The kirpan, which is a stylized representation of a sword, will be allowed in public areas of Toronto courthouses subject to certain conditions.

The kirpan, the Sikh ceremonial dagger

Sikhs’ ceremonial daggers now allowed in Toronto courthouses

Published On Wed, 16 May 2012

Curtis Rush
Police Reporter

Toronto has become the first city in Canada to develop a formal policy allowing Sikhs to bring their ceremonial daggers into its courthouses.

The kirpan, which is a stylized representation of a sword, will be allowed in public areas of Toronto courthouses subject to certain conditions.

For instance, the court officer must be informed the person is a Khalsa Sikh, which is an initiated Sikh, and that they are carrying a kirpan.

Otranto Cathedral, with reliquaries behind the high altar containing the 800 skulls from the severed heads of a band of Puglian Catholics martyred by Ottoman soldiery in the year of Our Lord 1480. They are commemorated in the Martyrology on August 14.

Sign of the times: After five complaints were made, a working group including councillor Karen Stintz has decided to allow this advertisement to remain in the Kennedy subway station.

Religious ads on TTC? Why not?  
First posted: Thursday, April 05, 2012 08:28 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, April 05, 2012 08:30 PM EDT

The TTC has been allowing Christian-themed ads by Bus Stop Bible Studies since 2006, including one now running depicting a little girl praying to Jesus because her parents take drugs.

In 2009, it permitted an ad by the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign declaring, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

Given that context, its recent decision to allow an ad by the Islamic Infocentre beginning, “There is no god but Allah (and) Muhammad is His messenger,” is reasonable.

As long as the TTC would allow, for example, an ad from a Christian bookstore beginning, “Jesus Saves.” or one expressing a similar sentiment by any other religion, we don’t see a problem.

Of course, the TTC can’t allow just any religious ad to run. (…)

For example, an ad that demeans or insults another religion would clearly be inappropriate.

But for Muslims to say there is no god but Allah, is no different from Christians saying the only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ.

Montreal borough votes to ban religious processions
Giuseppe Valiante, QMI Agency
First posted: Friday, April 06, 2012 07:16 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, April 06, 2012 07:22 PM EDT

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MONTREAL – Relations between the orthodox Hasidic Jewish community of a wealthy Montreal borough and certain residents have gotten so bad that the council voted Monday to ban all parades and religious processions until June.

The borough of Outremont, located in the centre of Montreal, said the “moratorium” was put in place to make bylaws “more precise and easier to enforce.”

However, the Outremont residents QMI Agency spoke with said the real reason behind the ban was to calm rising tensions that culminated in a nasty altercation in March between a councillor and members of the Hasidic community.

Muslim book backlash grows

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/muslim-book-backlash-grows/1538884363001

Market for misogyny in Canada?

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/market-for-misogyny-in-canada%3F/1530800707001

The halal affair: Shameless prejudice imported from France
The Montreal Gazette March 21, 2012

Mario Dumont is certainly no Pierre Elliott Trudeau, of whom it was more famously said, but it seems that he too haunts us still.

As leader of the lately departed Action démocratique du Québec, Dumont generated a wave of sup-port that nearly carried the party to power – and himself to the premiership – five years ago by feeding old-stock Quebecers’ atavistic fears about their collective identity being undermined by cultural and religious accommodations made to immigrant groups. Most prominently targeted was the province’s burgeoning Muslim population.

After a career-ending repudiation in the last provincial election, Dumont has recycled himself as a TV talking head, but he’s still grabbing attention by stoking xenophobia. Last week he stirred up a controversy over the growing encroachment of halal meats on Quebec’s food store shelves.

Soldats d'Allah à l'assaut de l'Occident By Djemila Benhabib

Djemila Benhabib: «Quand on brise le silence, on prend un risque» (When we break the silence, we take a risk)

Conference “Soldiers of Allah’s offensive on the West”

Montreal, McGill University, room 219 (Leacock)

January 26, 2012, 7:00 pm 

Djemila Benhabib launches a call to democratic vigilance and secularism without any concessions.

She presents the history of the Muslim Brotherhood implementation in Europe and America and their strategy to impose Islamic fundamentalism in public sector by quoting charters of human rights and promoting multiculturalism.