Staff and friends from the public school board recently enjoyed a tour of a Windsor Ahmadiyya Mosque.
Greater Essex County District School Board staff embarked on a tour and information session at the Baitul Ehsaan Mosque in south-Walkerville.
Christina McKibbon teaches French at Queen Victoria, she tells AM800 News what she learned about the Muslim community needs to be brought to educators and students.
"What we really need to do is bring this into our schools because it's an important thing for us to understand," she says. "There are a lot of misconceptions and a lot of bad information out there in the media and that's not good."
McKibbon says she learned a lot about the religion that her Muslim grade four students might not enjoy.
"If they're listening I do have to give them school work during Ramadan, they do not get to take the time off from work just because they are fasting," jokes McKibbon. "I also learned that because of the sunset and sunrise they're only going to be getting five or six hours sleep each night during Ramadan so I'll take it easy on them, a little bit."
She praises the openness of the community — they didn't shy away from any questions and the information presented really emphasized the reach of the religion.
"One of the first things I noticed when I can in was this massive collection of Koran that they have, which I thought was really neat," she says. "They're all in different languages; it shows that it's an international faith."
McKibbon was also surprised to learn that there are several mosques throughout Windsor-Essex — many practicing different forms of the Muslim faith.