Welcome back to This Week in Canada, where the government is paying for Islamic schools, speaking at a political convention requires an “equity card,” and beef has become so expensive that it’s stolen and sold in back alleys. Let’s jump in!
In Texas recently, Islamic schools have become a political battleground—shut out of a $1 billion voucher program over security concerns, then allowed back into the program by a federal judge.
Canada, by contrast, isn’t debating Islamic schools. It’s building them.
Islam is the country’s fastest-growing religion and its second largest, with 1.8 million adherents—nearly 5 percent of the population and more than double the number from two decades ago. The Muslim community is also younger: The median age is about 30, compared to 41 nationally, and more than a quarter are under 15. Nearly 30 percent of the country’s Muslims are Canadian-born.
This demographic shift is starting to reshape education in Canada.
Islamic schools, once marginal, are expanding quickly. In Alberta, the Edmonton Islamic Academy, founded in 1987, now has about 1,400 students and a waiting list of more than 1,500. An $80 million expansion is set to open this September. It’s the largest Islamic private school in North America.
