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Stories about Islam and the West:
Examining extremists like looking into the past
For the benefit of those who missed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 2005 threat to wipe out Israel, he repeated it this week. Israel, he said, "will soon disappear off the geographical scene." The occasion was the 19th anniversary of the death of theocratic Iran's founder, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Whatever one thinks of the sentiment, the sentence is bizarre. Threatening to wipe a country off the map is like threatening to slay all men and women and let dogs lick their blood. It's Genghis Khan stuff. Politicians don't say things like that in the 21st century -- do they? Well, the president of Iran did.
George Jonas, CanWest Publications, June 4
French minister under fire in virgin marriage case
As the first person of North African origin to hold a seat in the French government, Rachida Dati became an instant symbol of the new openness that President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was trying to encourage. Now her political career is threatened by her response to a national debate over how much French law should be influenced by its minorities, based on a court decision that reflects Ms. Dati's own experience as a young Muslim woman struggling to make her way out of a ghetto north of the French city of Lyon.
Globe and Mail, June 5
'Get rid of oppressors,' terror trial hears
For the first time since the arrests of 18 terrorism suspects in 2006, a court yesterday heard the men describe the ideology behind their alleged scheme to attack Canada. In wiretaps played at the trial of a 20-year-old man, his co-accused spoke at length about their "global fight" to "get rid of the oppressors." They discussed the benefits of martyrdom and the need to retaliate against foreign soldiers fighting in Afghanistan -- even if on Western soil. "You harm one Muslim, the whole Muslim [nation] has to defend that person," the accused leader of the group said.
National Post, June 6
Fox network to make Americanized version of 'Little Mosque'
The producers of the gentle CBC sitcom "Little Mosque on the Prairie" have announced a deal with Twentieth Century Fox Studios which aims to get an Americanized version of the show on the Fox network, known for pushing the envelope with programs like "The Family Guy" and "Mad TV."
Canadian Press, June 9
Fox takes Little Mosque
Popular CBC series gets second life south of the border
Globe and Mail, June 10
The Jihadist revolt against Bin Laden
After Sept. 11, there was considerable fear in the West that we were headed for a clash of civilizations with the Muslim world led by bin Laden, who would entice masses of young Muslims into his jihadist movement. But the religious leaders and former militants who are now critiquing al-Qaeda's terrorist campaign -- both in the Middle East and in Muslim enclaves in the West -- make that less likely. The potential repercussions for al-Qaeda cannot be underestimated because, unlike most mainstream Muslim leaders, al-Qaeda's new critics have the jihadist credentials to make their criticisms bite.
Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, National Post, June 10
Robespierre's path
Al-Qaeda and its followers have unleashed a Reign of Terror on innocent Muslims. History shows where it ends
Jonathan Kay, National Post, June 10
'We weren't there picking daisies'
From the moment he corrected the court clerk on her pronunciation of "Allah" in his witness oath, it was clear that Mubin Shaikh has a way with words. "Two birds with one bomb," he said, pointing out that the alleged terrorist plot to bomb the CSIS office in downtown Toronto, which he helped disrupt as a paid RCMP mole, would also hit the CBC across the street.
National Post, June 11
Compromise in Muslim dispute not working out in Indonesia
Indonesia is bracing for renewed religious violence as a government attempt to be even-handed in a dispute between radical and moderate Muslims has only served to inflame passions. Both Islamic fundamentalists and Muslims preaching religious tolerance are outraged by a government decision announced on Monday to restrict but not outlaw the Ahmadiyah sect, which has about 200,000 followers in Indonesia.
Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun, June 11
Stories about Islam and "human rights" tribunals:
But we were getting along so well!
Geez, these days I don't seem able to step out of the house without committing a hate crime
Mark Steyn, Maclean's, June 4
Maclean's columnist blasts rights panel hearing
Columnist Mark Steyn denounced the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal's scrutiny of his work this week as part of a "ludicrous" system run by "pretend judges."
Globe and Mail, June 5
Maclean's counsel not allowed to question conduct of Islamic congress
Attempts by Maclean's counsel Julian Porter to question the B.C. director of the Canadian Islamic Congress about the organization's conduct were deemed inappropriate by tribunal judges on Thursday, undercutting the lawyer's line of questioning.
Globe and Mail, June 5
Blog posts cited as evidence that Maclean's article encouraged hatred
Faisal Joseph, lawyer for the complainants, led Habib through blog posts filed as evidence of how the article was "likely to make it more acceptable for others to manifest hatred or contempt," Joseph said. Various bloggers shared opinions that Muslims should be eradicated or forced to leave the country, the tribunal heard.
The Province, June 5
Reading between the lines in B. C.
Finally, yesterday, something germane to the case: Exhibit Nine, the two-year-old Maclean's magazine book excerpt written by journalist Mark Steyn, and made much more famous by the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal.
Brian Hutchinson, National Post, June 5
Writer says he wants to lose human rights case
Controversial author and social commentator Mark Steyn said Friday he wants to lose his case before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal in Vancouver. Instead, Steyn wants to take the "hate speech" case to an actual court of law. Steyn said a negative ruling would allow the case to go forward in the legal system -- instead of being heard by what he has called a panel of "pretend judges."
CTV.ca, June 6
Maclean's writer dares B.C. Human Rights Tribunal to rule against him
Steyn, who did not address the tribunal but was in the hearing room for some of the submissions, said he's "terrified" that the issue will be dismissed by the tribunal because the lawyer for the congress "put on such a staggeringly inept case."
Canadian Press, June 6
Also: Globe and Mail
What can writers say?
Shouldn't writers be able to write about the "most central" issue in Western society today? That's the question a lawyer representing Maclean's posed to the man who took the magazine before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal over a book excerpt printed in 2006.
24, June 6
Rights proceeding missing the point
Human rights proceedings against Maclean's magazine began to wind down yesterday. Lawyers complained of fatigue. Spectators slumped. Then suddenly, a surprise. One of the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal hearing's two complainants moved toward the witness stand.
Brian Hutchinson, National Post, June 6
Steyn watches as tribunal winds up
In the dying minutes of his hour-long closing arguments, at a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal hearing yesterday, lawyer Faisal Joseph turned to the facts. "Let's talk about the evidence of actual hate," he said. And why not. Hatred and contempt were what the five-day quasi-judicial process was all about.
Brian Hutchinson, National Post, June 6
In B. C., sock puppets behaving badly
Whatever formal outcome emerges from the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal's ongoing inquiry into the "Islamophobia" of Maclean's magazine and Mark Steyn, our freedoms of expression and publication will have been well served by the attention now being paid to the human rights cadres' ambitious policing of opinion. The BC HRT couldn't possibly have acted any more like a kangaroo court this week if the members had pouches surgically attached to their abdomens. But, really, it might be more accurate to call them a chicken court, given their continual random clucking over what evidence to accept, what witnesses to certify, and what credentials make someone an "expert" on discrimination.
Colby Cosh, National Post, June 6
Censor my book -- please
I envy Mark Steyn. There, I said it. And I'm not ashamed. I have a new book and I want to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. I want to be on best-seller lists. I want to be bigger than Jesus. Mark Steyn is bigger than Jesus. And for that he can thank a handful of Muslims.
Dan Gardner, Ottawa Citizen, June 6
All a blur at Maclean's tribunal
The travelling road show against Maclean's has reached B.C., and what is unfolding in Courtroom 105 at Robson Square is a funhouse mirror image of a trial.
Ian King, 24, June 6
Beware censorship, panel told
One side called the case launched against Maclean's a "chance to right a terrible wrong;" the other suggested the province was headed "down the slippery slope to total censorship." Closing arguments were made yesterday before B.C.'s Human Rights Tribunal, which heard a complaint filed by Canadian Islamic Congress national president Mohamed Elmasry and B.C. director Naiyer Habib over an article that appeared in Maclean's in October, 2006.
Globe and Mail, June 7
Tribunal weighs rights complaint against Maclean's
After a week-long hearing, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal is now weighing its decision on a complaint that a Maclean's magazine article subjected Muslims to hatred and contempt. "There has never been a case in this country that has had such clear, concise evidence, ever," Faisal Joseph, lawyer for the complainants, said in his closing arguments Friday. "There will never be any more demonstrable evidence of hatred that has been perpetrated by this article."
CanWest News Service, June 7
Emotions run high over Maclean's article
B.C. hearing told story promotes hatred of Islam. Others see this as an issue of free speech
Toronto Star, June 7
Awaiting a turn at commission
I accuse. The various federal and provincial human rights commissions of discrimination. Against me. Because for years now I have spoken out against same-sex marriage, the excesses of the gay community and Muslim extremism in my column as well as on my radio and television shows.
Michael Coren, Toronto Sun, June 7
Some human rights complaints are frivolous
In the past few months, there has been significant media attention regarding two human rights complaints lodged against a respected Canadian magazine and a well-known media personality. In the first case, Maclean's magazine has been taken to task for its publication of an excerpt of a book written by Mark Steyn; and in the second, Ezra Levant is the subject of a complaint for his decision two years ago to publish examples in the Western Standard of the so-called "Danish cartoons," which featured what some believe are derogatory images of Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad.
Rabbi Reuven, Chronicle Herald, June 7
No Ottawa rerun for B.C.'s human rights farce
Goodness knows what the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal will do with their hearing about Maclean's and Mark Steyn. Probably what they did with their 1997 case against North Vancouver columnist Doug Collins: Release the steam by calling them horrible people but not quite hateful enough to be convicted, then write in some judicial refinement for future use against less well-equipped defendants who have no powerful friends and can't afford counsel like Julian Porter and Roger McConchie.
Nigel Hannaford, Calgary Herald, June 7
The Islamotopian future
The Dominion of Canada. It was nice while it lasted.
Mark Steyn, Maclean's, June 7
Muslims told to demand equal voice in media
Muslims must "demand that right to participate" in national media, Khurrum Awan, the primary witness in the Maclean's magazine hate speech hearing, told a weekend conference of the Canadian Arab Federation.
National Post, June 9
An assault on free speech in an inappropriate forum
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ended its inquisition of Maclean's magazine and accused hate-monger Mark Steyn after a week of international ridicule. The obvious losers in the controversial hearing were the agency and the Canadian Islamic Congress, which accused the Toronto-based publication and the U.S.-based writer of inciting hatred against B.C. Muslims. By pursuing this blatant assault on free speech in such an inappropriate forum, the congress drew far more attention to Steyn's two-year-old article than it deserved or would have received.
Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun, June 9
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An "equal voice" for Muslims? Cat got your tongue?
As someone who is not a Day One National Postie, and who only ever received a handful of small paycheques from papers owned by Conrad Black, I am perhaps singularly well-placed to ask a couple of questions about Khurrum Awan's insistence that Canadian Muslims have a "right to participate" in "national media". One is "What's stopping them?" The other is "How exactly does the boy extortionist of Osgoode Hall think that an organ like, say, the National Post became a part of the 'national media'?" Did it happen so long ago that people have already forgotten?
Colby Cosh, Full Comment, National Post, June 9
Earlier: Stories about Islam, "human rights" commissions and the West
Stories about "human rights" tribunals and Stephen Boissoin:
The human-rights show trial of Christian pastor Stephen Boissoin
What could Mark Steyn's punishment be, if he and Maclean's magazine are convicted of "Islamophobia" by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal? It could look like the order issued by the Alberta government against a Christian pastor named Stephen Boissoin. . . . The complainant was the town scold, an anti-Christian activist named Darren Lund with an axe to grind. Andreachuk's first order was that "Dr. Lund, although not a direct victim, did expend considerable time and energy and suffered ridicule and harassment as a result of his complaint. The Panel finds therefore that he is entitled to some compensation." So a busybody with no standing spends his time filing complaints -- and gets a tax-free reward for doing so. For his "suffering" -- not at the hands of Rev. Boission, but "as a result of his complaint." People in Red Deer ridiculed Lund for being a tattle-tale and a censor -- as they should. But Rev. Boissoin must pay for that.
Ezra Levant, Full Comment, National Post, June 11
Deafening silence
The chains of history always rust away. This is a point worth recalling, as we head into a period in Canada when, owing to malice from an ideological camp, to cowardice on the part of our elected representatives, and to indifference on the part of the people, free speech and freedom of the press will disappear in Canada. . . . As free speech disappears in Canada, one looks for instance not at the more celebrated cases of Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant, but at the much less publicized fate of e.g. Rev. Stephen Boisson, convicted by an Alberta kangaroo court ("human rights tribunal") last November for publicly expressing the Christian and Biblical view of homosexuality, on the say-so of an anti-Christian activist from his home town.
David Warren, Ottawa Citizen, June 11
Earlier: Stories about Stephen Boissoin and the "anti-gay" letter
Stories about the polygamist cult at Bountiful:
Freed from Bountiful: a mother wins a battle
Over the past two weeks in two different countries and in very different circumstances, two sisters regained custody of their children. Those children now face vastly different futures. One set of cousins was returned to their mother after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the state had improperly seized more than 450 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' walled compound in west Texas. They will grow up within in a reclusive, polygamous sect where toys, television and books are banned and where church, not family, comes first. The other cousins have been set free from its strictures. Their mother, Teressa Wall, got full and permanent custody after her estranged husband agreed to a negotiated settlement that was approved by the B.C. Supreme Court.
Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun, June 7
B.C. polygamist leader decries sexual abuse
Polygamists living in Bountiful, B.C. abhor sexual abuse of children as much as any other caring parent, says the leader of one of the most controversial communities in Canada. Winston Blackmore, who openly admits to having numerous wives and dozens of children, said parents at Bountiful protect their children from abuse.
Canadian Press, June 8
Also: Toronto Star | Canadian Press
Earlier: Stories about Mormon and Muslim polygamists
Stories about Catholic school boards:
Premier at odds with Catholic board decision to block HPV vaccines
Premier Dalton McGuinty is criticizing the Halton District Catholic School Board's decision to block HPV vaccines from being administered in its schools. The motion came Tuesday night, when Halton trustees reversed an earlier decision and decided they would not let public health nurses into their schools to give Grade 8 girls the vaccine. The leading cause of cervical cancer in women, the human papilloma virus is contracted through sex.
National Post, June 5
Province takes over Catholic school board
In the end, it was too little too late to save Toronto Catholic trustees from a provincial takeover. They said they balanced the budget at midnight Monday, but an investigator found they fell $5 million to $12 million short of the mark.
Toronto Star, June 5
Trustee offers to forfeit honorarium
Chair dismisses gesture as a call for 'attention' while Catholic board under ministry review
Toronto Star, June 9
Seven school boards asked to justify high spending in wake of expense scandal
Several school boards across Ontario will have to justify their high trustee expenses in the wake of a spending scandal at Toronto's Catholic school board and fresh allegations of questionable charges at another board, Education Minister Kathleen Wynne said Monday.
Canadian Press, June 9
Also: Canadian Press
Earlier: Stories about Catholic school boards
Stories about the upside-down church sculpture:
Removal of upside down church stirs storm of controversy
Sculpture is now gone but strong opinions of artwork remain
Vancouver Sun, June 5
Controversial church sculpture in Vancouver sparks debate about public art
In the end, it was scenery - not sacrilege - that decided the fate of Vancouver's upside-down church. For all the talk about what, if anything, Dennis Oppenheim's towering sculpture says about religion and Christianity, it turns out complaints about water views and esthetics were ultimately what forced the controversial artwork out of a downtown park.
Canadian Press, June 7
Also: Canadian Press
Earlier: Stories about the upside-down church sculpture
Other stories from the past week:
Killing her softly
Enlightened progressives take it for granted that social progress is like technological progress -- that women's rights are like the internal combustion engine or the jet aeroplane: once invented they can't be uninvented. But that's a careless assumption. There was a small, nothing story out of Toronto this week -- the York University Federation of Students wants a campus-wide ban on any pro-life student clubs. Henceforth, students would be permitted to debate abortion only "within a pro-choice realm", as the vice-president Gilary Massa put it. Nothing unusual there. A distressing number of student groups are inimical to free speech these days. But then I saw a picture of the gung-ho abortion absolutist: Gilary Massa is a young Muslim woman covered in a hijab. On such internal contradictions is the future being built.
Mark Steyn, New York Sun, June 1
Earlier: Stories about abortion and related life issues
The NDP's disappointing flip-flop on Durban II
The NDP originally supported the government's decision to boycott the conference. Its flip-flop is deeply disappointing. The NDP now believes the 2009 conference will not repeat the vicious anti-Semitism that characterized the first Durban conference in 2001 because UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other notables have given their assurances that this time will be different. Such assurances mean little.
Rabbi Reuven Bulka, Sylvain Abitbol and Moshe Ronen, Full Comment, National Post, June 5
Abolitionist's letter up for auction
A 150-year-old letter evoking an extraordinary episode in Canadian and American history -- famed abolitionist John Brown's Ontario-based plot to spark a slave rebellion just before the U.S. Civil War -- is set to be auctioned this month in New York. . . . It was at Brown's May 8 meeting at a Chatham church where his controversial scheme to violently overthrow the Virginian government was advanced. Even dedicated abolitionists in the U.S. and Canada were uncomfortable with Brown's fanatical approach to ending slavery, and Tubman never did attend the meeting.
CanWest News Service, June 6
Mono-ethnic religious groups can promote divisions
I'm glad a small band of academics is focusing on arguably the biggest development to hit British Columbia in the past 35 years -- mass immigration from Asia. This group of underfunded scholars is not afraid to focus on a touchy topic -- how Asian immigrants are being influenced by religion, which may be enabling some to retreat into ethno-religious enclaves.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, June 6
Stronach church deal left at altar
The Archdiocese of Toronto has refused Frank Stronach's offer to build a new Catholic church for a growing Aurora parish, saying the Magna International founder wanted too much control over the design. The deal, two years in the making, fell through after Archbishop Thomas Collins saw a mockup of the new Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, and after seeking parish input decided Mr. Stronach and his team were asking for too much say on both the outside and the inside.
National Post, June 7
St. Stephen's a haven amid frenzy of city's financial centre
When 57-year-old Savio Ferrao first started working in the financial district, he spent most of his lunch hour trekking to St. Michael's Cathedral and back for a quick midday prayer. Then a friend told him about St. Stephen's chapel on Bay Street, just two blocks away from his office at CDS Clearing and Depository Services Inc. on Richmond Street West. He scoured the rooftops of Toronto's core for a spire, but saw nothing except high-rise banks, offices and condos. "A church for me was one with a cross, so I was looking for a cross. I didn't know it was in a building," he said.
National Post, June 7
Winnipeg police apologize to rapper for gunpoint pull over
Winnipeg police Chief Keith McCaskill has apologized to rapper Robert Wilson, who performs under the moniker Fresh I.E., after Wilson was mistakenly pulled out of his car at gunpoint by officers. "This was our mistake," the chief said at a news conference late Friday. "It was a human error."
CBC News, June 7
Earlier: Rapper 'speaks life' to Aboriginal youth
Should Sam Sullivan "die for" Vancouver?
Sam Sullivan told me before he lost his nomination battle he would "die for" the city of Vancouver. In a revealing and intimate spiritual profile of the Vancouver mayor, which I wrote before Sullivan lost his NPA party nomination battle on June 8 to Peter Ladner, questions are raised about what kind of character the mayor will show, particularly now that he faces a suddenly shattered political future.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, June 9
Earlier: Vancouver's new mayor looking 'beyond disability'
Quebec's national assembly amends charter to include equality between the sexes
Christine St-Pierre, minister of culture and the status of women, first proposed the amendment last spring. With gender equality already protected by other provisions in the charter, it was seen as a way to deal with concerns raised during the debate over the accommodation of cultural minorities. But St-Pierre was forced to scale back her original intent to give gender equality priority over religious freedom.
Canadian Press, June 10
Christians under the gun in China
Olympic-focused China rounds up dissidents, new report says
National Post, June 11
Also: Vancouver Sun
Ancient find fuels modern-day hopes
Catacomb in Jordan hailed as world's oldest church seen as evidence Christians, Muslims co-existed peacefully
Globe and Mail, June 11
School unaware of link to Scientologists
A Vancouver principal said his school was uninformed when it invited a group affiliated with the Church of Scientology to speak to a student assembly last month about human rights. John Bevacqua, of St. Patrick regional secondary school, said he hadn't been aware that Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) is part of the Scientology movement until it was brought to his attention by a staff member shortly after the group finished its presentation.
Vancouver Sun, June 11
Don't be frightened by fetus crime bill, Tory MP says
Insisting he has no "hidden agenda" on abortion, Conservative MP Ken Epp stepped up efforts yesterday to sell his proposed private member's bill to recognize fetuses as separate victims when killed or harmed in attacks on pregnant women. The Edmonton MP accused opponents, especially those in Quebec, of engaging in a "massive misinformation campaign" about its potential effect on abortion rights in hopes of derailing the bill, which passed second reading in the Commons in March. The bill specifically states it doesn't apply to abortion, he told reporters.
CanWest News Service, June 11
Earlier: LaForme and Epp - healing agents?
June 12/2008
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