While public school students all across Canada typically learn about the world’s major religions at some point during their studies, one school board’s guidebook on Islam is edging close to religious instruction and indoctrination.

The Toronto District School Board designates a number of heritage months throughout the year and October is Islamic Heritage Month. A 170-page guidebook prepared for teachers recommends a variety of religious intrusions into the public school system.

A list of announcements it suggests be read before or after the playing of O Canada include the Muslim greeting “As-salamu alaykum” (peace be upon you) and an invitation to visit a local mosque.

Children are encouraged to use paper cut-outs to construct replicas of famous mosques around the world.

One assignment for students includes writing an article about one of 12 Muslim Canadians, four of whom are Liberal politicians currently in office, including Ontario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi.

These would all be done within the classroom and during school time. They’re also not to be restricted just to October because, as the guidebook notes, “the goal is to embed this learning within every classroom, across the curriculum, and throughout the school year.”

The guide doesn’t keep its focus solely on historical and scriptural matters, either. It delves into a variety of contemporary social issues, but in a way that glosses over widely known controversies surrounding the faith.

It says that, while women sit at the back or a different section of the mosque during prayers, “Islam never considered where women and men perform their prayer in terms of gender superiority/inferiority, and as such, it should not be perceived in this way.” There is no mention of the second-class treatment Muslim women suffer in the name of the faith in countries, such as Saudi Arabia.

It reports on recent survey information from the Pew Center to present data on Muslim populations around the world, but neglects to mention that the authoritative institute’s reports also include very troubling data about Muslim perspectives.

These include its findings that the majority of Muslims in various regions across the world support implementing sharia law and, for these particular respondents in South Asia and the Middle East, that form of sharia includes severe punishments like executing people who leave the faith.

For educators and parents concerned about these alarming issues, the booklet offers no insight.

The guide does not address the notoriously intolerant view of LGBT rights throughout broad swaths of the Muslim faith, despite how the Toronto District School Board has a vocal inclusion policy on sexual diversity.

While parliamentarians are currently grappling with how to define the term Islamophobia, the guide offers a broad definition to be recited to students that includes the mere dislike of political Islam: “Islamophobia refers to fear, prejudice, hatred or dislike directed against Islam or Muslims, or towards Islamic politics or culture.”

The actual Ontario curriculum includes study of world religions in Grade 11, but it is not done with any degree of proselytizing. “Research and inquiry skills are developed throughout the courses as students explore and analyse contemporary and historical issues surrounding world religions,” the curriculum notes.

The guidebook, which seems to have been released in late September, appears to be heavily influenced by the National Council of Canadian Muslims, an activist organization based out of Ottawa. Back in 2014, the RCMP pulled its support from a booklet published by the NCCM on extremism due to their problem with its “adversarial tone.”

The Toronto District School Board doesn’t have a heritage month for Christians, but does for Jews and Sikhs. However, there is nowhere near the same effort put into these endeavours as the Islamic one and while a Sikh guidebook is in the works there isn’t a Jewish one.