Religious education is so prized by Toronto's growing Muslim community that there are not enough schools to meet the demand. The first Islamic religious schools opened in Ontario in the early 80s. There are now 25, as parents who hold traditional values clamour not only for prayer but for what some call the cocoon of safety their children will find in an Islamic environment. These environments are thoroughly, though not exclusively, Islamic - schools where beautiful drawings of mosques decorate doorways, children's painted lanterns hang from ceilings, and delicate calligraphy decorates class walls next to projects on amoeba or the solar system. Girls wear the Islamic head scarf, the hijab, and pinafores or trousers, or sometimes both.
Boys are in white shirts and dark trousers.
Their teachers are addressed as brother or sister. The Ontario Ministry of Education reported 2,240 children in Islamic schools in 1999, but estimates from the Muslim community suggest greater numbers, as many as 4,000. New schools open every year. A high school is under construction in Mississauga on the property of the Islamic Centre of Canada at South Sheridan Way. The Taric Islamic Centre has applied to lease an unused public school in North York and hopes to open for grades 1 to 4 in September.