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Intercultural Education
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Representation of Muslim characters living in the West in Ontarios language textbooks

Mehrunnisa Ahmad Ali
a a

Early Childhood Education, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Toronto, Canada Published online: 27 Aug 2013.

To cite this article: Mehrunnisa Ahmad Ali (2013) Representation of Muslim characters living in the West in Ontarios language textbooks, Intercultural Education, 24:5, 417-429, DOI: 10.1080/14675986.2013.824870 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2013.824870

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Intercultural Education, 2013 Vol. 24, No. 5, 417429, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14675986.2013.824870

Representation of Muslim characters living in the West in Ontarios language textbooks

Mehrunnisa Ahmad Ali*
Early Childhood Education, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Toronto, Canada This study examined how Muslims living in the West were represented in English language textbooks in Ontario, Canada. The review showed that Muslims were consistently placed in inferior and dependent positions in relation to white folks by focusing on their origins in violent and backward societies, their cultural decits, social ineptitudes, conicted identities, and low-status jobs. It is suggested that textbooks should encourage critical literacy by including a wider, more accurate range of depictions of Muslims in western societies to combat stereotyping. Keywords: textbooks; representations; Islam; Muslims; colonialism

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Introduction Nation-states all over the world promote their ideologies and versions of truth through textbooks (Altback 1991; Apple 1993; Montgomery 2005a). About 25 years ago, Woodward, Elliot, and Nagel claimed that, Local curriculum development has been largely replaced by the work of authors, publishers and textbook selection committees (1986, 1). Since then, the role of textbooks in classrooms has expanded as publishers now package them with teachers guides, references to websites, workbooks, and test banks (House and Taylor 2003; Moore 2005; Van Wiele 2004). The analysis of textbooks has interested many educational researchers (e.g. Montgomery 2005b; Pingel and Boitsev 2000; Van Wiele 2004) because of their potential inuence on students and teachers. Building upon this work, we examined the representations of Muslim ctional characters living in Canada or other western countries in English Language textbooks used in Ontario. Our purpose was to nd out if there were consistent patterns in the characterization of Muslims and speculate on how that might shape their image in readers minds. Theoretical and contextual background Halls seminal work (1997) shows how meanings are socially created and exchanged through representations i.e. words and images. Meanings are produced and understood in cultural contexts, and they mold our thoughts, feelings, and social practices. They are inherent neither in the representation itself, nor in the intentions of producers of the representations, but are jointly constructed by speakers and listeners, and
*Email: maali@ryerson.ca
2013 Taylor & Francis

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writers and readers. Because both parties actively participate in meaning-making, they may interpret the same representation in different ways based on their sociocultural, political, ideological, and historical location. It is therefore always important to consider the contexts in which representations are created and received. Textbooks are produced and distributed en masse. Their narratives represent selected aspects of culture (Hall 1997) yet they are widely considered timeless, neutral, and authoritative sources of truth. Words and images in textbooks tell us how to conceptualize and therefore how to engage with that which is represented (Hall 1997; Rezai-Rashti and McCarthy 2008). Their privileged status converts their scripts into what Foucault calls regimes of truth (1980, 131). While bias and stereotypes in textbooks are a widespread phenomenon, several scholars have signaled the representation of Islam and Muslims in western textbooks as especially problematic (Moore 2005; Otterbeck 2005). Citing several authors, Moore reports that:
Generally the teaching of Islam in the United States had been characterized by numerous stereotypes, distortions, omissions, textbook inaccuracies, and within the boundaries of Western civilizations politically motivated narrative. (2005, 160)

Some scholars claim that recent school textbooks contain a more balanced representation of Islam and Muslims (see Niyozov and Pluim 2009). However, others suggest that these changes are based on idealized, simplistic, and inaccurate representations, inserted simply to appease special interest lobby groups (Sewell 2005). In Ontario, as in other jurisdictions, textbook production is located at the nexus of social, economic, and political interests. To be included in the Trillium List, Ontarios ofcial list of textbooks approved for use in public schools, textbooks must address at least 85% of the learning expectations specied by the Ministry of Education. Publishers do their best to get their books included in this list. It would be nave to assume that all students internalize messages received from textbooks. However, more than 50 years of work done by Gerbner et al. (2002) has demonstrated that indirect, but consistent message patterns have a cumulative effect on recipients perceptions of social reality. They found that long-term exposure to repeated myths about minority groups, for instance, shape television viewers perceptions about them. They call this the cultivation process, based on continual, dynamic, and ongoing interaction among messages, audiences, and contexts. Our premise is that messages in textbooks are not different. Schoolchildren are exposed to these messages for several years, and have to demonstrate familiarity with them to pass tests and exams (Montgomery 2005a). In western societies, the portrayal of Muslims as uncivilized people began at the time of the Crusades in the twelfth century, and continued well into the seventeenth century following the European colonization of regions inhabited by Muslims (Aslan 2006). This image fed on two complementary sources: territorial conicts and Orientalist representations (see Said 1978). Together, they were used to construct Islam and Muslims as the symbolic frontier of Otherness, a monolithic entity that was inherently incompatible with Western societies (Buruma and Margalit 2004; Goody 2004; Said 1978, 1997). More recently, western involvement in predominantly Muslim countries, for example, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the Israel/Palestine conict, has framed the representation of Islam and Muslims in the West. The 9/11 event catapulted the construction of Islam and Muslims to a new level (Giroux 2002; Said 2003; Shah

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2006). In its aftermath, Muslims and Arabs, Al Qaeda and Taliban, and Iraq and Afghanistan became conated with each other, and demonized as the enemy of western civilization. Distinctive cultures, geographic locations, histories, and economic systems were collapsed into a single religious identication and reconstructed as the Other in the public eye (Kumar 2010; Rizvi 2004; Thobani 2003). Group identities signal afliations and guide personal choices. However, identities can be internalized or contested, claimed or ascribed. Many scholars agree that individuals have multiple identities because they are members of multiple social groups. One view is that these identities are rank-ordered according to their salience for the person (Stryker and Serpe 1994). Another view is that multiple identities are experienced simultaneously and continually negotiated, and their salience depends on the context in which they are evoked (e.g. Abes, Jones, and McEwen 2007). Some scholars claim that schools are next to parents in their inuence on childrens religious identities (Collet 2007; Vermeer and Der Ven 2001; Zine 2001). Canadian schools use the ideology of multiculturalism to promote tolerance for diverse religious identities. However, schools are also located within larger social milieu. Several scholars point out that in Canada, along with the ofcial rhetoric of multiculturalism, an Orientalist view of Muslim societies as pre-modern, exotic, aggressive, and oppressive (especially towards women) continues to thrive (Arat-Ko 2006; Shari-Funk 2010; Zine 2012). Ontarios Language curriculum guidelines for the elementary grades say that, Learning resources that reect the broad range of students interests, backgrounds, cultures, and experiences are an important aspect of an inclusive program (Ontario Ministry of Education 2006, 28). Referring to learning materials for grades 46, the document states, Junior students should have access to culturally diverse oral, print, and media texts that allow them to explore more complex topics or issues related to fairness, equity and social justice (78). This point is reiterated in the guidelines for the middle grades, as well as for the secondary grades, which states, As students read and reect on a rich variety of literary, informational and media texts, they develop a deeper understanding of themselves and others and of the world around them. If they see themselves and others in the texts they study, they will be more engaged in learning and will also come to appreciate the nature and value of a diverse multicultural society (Ontario Ministry of Education 2007, 4). Methodology Our methodology was guided by Foucaults notion of the archeology of knowledge (1972). Foucault uses this term to refer to knowledge that is institutionally sanctioned and considered xed, rather than in a ux. Textbooks are a prime example of such knowledge. Scanning each page of the selected textbooks (see below), we assembled an archive of statements regarding Islam and Muslims. Our purpose was to examine the texts on their own terms, rather than to look for their origins or speculate on the motives of their authors. We semantically examined the texts to categorize them into themes, weaving together the data and our theoretical frameworks. We noted the explicit as well as latent meanings of the selected extracts, recording what was said or not said and keeping in mind the sociocultural contexts in which they would be read (Fairclough 2003). We identied consistent patterns of messages in the texts, which create the

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grand narrative or a coherent, unied, and overarching story about Islam and Muslims. Fictional characters from the English Language textbooks were selected because vivid details of their actions, emotions, and relationships make them memorable. The textbooks included essays, poems, short stories, letters, articles, interviews and speeches, web-based text, and extracts from novels. The various genres are meant to help students learn different conventions of writing and reading texts. Different authors had written the selected texts for different purposes and audiences. While we did not investigate the intentions of their original works (see Hall 1997), we do question the choices made by the editors and publishers who selected only these texts from among all the options they had. Altogether, 58 English Language textbooks for grades 112 were reviewed. While some of these books are no longer in the Trillium list, they are still used in many schools. In response to the authors recent query, a school principal conrmed that textbooks are not necessarily replaced when they are taken off the approved list, and a publishers representative said that textbooks published in 2000 and 2002 were still sold by them, some as recently as in 2011. We scanned each book for characters that we considered Muslims, based on their names (e.g. Ali, Ahmed, Fatima), or origins (e.g. Pakistan, Somalia, Egypt). Arguably, non-Muslims can also have such names and some of them reside in these countries. However, in the absence of explicit religious identication of these characters, and the widely accepted association between these names and countries with being Muslim, we used them as indicators of Muslim identities. Only excerpts in which the above characters played a signicant role were retained for analysis. Among the 21 Muslim characters in the textbooks, 13 individuals, pairs, or groups were located in Canada or another western country, or Israel. All of them, four in elementary and nine in secondary level textbooks, are included in the following analysis; each a thread in the tapestry that represents Muslims living in western societies. Most of the narratives are by omniscient narrators, but some are rst person accounts written by Muslim characters. While this paper does not include the analysis of the characters located in predominantly Muslim countries, it is useful to note that as a backdrop, they contribute to the overall image of Muslims. Among these are the Pakistani boy Iqbal Masih, sold into slavery as a carpet weaver and later murdered; an Iranian paramedic recounting gory details of resuscitating a person wounded in war; an Egyptian boy who makes a living delivering gas tanks; and an Iraqi girl writing to an American friend about her familys war-inicted fear and injuries. The only clearly positive Muslim character is that of Salahuddin of the Crusades fame who treats his Christian enemies with generosity. The selected texts come from books written for students. While we did not conduct a systematic analysis of the exercises included in the students textbooks, a quick review of these shows that teachers are generally advised to help students interpret the ideas in the text, examine them from their own perspectives, and make judgments about them. We did not analyze instructional materials for teachers, ask them how they used these texts, or observe them in the classroom. Many scholars have acknowledged (see Hall 1997; Ravitch and Riggan 2012) interpretations of texts are always inuenced by researchers conceptual framework. The sociocultural location of this author as a woman of colour with a Muslim name, her postcolonial theoretical lens, and her knowledge of Muslim students experiences in Canadian

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schools in the 9/11 era, have obviously shaped her perspective. Others may interpret the same texts differently. Findings In this section, we use the texts to show how Muslims living in western societies are depicted. Inept immigrants In an excerpt from the novel entitled No New Land (Vassanji 1991), students are introduced to Nurdin, a new immigrant to Canada (Elements of English, Grade 10 2000). His struggle to get a job matching his experience and qualications is the theme of this extract. The tone of the narrative is set with the servility in Nurdins thoughts, as he imagines Mr Rogers of Eaton, his potential employer, as a fatherly gure who inspired in him a feeling of genuine respect. He was bubbling with excitement and enthusiasm for the opportunity to present himself to a white person because he had never talked to a white man on such terms before. However, he blustered in the interview and did not get the job. His co-workers in the donut store where he eventually found work regarded him as nothing more than a servant, keeping him as far as possible from the counter where they sat chatting when not serving (37). The decline of Nurdins occupational status is evident in the following:
And as he came to the counter wearing the yellow jacket, feeling a little low and degraded in this uniform that was stiff and odorous with the sweat of previous wearers. (Elements of English 2000, Grade 10, 37)

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Mrs Khan is a similarly inept character in the short story entitled Forbidden clothes (Gavin 2002). She is a Muslim woman of Pakistani origin, ineffectual, and voiceless in trying to deal with conicts between her husband and daughter. She is also a bumbling, slow learner who tests the patience of her English teacher:
Mrs Khan articulated her words in a at, monotone voice but as she spoke, she leaned forward and stared intensely into the eyes of her volunteer English teacher, Margot Henderson Margot felt the irritation rising up in her. Mrs. Khan was not her favorite pupil. She was a slow learner, and she resented the sense of dumb depression which seemed to envelop the woman, slowing down her movements and imprinting an expression of wooden despair on her face Margot glanced at her watch and noted with relief that their time was up She was not really in the mood for trying to extricate sufcient English out of Mrs. Khan to nd out what was bothering her. (Elements of English 2001, Grade 11, 263)

Savage and menacing The short story A Room on the Roof (Liebrecht 2000) is set in Israel and narrated by a Jewish woman who had hired three Arab construction workers to build an additional room in her home (Elements of English 2002, Grade 12). Their physical descriptions indicate their lowly status:

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They are nameless and ageless to me, in their faded black sweaters and their dirty elbows and stocking caps. They had a single face and uncouth words came from their mouths (Elements of English 2002, Grade 12, 78)

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The protagonists interactions with the Arabs are steeped in racial hatred and suspicion. She scours her bathroom with disinfectant and throws her towels into the washing machine after the Arab workers had used them. She believes they steal food from her refrigerator and use her husbands toiletries. She is afraid they may be carrying weapons in their knapsacks and could kidnap her son, or sexually assault her. Her revulsion is indicated in her comment, Ahmed smiled directly at her, baring his yellow teeth like the fangs of a beast (82). The woman is aware that the men are angry. They clench their teeth to suppress the wild rage that surges up, that only rarely breaks out and ashed in their pupils (Elements of English 2002, Grade 12, 83). But, she only feels fear and disgust, and recoils at the sight of the beaten dogs eyes he raised up towards her in the window, at the sound of his broken voice (83). When the workers arrive late for work and speak grammatically incorrect English, the woman reprimands them thus:
Lady, said the one with the golden eyes, insulted, Today was police roadblocked. Not possible we leave early before four morning, lady. And yesterday what happened? Was also roadblocked? she mocked. (92)

During the course of their work on her house, the woman learns that one of the men had studied medicine before becoming a construction worker. She sees that person talking lovingly to her baby, and notices his clean hair, highly polished shoes, well-pressed jacket, as he had dressed up for a wedding. Nevertheless, when her husband returns, she tells him about the trouble the men had created about the money she paid them, and how they tried to trick her into using iron rods that were too thin, ending with Arabs, you know (Elements of English 2002, Grade 12, 98). Rescued from war The following excerpts are written in the rst person by Muslim children in Ontarios schools. Abdullahi, a grade three boy writes:
I was born in Somalia. When I was small there was a war. My mom said we must move from Somalia. We then moved to Kenya. In Kenya, there was very little food and we were starving, so we had to move to Sweden My father came to Canada rst, and then we traveled here after him I am very happy that we immigrated to Canada, but sometimes I think about visiting my country again. (Carving New Frontiers 2004, Grade 3, 72)

Similarly, Meena Hakimyar, a girl in grade six writes a short piece entitled The War :
Hi. My name is Maryam John. I was born in Afghanistan. When I was nine years old, there was a war where I lived. The war was with Russia! One night when we were sleeping we heard an explosion, so we went to see what it was. It was a bomb that hat hit the side of our house. When we went back to bed I couldnt sleep. I was too scared. I could hear my parents talking. They said, for our safety we had to move from

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Afghanistan as soon as possible My mom woke me up and told me we had to get dressed quickly because we were going to be late. When we got to the airport I asked my father where we were going. He said Canada! It was a long ride to Canada. I was really bored. When we nally got there I looked around and I knew we had come to a good place. After a couple of weeks my father got a job and my mom went to school and became a teacher. I made lots of friends. My whole family was happy and one reason was that there was no war. (Collections 6: Discovering Links 2004, Grade 6, 80)

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Another young girl, Dragana, tells her friend in a letter that her grandmother in Bosnia cannot go anywhere and sleeps in the bathroom for safety, and that her friends do not go to school, but she is pretty lucky to be now living in Canada (Nelson Language Arts 1998, Grade 4, 53). In all of the above examples, the childrens immigration to Canada signals a happy ending. It is also notable that in a book published in 2004, Meena Hakimyar wrote about the Afghan war with Russia, which ended in the late 1980s, and not about the war with US and NATO forces, in which Canada was an important player. Conicted and oppressed Several young Muslim characters in the textbooks are shown in conict, especially with their fathers but also with their mothers, and their social environments. In the short story Forbidden Clothes (Gavin 2002), Nasreen is a Muslim teenager living in Britain, who has a strong desire to be more like her peers. She is rescued from isolation by her white friend, and says, She was nothing but a Paki, until Louise decided to be her friend (Elements of English 2001, Grade 11, 264). With Louises help, Nasreen surreptitiously dresses up in the forbidden clothes, consisting of low-cut tops and miniskirts to go to school, and changes back into her headscarf and slacks before returning home. When this is discovered by her conservative, authoritarian, and violent father, he hits her as he states:
She has been seen in town without her veil and slacks, dressed like one of those loose English girls, wearing a tight miniskirt, high heels and make-up like a prostitute. How dare you! How dare you do this to us. (Elements of English 2001, Grade 11, 267)

Nasreen bears the pain of his belt hitting her back, thinking:
Well, sir, Ive got two months left [until legal adulthood], and I dont care how often I get beaten. Im going to go into town, and dress as I like, and smoke in shop doorways, and dad will have to kill me before he stops me having whatever freedom is left. (Elements of English 2001, Grade 11, 268)

An unreasonable and authoritarian Pakistani father in conict with his son is similarly depicted in a dialogue Do as I Say (Khan 1991). The father insists that his son speaks Urdu at home (Crossroads 2000, Grade 8, 328).
Father: You can practice English outside if you want, but not here. You know I dont understand English.

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But you should learn English if you want to live happily in Canada. You are being unreasonable. Cant we speak English at home? We feel as comfortable in English as we do in Urdu. If you speak one more word of English to your sister in front of me, I will be really annoyed with you. Is this clear? But this is the best way to learn English. I am afraid you will forget your own language. No, I could never forget my mother tongue. After all, Ive been speaking it for 18 years. Many Pakistanis who have been living in Canada all their lives forget Urdu, and when their children are born, they never learn to speak Urdu properly. No, I cant see any reason for not speaking English at home. Will you stop arguing and do as I say! (Crossroads 2000, Grade 8, 328)

Father: Son: Father: Son: Father: Son: Father:

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In an excerpt from the novel called Ice Bangles (Sadiq 1988), Naila, who had immigrated to Canada from Pakistan after her marriage, returns to the country of her origin after ve years for her brother s wedding. She takes with her a Canadian wedding present for expressing her independence from the system she had left (Elements of English 2001, Grade 11, 122127). Despite her initial excitement, she feels like a stranger among people she had grown up with. Naila is embarrassed by the wedding extravaganza and by the social inequities she notices. Five years of living in Canada had awakened her social conscience, which emerged with the embarrassment of adolescent acne.
She had wanted to touch a familiar part of her life again and experience well-known emotions. Now, she felt as though she was a voyeur, observing unknown, and feeling a detachment that was as alien as terrifying. (126)

The essay entitled At war with oneself is written by an Arab-American youth whose conict is internal (Hossaini 2001). He struggles with his multiple ascribed identities in the aftermath of the 9/11 event. He believes he is not fully accepted by Arabs or by Americans, and claims, Im living in fear, and my identity leaves me no shield (Passages 2002, Grade 12, 279). Practicing archaic/exotic traditions The arranged marriage of Reesa and Zein is described in an interview by a journalist (Rushowy n.d.) Raeesa and Zein Dawoods marriage was arranged by their parents. They met when Raeesa was 15 and living in Karachi, Pakistan, and Zein was a student at York University (Elements of English 2002, Grade 12, 107). Zein was a graduate of a well-known private school, with a degree in administrative studies, and managed his familys manufacturing company. However, his parents arranged his marriage: Our parents brought us together, but it was up to us. I had a lot of time to think about it. We had a long engagement. Raeesa, who grew up in Pakistan, says, In fact, I nd sometimes Zein more traditional than I am because he knows what he knows from when he was a kid, stuff thats twenty years old now (Elements of English 2002, Grade 12, 108109). In a similar interview for the Utne Reader, Aslam Abdullah defends his arranged marriage. He claims that he believed in traditional values and that families ought to have a say in these things. Marriage is not a just a union of two individuals but a

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union of two families. He hopes that his older children will someday consult him in arranging a marriage. Hes not so certain about his younger, American-born children (Literature and Media 2001, Grade 10, 18). The cultural practices of Muslims are also exoticized in the short story in which a Somali woman, Abado, (Fahrni, undated) paints the hands of a young woman with henna (Foundations of English 2002, Grade 12, 247249). The young woman says:
I looked down at my hands, they seemed magical, intense. I looked at Abado. This old woman, struggling in a strange cold country, had given me a gift of warm attention, a gift resonating with a thousand pair of hands. While some of her younger peers appreciated her hands with the henna, The White men, silent and suspicious, were uneasy with the dark markings. Whats that voodoo stuff? They eyed my hands as if they were dirty. (Foundations of English 2002, Grade 12, 250)

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The composite portrait Representations of Muslims in Ontarios textbooks, such as the above, have a cumulative effect on how teachers and children imagine them. On the whole, Muslims living in western countries are placed in subordinate or inferior positions relative to white folks and dependent upon the latter. This is done by highlighting their origins in war-torn, poor, and backward societies, their cultural decits, social ineptitude, conicted identities, or their low-status jobs. The ideology of white supremacy is evident in these examples (Hage 2000; Hooks 1988). The challenges encountered by Muslim characters are mostly represented as personal shortcomings rather than as features of societies that marginalize them. Nurdin did not get the job he wanted because he blustered in his interview, not because of discriminatory practices in the Canadian labour market (see Abu-Laban and Gabriel 2002; Li 2003; Reitz and Bannerjee 2007). Margot Henderson is impatient with Mrs Khan because she is slow to learn English. We are not told whether she has sufcient and appropriate opportunities to do so (see Kilbride and Ali 2010). As Razack states, when difference is thought to reside in person than in the social context, we are able to ignore our role in producing it (1998, 21). Younger Muslims (such as Nasreen, the Son, and Naila), who seemingly want what is normal, reasonable, and socially appropriate from a Canadian/western perspective, are juxtaposed with violent, unreasonable, conservative, or unthinking parents, more strongly associated with Islamic cultural traditions. Conicts between young people and their parents are attributed to their cultural (closely associated with religious) norms, rather than the usual rites of passage to adulthood. This distinction underscores the difference between the superior. Western norms, which the youth are presumably capable of acquiring, and their parents archaic beliefs and irrational behavior. Implied in this distinction is the traditional colonial message that the youth can be civilized by embracing Canadian culture (Hage 2000). None of the children affected by the war ask why there is a war in their country. Surprisingly, in a book published in 2004, the plight of a frightened child is attributed to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, which ended nearly 20 ago, rather than the current war in which Canada is implicated. Children who arrive in Canada as refugees always nd it a safe haven. They never ask why their parents cannot nd appropriate jobs or housing in one of the richest nations in the world (see Kissoon 2010; Krahn et al. 2000).

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None of the characters are portrayed as well-integrated members of western societies. Even Zein, a highly educated entrepreneur, clings to traditional practices, discarded even in his parents country of origin. The Arab-American youth feels his identity has destabilized in the aftermath of the 9/11 event. McDonough and Hoodfar (2005) point out that most recently arrived Muslims come with professional skills and/or nancial resources and tend to be from the middle or upper middle classes, mainly because of Canadas immigration policies. Many of them transition to successful businesses and careers, and seamlessly move among different cultures, enriching them with their multiple languages, cultures, professional skills, and nancial resources. However, Muslims are homogenized as essentially inferior to westerners among whom they live in textbook representations.
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Conclusion Students exposed to this pattern of representation are very likely to form negative views about Muslims. Not a single Muslim character is included in these textbooks for his or her extraordinary qualities, or achievements. Teachers may try to use the texts to promote tolerance and empathy for Muslim characters, as advised, but that still frames them as a people needing tolerance or empathy. A fuller and more accurate representation of Muslims should also include characters who command our respect and admiration, and could serve as role models. Some Muslims in Canada are widely recognized for their achievements in philanthropy, public service, politics, media, or academia, such as the Nanji family, Muneer Shaikh, Naheed Nenshi, Haroon Siddiqui, and Sherene Razack. Others contribute to their families, communities, and country in less public ways. Characters based on these examples should also be included in textbooks to inspire young readers, both Muslim and non-Muslim. When salience is given primarily to the religious/cultural identity of Muslims, their narratives become associated with only this aspect of their identity. It becomes much easier to stereotype Muslims if diversities in other aspects of their identities are ignored. The negative leitmotiv of their narratives can then be associated with everyone who is ascribed a Muslim identity. The textbook narratives focus on features of Muslims that are different from the rest of us. This optic encourages readers to see them as a separate entity outside the boundaries of a more authentic western culture (Kumar 2010). But as Modood (2010) points out, Where there is difference there must also be commonality (5). A more inclusive stance would recognize common as well as unique characteristics of Muslim identities. Narratives about Muslims should also be located in appropriate socio-political and historical context. Wars, extreme poverty, mass migration, and the salience of particular identity marker are outcomes of complex engagements among social groups. Textbooks should encourage critical literacy by including multiple, alternate, and conicting narratives about Muslims that invite students to consider how they, as other groups in other times and places, have been constructed. If the mirror held up for Muslim schoolchildren in Ontarios textbooks shows only negative images of their co-religionists, it could result in their disengagement from the school curriculum or ignite their anger at their marginalization. If non-Muslims only see them through Orientalist lens, social inequities may get further perpetuated (Gillborn

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2005; Hall 1990; Loomba 1998). In a country that has a signicant and increasing number of Muslim citizens, and in a world that is rapidly becoming more interdependent, the Othering of Muslims is not in anyones interest. Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank Marie McAndrew, Bechir Oueslati, Lisa Quirke, and Nashwa Salem for their contributions to this work. This project was funded by the SSHRC Standard Grant.

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Notes on contributor
Mehrunnisa Ahmad Ali is a professor at Ryerson University and the director of the graduate program in Early Childhood Studies. Her research interests include immigrant and refugee children, youth and families, and the preparation of service providers to work with them. She is also a co-director of the Centre of Excellence for Research in Immigration and Settlement (CERIS) The Ontario Metropolis Centre.

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Textbooks
Collections 6: Discovering Links. 2004. Grade 6. Pearson Education, Canada. Collections 3: Carving New Frontiers. 2004. Grade 3. Pearson Education, Canada Crossroads 8. 2000. Grade 8. Nelson Education Ltd. Elements of English. 2000. Grades 10. Harcourt, Canada. Elements of English. 2001. Grade 11. Harcourt, Canada. Elements of English. 2002. Grade 12. Harcourt, Canada. Foundations of English. 2002. Grade 12. Nelson Education Ltd. Gage Learning Corporation Literature and Media. 2001. Grade 10. Nelson Thompson Learning. Nelson Language Arts. 1998. Grade 4. Nelson Education Ltd. Passages. 2002. Grade 12.