Hong Kong's Liberal Studies curriculum (implemented in 2009) aims in part to teach young people about diversity in society, including cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity. This essay considers how religions and religious diversity are represented in Liberal Studies, analyzing how minority forms of religion are visible and invisible in the four most popular Liberal Studies textbook sets. The analysis will answer the questions of (1) how Hong Kong's religious diversity is expressed in the textbooks and (2) how different religions are depicted in relation to the society overall. Textbooks are the primary source material teachers use, particularly in new subjects, as reflections of prevalent attitudes, beliefs, and norms, and as formal sources of curriculum content. This essay therefore provides a glimpse of the latent knowledge about religious diversity in the educational publishing and decision-making community of Hong Kong, relating gaps in text coverage to the subject's aim of developing student understanding and appreciation of diversity.
[Copyright of Asian Anthropology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2015.1025595]

In the post-9/11 era, growing scholarly literature and social concern have focused on Islamic education in Muslim-majority countries and for Muslim minorities in the West. However, public attention and academic research concerning the teaching of Islam as a world religion and a commonly shared human civilization, are barely understood in secular contexts and in public education. This issue requires more attention, especially in Asia. For the sake of future dialogue and further discussion, this paper is a tentative attempt at initiating this understudied issue of teaching Islam as multicultural literacy. It inquires about the pedagogy of teaching Islam in an East Asian context by first briefly reflecting on the dilemmas of introducing Islam to the West and its implications for the university curriculum. Departing from the experience in North America and European societies, this article then attempts to explore alternative pedagogical discourse in teaching Islam to Chinese students in the East Asian context by considering its specific geographical position in global politics and the recent development of Hong Kong. This article finally foresees the developing pedagogy of Islamic teaching that challenges students to break away from the media cliche and apathy towards human suffering, leading them to understand that they themselves are the potential peacemakers of a future global multiethnic and multicultural society.
[Copyright of Asian Ethnicity is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631360802041893]