the beliefs and practices of nine religious traditions.

A significant number of Canadian-raised children from post-1970s immigrant families have reached adulthood over the past decade. As a result, the demographics of religious affiliation are changing across Canada. Growing Up Canadian is the first comparative study of religion among young adults of Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist immigrant families. Contributors consider how relating to religion varies significantly depending on which faith is in question, how men and women have different views on the role of religion in their lives, and how the possibilities of being religiously different are greater in larger urban centres than in surrounding rural communities. Interviews with over two hundred individuals, aged 18 to 26, reveal that few are drawn to militant, politicized religious extremes, how almost all second generation young adults take personal responsibility for their religion, and want to understand the reasons for their beliefs and practices. The first major study of religion among this generation in Canada, Growing Up Canadian is an important contribution to understanding religious diversity and multiculturalism in the twenty-first century. Contributors include Peter Beyer, Kathryn Carrière, Wendy Martin, and Lori Beaman (University of Ottawa), Rubina Ramji (Cape Breton University), Nancy Nason-Clark and Cathy Holtmann (University of New Brunswick), Shandip Saha (Athabasca University), John H. Simpson (University of Toronto), and Marie-Paule Martel-Reny (Concordia University)

Religious schooling in Canada has been a controversial subject since the secularization of the public school system, but there has been little scholarship on Islamic education. In this ethnographic study of four full-time Islamic schools, Jasmin Zine explores the social, pedagogical, and ideological functions of these alternative, and religiously-based educational institutions. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork and interviews with forty-nine participants, Canadian Islamic Schools provides significant insight into the role and function that Islamic schools have in Diasporic, Canadian, educational, and gender-related contexts. Discussing issues of cultural preservation, multiculturalism, secularization, and assimiliation, Zine considers pertinent topics such as the Eurocentricism of Canada's public schools and the social reproduction of Islamic identity. She further examines the politics of piety, veiling, and gender segregation paying particular attention to the ways in which gendered identities are constructed within the practices of Islamic schools and how these narratives shape and inform the negotiation of gender roles among both boys and girls. A fascinating and informative study of religious-based education, Canadian Islamic Schools is essential reading for educators, sociologists, as well as those interested in Immigration and Diaspora Studies.