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Stories about the United Church and Israel:

United Church plan attacked as anti-Semitic
A proposal being considered by the United Church of Canada that seeks peace in the Middle East through boycotts of Israeli institutions is an expression of "anti-Semitic behaviour" and an "obscene gesture from a religious group," major Jewish organizations say.
Charles Lewis, National Post, July 29

United against the Jewish state
When the United Church of Canada (UCC) adopted the document Bearing Faithful Witness in 2003 as a blueprint for rapprochement with Canadian Jewry, it issued a collective mea culpa for its historical treatment of the Jews. The church stated: "We believe that our faith calls us to repent when the church has been unfaithful in its witness by not loving Jews as neighbours."
Bernie M. Farber, National Post, July 29

Earlier: Stories about Israel and the United Church of Canada, United Church faces backlash for stance on Israel boycott, Critics welcome new United Church stance on Middle East

Stories about the Prime Minister and the communion wafer:

Wafergate: Year's weakest religion story
The slow-news summer "story" about whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper actually ate or pocketed a Catholic communion wafer had a bad smell even before the editors apologized for it, which they did today.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, July 28

The crumbs of wafergate
There's no smoking gun here; there never is. But when I try to imagine Michael Ignatieff committing the same faux-pas -- even in the depths of journalism's silly season, which is, of course, a big part of why this became news -- I just don't see the same feeding frenzy ensuing.
Chris Selley, Full Comment, National Post, July 28

Publisher, editor casualties of story
A New Brunswick newspaper that ran a front-page apology for a story that claimed Prime Minister Stephen Harper had pocketed a communion wafer has also announced that its publisher and editor-in-chief are no longer with the paper. Saint John Telegraph-Journal publisher Jamie Irving and editor Shawna Richer were no longer at their posts, effective immediately, said Annie Smith, a representative of the New Brunswick News Inc., the company that owns the daily paper.
CanWest News Service, July 29

Earlier: Communion controversy overblown, says Senate speaker

Stories about gay-pride parades and the Tory caucus:

Denied grant, Montreal gay festival must rethink lineup
'Regional fairness' behind Tories' refusal, industry minister says
Toronto Star, July 23

Ablonczy still in the dog house, even in her home town
Here's the government of Canada giving $270,000 to the Calgary Folk Festival, funding that came out of the Marquee Tourism Events Program and the Calgary MP who happens to be Secretary of State for Tourism, Diane Ablonczy, is nowhere to be found. Instead, it's Ontario MP and Industry Minister Tony Clement (and heavy metal fan, I might add) who is handing out the cash.
David Akin, Full Comment, National Post, July 23

How badly do the Tories want to lose Quebec?
I hate to be the one to break it to the federal Tories, but Quebecers -- in spite of their Catholic roots -- like their gays. This latest move will merely hammer home the impression that the Conservatives not only fail to appreciate the province's unique character, they are hostile to it.
John Moore, National Post, July 24

Backlash against Pride funding worked
From the moment Ms. Ablonczy lost control of the file, everyone was waiting to see whether the government would fund Divers/Cite. The Tories would have to be idiots to make the decision on any other grounds than how it would be perceived in the war betweens gays and social conservatives. They are not idiots.
Stephen Maher, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, July 25

Earlier: Stories about gay-pride parades and the Tory caucus

Stories about euthanasia and health-care debates:

The other Canadian health-care debate
While a major debate about health-care insurance rages south of the border, Canada is engaged in a quiet but momentous experiment in health-care management. Sadly, no matter how the Canadian experiments work out, there will be plenty of losers, as Canada is on both sides of the same issue.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, July 23

Legalized euthanasia empowers no one
Have you noticed that the subject of euthanasia/ assisted suicide is picking up momentum -- that it is, so to speak, taking on a life of its own? I mean in particular that we seem to be approaching one of those interesting tipping points in public debate where the tone of those supporting a once-shocking idea is shifting from defensive to offensive.
Barbara Kay, National Post, July 27

Abortion and euthanasia injected into health-care reform debate in U.S.
The commercial opens with an aging couple sitting at their kitchen table, plaintive piano music playing in the background. "They won't pay for my surgery, but we're forced to pay for abortions," says the miffed husband in the new spot produced by the pro-life Family Research Council.
Canadian Press, July 29

Earlier: Ethicist opposes bid to legalize euthanasia in Quebec

Stories about Islam and the West:

Click here for the Montreal Gazette's complete coverage of the Kingston killings.

Up to a dozen 'honour killings' in Canada in past decade
As many as 5,000 women and girls lose their lives -- most at the hands of family members -- in "honour killings" around the world each year, according to the United Nations. Up to a dozen have died for the same reason in Canada in the past decade, and it's happening more often, says Amin Muhammad, a psychiatrist who studies honour killings at Memorial University in Newfoundland.
Canwest News Service, July 24

'Honour killing' cases spark debates over religion, racism
The practice dates back hundreds of years to rural and tribal areas of Pakistan and is generally committed by family members against women who have engaged in illicit pre-marital or extramarital relations. In some cases, it can even target victims of sexual assault.
National Post, July 24

Muslim youth eschew bodychecks for prayer
Madina Ball Hockey League players bring cricket and field hockey skills to love of a Canadian sport
Toronto Star, July 25

Continue article >>

Murder suspect felt 'dishonoured' by daughter in family debate over boyfriend
Despite the outward appearance of being a quiet family, there were signs of conflict within Mohammad Shafia's Montreal-area home in the weeks before the slaying of three of his daughters and one of his wives. The 56-year-old businessman, second wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 39, and their 18-year-old son Hamed face four counts of first-degree murder and four of conspiracy to commit murder.
CanWest News Service, July 25

Picture of troubled family emerges
When allegations of a sinister plot of inter-family homicide reached the tree-lined street where Mohammad Shafia lived with two wives and his seven children this week, the Montreal suburb of St. Leonard found itself dragged into a convoluted narrative involving the death of three daughters and their father's first wife, and accusations it was triggered by the disapproval of the eldest daughter's love life and the refusal to end an unhappy marriage.
National Post, July 25

Confront 'diabolical' practice: former MLA
The term "honour killing" is not inherently racist and must be used to identify a "diabolical" practice that all Canadians should band together to oppose, says B. C.'s former attorney-general. Wally Oppal, a former judge who has spoken out prominently against the practice of honour killing, was responding to criticism that the term unfairly points a finger at particular cultures, such as Islam.
National Post, July 25

To cure honour killings 'cancer'
It is true that Islam's holy book, the Koran, does not sanction honour killings. But to deny the fact that many incidents of honour killings are conducted by Muslim fathers, sons and brothers, and that many victims are Muslim women, is to exercise intellectual dishonesty. At worst, it is an attempt to shut off debate.
Tarek Fatah, National Post, July 25

As Muslim women suffer, feminists avert their gaze
Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, an angry Khartoum journalist who works for the UN in Sudan, has started a campaign against shariah law by elevating a local police matter into an international embarrassment: She's invited the world to witness her judicial flogging, thus making her case part of the struggle between religious traditionalists and independent women--a struggle that now may encompass the quadruple murder that was revealed a world away, in Kingston, Ont., on Thursday.
Robert Fulford, National Post, July 25

In Ontario's heartland, shades of a foreign evil
The day after the murders, when we all thought it might still be a freak accident, I went up to locks at Kingston Mills to see where the car had been found in the water. I know the place well, taking many friends up there to explain how British military concerns shaped our local history. But on Dominion Day, the concerns were more crime-scene investigation than 19th-century military strategy.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, July 25

Con artists
JJ caught two Canadian conservative bloggers in a lie. Specifically, the usual ''Where are the feminists?'' crap that the right spouts for no reason at all -- except to bash feminism.
Antonia Zerbisias, Toronto Star, July 26

Mourners crowd mosque
More than 3,000 people attend service for 'gentle' mother, two daughters
Toronto Star, July 27

Tolerance debate revisited
Quebec's francophone press uses the deaths of four women in Kingston as .pretext for another dispute' over reasonable accommodation
Globe and Mail, July 27

Islam just isn't into us
It has been said that a definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. Certainly, there can be no better explanation for Jews, and particularly liberal Jews to keep trying new ways of currying favour in the eyes of the Islamic world.
Laura Rosen Cohen, Full Comment, National Post, July 27

Patriarchy and violence against women exist in all societies
Media are wrong to focus on 'honour killing' as reason for violence
Dolores Chew and Farha Najah Hussain, Montreal Gazette, July 28

Don't call it 'domestic' violence
Following news of the arrest last week of Mohammad Shafia, his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and their 18-year old son, Hamed, for the alleged murder of four female family members, a case exhibiting several earmarks of a culturally motivated crime, I steeled myself for the usual media scramble to deplore all acts of "domestic violence." I was therefore pleased that Saturday's Post instead featured plain-spoken anti-Islamist Tarek Fatah's vigorous denunciation of the practice of "honour killing."
Barbara Kay, National Post, July 29

Earlier: Stories about Islam and the West

Other stories from the past week:

UBC astronomer is a "spiritual" kind of guy
Astronomer Jaymie Matthews is one of the most engaging and fascinating scientists in B.C. today, as Pete McMartin illustrated in a recent entertaining Sun column. One thing that Peter didn't touch on in his piece about Matthews and the moon, however, is that the UBC scientist has an impressive openness to figuring out the significance for humans of all that he discovers in the vastness of space.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, July 23

Teens pick up compassion as well as discarded bottles
It's all part of the Democrew summer program run by the Mustard Seed Street Ministry, designed to give teens between 13 and 17 a first-hand experience with the issues of homelessness and poverty in Calgary's inner city. The bottle-picking expedition is followed up through the week with opportunities for the teens, many who are members of church youth groups, to serve meals to homeless Calgarians and supply basic necessities to those on the streets.
Calgary Herald, July 25

Chinese dissident saved by Canada details horror
But the plane wouldn't take off for what seemed like eternity. "I started praying to Jesus Christ to save me -- and then the plane left the ground. I knew from that moment on, my life had changed forever." Is he a Christian? No. A Buddhist? No. In fact, an atheist. "But I felt desperate at that moment. I had been reading a Bible in the jail -- that was one of two books there -- and had got a sense of peace from it." In Toronto, an old friend from China, now a pastor in Montreal, has since told him: "You were saved by Jesus Christ, not Jason Kenney."
Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star, July 26

Is Western Canada to get its first cardinal in 20 years?
The recent visit of Vancouver Catholic Archbishop Michael Miller to his old friend, Pope Benedict XVI, is adding to speculation that Miller could soon be elevated to the rank of cardinal. Cardinals are the only ones who can vote for the next pope. There are only 113 cardinals of voting age (ie. under age 80) in the world.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, July 27

Uncovering the other Dead Sea Scrolls
Along with now-deceased British expert John Marc Allegro, Lancaster Harding was one of the earliest British scholars who worked on the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. On his deathbed, Harding reiterated his long-held belief that there were more scrolls still hidden from the public and held by either Bedouin tribesmen from the Dead Sea area or by private antiquities dealers. It is a tantalizing claim--but also one that generally has been dismissed by archaeologists. So it is interesting to ask why such a distinguished expert as Harding would have made such a dramatic deathbed confession?
Geoffrey Clarfield, National Post, July 30

July 30/2009