Elusive inclusion: comparing the counter-intuitive accommodation policies of Islamic schools in Scotland and Quebec

ABSTRACT

In many respects the sub-state nation of Scotland seemingly has a stronger relationship with Muslim communities than its counterpart, Quebec. While both jurisdictions fund faith schools to varying degrees, Scotland does not fund Islamic schools and Quebec does. Thus, this paper considers an intriguing puzzle: one jurisdiction which has a more contentious relationship with Muslim communities accommodates the public funding of Islamic schools, than the jurisdiction which demonstrates a more inclusive embrace towards them. Why? It considers four factors: church-state settlements, Muslim mobilisation, civil society actors, and political parties. It argues that church-state settlements are the critical component in explaining the outcome, and political parties the most powerful intervening variable. Ultimately, it concludes that while the counter-intuitive element in the analysis is indicative of policy legacies, substantive inclusion within the realm of education eludes Muslims in both jurisdictions.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamic schools
• civil society actors
• church-state settlements
• Muslim mobilisation
• political parties

Acknowledgements

I'm grateful to Keith Banting, Triafilos Tria⁠dafilopolous, Linda White and the journal's two anonymous reviewers whose comments helped improve the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Although, Scotland certainly grapples with racism and Islamophobia; see Bonino (2015) and Hopkins (2008) for extensive accounts.

2 I could not secure interviews with Scottish bureaucrats.

3 The Catholic community was the focus given integration difficulties, the Episcopalian church was not given the same prominence.

4 The first one I compiled; Ali (2013) compiled the second for her research on Muslim women activism in Scotland.

5 AMINA’s head office in Glasgow, but they also have offices in Edinburgh and Dundee.

6 Out of the three schools that receive funding, two receive partial state funds; only one receives the full amount. This is dependent to the extent of which the schools follow the provincial curriculum (Tremblay 2013).

7 The Charter of Values was divisive within the PQ, as well as with sovereigntists outside of the party. Many saw the Charter as not representative of Quebec’s values (Sarrouh and Banting 2017).

8 Translation is the author’s.