The unprecedented popularity of its courses on Islam has prompted Carleton University to launch a standalone program in Muslim studies.
The program is being offered this fall as more students enrol in religion courses and major in religion. It also reflects the changing demographics of Ottawa as Muslims, numbering more than 352,000 in Ontario, make up a larger share of the population.
"It's an aspect of the world that needs to have a place for it to be displayed," says Leonard Librande, Carleton's only Islam expert and the professor spearheading the program.
A decade ago, religion programs were on life support at most universities, where they were viewed by some as antiquated, perhaps even irrelevant. At Carleton, budget cuts forced the religious studies department to be folded into the college of humanities.
Then, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, underscored the influence of religion on world events and drove a surge of student interest, particularly in Islam. Understanding religion suddenly became a very modern concern.
Last year, Carleton's two undergraduate courses on Islam were so popular that more than 50 students had to be turned away, says Mr. Librande, who teaches the courses. Enrolment in those classes, at 150, is at an all-time high.
Mr. Librande says his classes are typically split between students of Middle Eastern or Asian origin, with many coming from observant Muslim families, and non-believers who take the courses as part of a political science, international affairs or philosophy degree.
Meanwhile, the number of students majoring in religion has also jumped, from a handful a decade ago to about 120, says Mr. Librande. Another 98 undergraduates are taking religion as a minor.
As the lone religion scholar to have survived the budget cuts of the 1990s, Mr. Librande has seen his department grow by eight professors, all of whom were hired over the past few years. The department is also proposing to start a graduate program in religious studies.
"We're at the point now where there's an argument for yet more staff in the future," says Mr. Librande.
The new minor in Muslim studies allows students to choose from a dozen undergraduate courses in religion, political science, history, sociology and anthropology. A fourth-year course on Muslim architecture is also on the curriculum.
The program is being greeted warmly within the Muslim community. Mumtaz Akhtar, president of the Ottawa Muslim Association, views it as a sign of Carleton's openness to fostering dialogue about different faiths. "It's a very good thing," he says.
Mr. Akhtar, a member of the Ottawa Mosque on Northwestern Avenue, says he has noticed over the past five years an increase in the number of university students who approach him asking to observe Friday prayers.
"Some say they are writing an article or it's a requirement for an essay. Some say they're taking a course and their professor asked them to visit the different places of worship."
At the same time, some within the community express misgivings at the possibility of a western bias infiltrating the curriculum with Islam being taught at a secular university.
Shahbaz Ghazi, vice-president of Carleton's Muslim Students Association, worries the new program will be stacked with scholars critiquing Islam as non-believers, rather than "insider knowledge" from Muslim scholars.
Mr. Ghazi is also skeptical about the program's appeal among young Muslims. "Most Muslims would prefer to learn from Muslim scholars rather than non-Muslims," he says.
Mr. Ghazi's comments reflect an ongoing debate about how to bridge the chasm between Muslim orthodoxy and secular universities.
Tariq Ramadan, a visiting professor at Oxford University and one of Europe's leading intellectuals on Islam, has argued that as interest in the field grows among western academics, the scholarly pursuit of Islam is being warped by a focus on terrorism and the struggle against radical movements. As a result, the richness of Islamic theology is reduced to political ideology.
While Islamic studies programs have become politicized at some U.S. universities, the situation is much different in Canada, says Mr. Librande.
The few Islamic studies programs on offer are still in their infancy -- with the notable exception of McGill University, which has the country's largest, most established institute of Islamic studies.
When Mr. Librande obtained his PhD there in the 1970s, the institute was so well-regarded that the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia, which have majority Muslim populations, sponsored scholars to be trained there.
Mr. Librande, an expert in the Islamic theology of the classical and medieval period, rejects Mr. Ramadan's characterization of Islamic studies in western academia.
"In Canada, my strong sense is that scholars studying Islam do so with every safeguard to remove bias. We are aware of some of the mistakes that earlier scholarship suffered and make every effort now to observe and explain things Islamic," says Mr. Librande.
At the same time, he acknowledges that scholars have a hard time setting Islam in a modern context without reducing its dynamic to a clash of civilizations or a yearning for empire.
Neither the University of Ottawa nor Saint Paul University plans to expand its course offerings on Islam, even though both schools have reported modest increases in the number of students taking Islam-related courses.
The University of Ottawa has only one course, at an introductory level, on Islam as well as comparative religions course. At Saint Paul, a theological university with Christian roots, Islam is studied in a handful of courses that touch on world religions, but there are no courses devoted solely to Islam.