Islamic Schooling and the Identities of Muslim Youth in Quebec: Navigating National Identity, Religion, and Belonging by Hicham Tiflati (review)

Reviewed by: Islamic Schooling and the Identities of Muslim Youth in Quebec: Navigating National Identity, Religion, and Belonging by Hicham Tiflati Claire Alkouatli Islamic Schooling and the Identities of Muslim Youth in Quebec: Navigating National Identity, Religion, and Belonging HICHAM TIFLATI Routledge, 2021, 170 pages. Within Canada's geographical and sociocultural diversity, Quebec may be a complicated province for young people who identify as Muslim to live and develop, due not only to Bill 21 and enduring controversies over bans on religious symbols (Montpetit, 2021). Hicham Tiflati goes straight to the heart of the matter in his 2021 book by inviting young Muslims, along with parents and teachers, to share their thoughts and experiences on developing integrated identities in Islamic schools within the sociocultural milieu of Quebec. The book's biggest strength is the diversity of young Muslim voices it presents—voices often marginalized and stereotyped in the mainstream media—and the sensitive, nuanced way that Tiflati engages them, providing space and context for readers to discern a sense of the province's young Muslim people's perspectives on many of today's pertinent social and educational issues. Starting with a conceptual framing on identity and multiculturalism that features R. Jackson's interpretive approach to religious education, Tiflati draws from various scholars, includindg P. Beyer, W. Kymlicka, B. Parekh, and C. Taylor. Indeed, a primary contribution of the book might be adding insights on identity construction within Muslim educational communities to this body of literature on Canadian multiculturalism. Tiflati then details the historical development of Islamic schools in the province, along with contemporary cultural currents, as backdrop to his empirical research with 36 Muslim people: 21 graduates and 15 stakeholders at Islamic schools in the province. In a methodological approach that presents as a bit underdeveloped in parts, and including data excerpts that are simply listed rather than being fully unpacked in detailed analysis, Tiflati shares the perspectives of six people he considers unique cases among his participants. He then presents a more topical thematic analysis of his data, aided by NVivo, [End Page 127] from interviews in French, Arabic, and English that he conducted and translated. Through these interviews with first- and second-generation student graduates of Islamic schools, as well as parents, teachers, and leaders involved in Islamic schooling, Tiflati examines how young Muslims describe such schooling as preparing them to participate in the secular Quebequois society in particular, and in English-speaking Canada in general. Many participants share some dire perspectives on challenges facing Islamic schools, including Islamic course material that is minimally offered as an add-on to national curricular material, with Islamic aspects as marketing tools, and whose quality falls short of expectations; parents who do not participate in the schools; financial issues and lack of government subsidy, partially due to enduring anti-Muslim stereotypes; and underqualified teachers who teach at the schools simply because it is where they found a job. Detailing these challenges, the book should be a wake-up call for educators, administrators, scholars, and social leaders involved in Islamic education in minority communities, including in other Canadian provinces. However, reported benefits of the Islamic school include, primarily, that the school offers a safe, clean place for Muslim children to learn in an environment culturally harmonious to home, at least to some degree, which is safe from Islamophobia and the dangers of public school, including sex, drugs, and clubbing. This core concern is summarized in one participant's words: "Parents want their children to be watched and monitored in a moral sense, which means respecting adults, following Islam, and not completely melting in Western society" (p. 85). As such, Tiflati's study echoes much previous literature on Muslim learners in Canada and North America, dating all the way back to Zine's (2008) groundbreaking study on Canadian Islamic schools. The enduring nature of these concerns constitutes an interesting finding in itself—just as the enduring nature of challenges facing Islamic schools is disheartening—but they also undergird another of Tiflati's findings: that religion is not welcomed in public schools with implications for identity development. In describing that the participants stressed "that their religion is not appreciated in a secular educational environment...

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