Natasha Fatah: Allah in the Classroom

Gender segregation may happen in mosques in this country, but the idea that it was happening—and going unchallenged—in a place of education appeared to be a violation of the Education Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The furor over the cafeteria prayers was all the louder because it was perceived as a slippery slope, part of a pattern of controversial accommodations of Muslim culture and religion in this country.

At Valley Park, the school’s administration had entered into a simple deal with Muslim parents and students. It never anticipated an explosive reaction.

h/t Scaramouche and Sanwin

Harper condemns attacks on Gatineau Mosque

A Gatineau mosque bore the scars of hateful graffiti this morning after its facade was spray painted with Stars of David and offensive anti-Arab and Muslim messages and cars were smashed in the facility's parking lot.  This is only the most trecent in a spate of such attacks in that area.

Prime Minister Harper and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center of Canada both condemned the anti-Muslim and racist vandalism.

This deplorable act reflects an unusual new chapter in senseless racist symbolism. Racially motivated vandals paint emblems representing something their victims would find offensive or ones that identify them for targeting. In the early days of Hitler's Germany before the destruction switched from property to people, Jewish stores were painted with swastikas to offend and Stars of David to identify.

During the current upheavals in the Arab world, various sides paint Stars of David on depictions of their enemies. In Egypt and Libya respectively, opposition parties showed pictures of Hosni Mubarak and Mouamar Gaddafi with Jewish stars drawn on them. The implication being that being a Jew or allied with Jews is the most offensive thing that can be said about a Muslim.

And now we're seeing it here in Canada.

From Blazing Cat Fur: Conservatives buy seat on Sea Hitler

Read about an appalling abuse of your tax funds at this link

Qu'ran Burning and the Ground Zero Mosque - Two constitutionally guaranteed bad ideas

There are few things I find more idiotic than book burnings.

Aside from the vile association of that gesture with Nazi Germany, it's pointless. History has taught us that you can't destroy an idea by trying to suppress and erase it. To destroy an idea, you have to discredit it and provide better alternate ideas.

The Qu'ran has many passages which modern, western civilization would interpret as brutal, bigoted and barbaric. The exact same thing can be said of the Bible.

The problem that western civilization has with Islam is not the Qu'ran, but with Islam's interpretation of the Qu'ran.

Burning a Qu'ran isn't going to convince any Muslim that their Imams are interpreting that book in antiquated, idiotic ways. It will re-enforce Muslim ideas of victimhood.

The act of book burning says more about the bigotry and hate of the book-burner than it does about the contents of a book being burned.

But in America, the 1st Amendment gives people the right to express that hatred, no matter how bad an idea it is.

The Ground Zero Mosque is another terrible idea. To build a symbol of the religion in whose name 3000 innocent people were murdered withing sight of that crime shows an incredible insensitivity and narcissism.

But the 1st Amendment also guarantees the rights of Americans to the free exercise of their religion within the law and there is noting illegal about building a mosque.

What is interesting about the two bad ideas of Qu'ran burning and the Ground Zero mosque is that most people who are condemning one are defending the other.

And they are both correctly using the 1st Amendment as the defense.

These controversies show me two things: the hypocrisy of the politically polarized, and that the right to free speech enshrined in the 1st Amendment of the American Constitution, as problematic as it may be, was one of the best ideas in the history of mankind.