Sister Sage's Musings

Posts Tagged ‘perverting religion’

What is is it with white conservative losers when they don’t get their way invoking Martin Luther King? We, in Canada, saw it not long ago with the bimbo, Sa-wah Palin look-a-like, Sarah Landriault when she discovered she couldn’t jump to the top of the employment ladder with no marketable skills, certificates, education or experience. That was nothing short of dispicable.

Then, we saw not only Glenn Beck and Sa-wah Palin, herself, scheduling their wingnutty hate festivities on the anniversary of Dr. King’s march for civil rights in the US, but actually invoke him to push their all white, Christian, intolerant, far right agenda. Man, Dr. King must be turning over in his grave about now. As Boris over at The Galloping Beaver describes this ironic message of Palin (and Beck’s):

It doesn’t need to be said that Palin’s “restoration” would seek a return the America that squeezed the trigger on MLK.

Disturbing doesn’t even begin to describe the theme of “Restoration of Honor”.  What I don’t get is why Alveda King would’ve even entertained the idea of speaking at Beck and Palin’s hate festivities. She must be the relative they don’t talk about.

However, unlike the 9/12 festivities of last year, I don’t think this tea-party had the energy. In fact, it’s to the point where I wonder if the tea-bagging movement is becoming a passing fad.

As yet another Glenn Beck extravaganza drew nearer, this time with Sa-wah Palin, I was looking forward to checking out the colourful misspelled signs of all shapes and sizes with such hateful, yet such stupid slogans as to be somewhat amusing. Call it morbid curiosity, much like the way many will stop to watch the aftermath of a car crash or train wreck.  I would learn that Glenn Beck had banned signs for the occasion, but that didn’t seem to stop a few from doing just that. Check out the link: a great diary with some amusing slogans.

I was checking the Twitter feed and the American blogs as well as some online media pages for some mishap or misstep, but, again, not much. Checked out Sa-wah Palin’s speech; but turned it off as I felt a migraine coming on. Honestly, she just has one of those voices that can feel like she’s drilling nails in your head.  She was just boring this time. Stupid can be funny, but Sa-wah has ceased being funny since comparing herself to William Shakespeare last month.

For me, to summarize the Glenn Beck / Sa-wah Palin extravaganza; boring! One big snore! And I don’t seem to be alone, neither. So much for all of Beck’s predictions of this extravaganza being the “turning point” and  “defibrillator on the heart of America”. I suggest you click that link and read Glenn’s predictions on how “miraculous” this event would be: I think that’s the most entertaining part of it: it all just went to snoozeville from there. Much of the audience looked like they could use a jolt of that defibrillator. So boring!

Other than the fact that Glenn Beck was wearing a kevlar vest under his shirt, his speech at first didn’t seem to offer anything of entertainment value and the audience was quite subdued. Then I read Jymn’s piece last night, where he observed Beck changing directions; one toward the more evangelical. I listened to the speech again and I have to say that Jymn is probably on to something.

He has turned his evil upside down so that it looks smiley face Stepford wive-ish. He has presented his rally as an open book (mostly the bible) for all people to join. The only stipulation it would seem is that you are all very, very religious, preferably Christian. He asked attendees to leave their signs at home (like true Beckbots, most did – great response from NAACP: “Dr. King never had to ask his followers to leave hateful signs and guns at home”.)

Beck made pains too to make the rally about the troops, of course. All immaculately planned and organized, Beck’s rally positions the tea party and the radical right to further their goals in turning the US into a theocracy.

Well, if as Jymn suggests, Beck is going from pathetic pundit to Revvin’ Reverend, I don’t think even that will succeed for too long. Hell, his message might have sounded outrageous and hateful, but he didn’t say anything different than what other American televangelists over the years have been spewing. He offered nothing original.  He bawled his eyes out, as usual. Big Deal. He has always done that.And by the by, the secret to Beck’s crocodile tears, apparently, is Vicks Vapo Rub. Take a look a the video here, if you dare, you will see that even his eyes and nose are starting to develop a tolerance toward the strong smelling cold remedy.

I remembered growing up, on Sunday mornings, before the days of satellite and digital cable; the days when we could access but a handful of channels and Sunday tv was pretty dismal, my partents would tune into American Televangelists like Popoff and Ernest Angley for the entertainment of it. We used to laugh at how these people would miraculously ‘rise from their wheelchairs’ or their ”cancer and diabetes and blindness was mysteriously cured’. We would chuckle at how these buffoons would hit people on the forehead, as it was suppposed to be a ‘touch from God or Jesus’ and they would all drop and faint on cue. Couldn’t Glenn Beck at least have done that? Would have made it more entertaining.

The point I’m trying to make here is that while there will always be an audience for evangelism and the preaching to bring America back to “fundamentalist values”, I think Beck may well have shrunk his own audience.

This brings me to my next point. After watching this non-event; Sa-wah playing the mom of a vet which was nothing more than her parading her kids into the spotlight, as she usually does, and Beck turning into Reverend Beck and sucking badly at it, the seemingly much lower than projected turnouts, I have to wonder if the American tea-bagger hit parade is becoming a passing fad?

There will always be that fringe Christian Evangelical far right element who will always attempt to push their agenda on everyone else and in American politics. There will always be tea-baggers whining that same refrain of “less taxes-smaller government”, grossly misusing words like ‘socialism’. They’re never going to go away completely and yes, they will more than likely make a splashy come back as they did when President Obama was about to introduce health care reform, but for now, I think they’re just a tired, pathetic movement.  As this Daily Kos blogger, who was at the ‘restoring dishonor’ festivities  put it:

In giving credit where it is due, they were mostly well-behaved and teh crazy was at a minimum.  They may like to speak of “revolution” and “replenishing the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants and patriots,” from the safety and comfort of their dial-up internet, but I don’t see that happening.

I would say that would sum it up best. I think the numbers have dwindled. Perhaps because they are tired of being shown to look like idiots when they can’t answer even the simplest of questions when asked by reporters as we’ve seen on YouTube at various Tea-bagger events in the past.  Maybe  they’ve (with the exception of those usual wingnuts where hope springs eternal and will die trying; those must be kept an eye on; very dangerous people)  even discovered that they can never move back to ‘restoration’ or ‘fundamentalism’ or ‘Christian reconstructionism’.

This time last year, Sa-wah and the newly self-proclaimed Reverend Beck along with bloated bleached buffoons like Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Bachman, were all brainwashing an already paranoid, uneducated American population with the impending end of the world if President Obama passed health care reform.  That was the main catalyst (certainly one of the tops) for the surgence of the tea-bagger hit parade.   Now, Obamacare, such as it is, has passed and I think most, no matter how against health care reform they may have been and still may be, they have seen that the sky hasn’t fallen down.

Sure, many Rethuglicans are planning to repeal the reform following the 2010 elections, but first, this motley assortment of misfits the tea-baggers have voted through various primaries have to get elected.   With the exception of the bible belt and states like perhaps Kentucky, I can’t see too many of them getting elected.  If anything, the tea-baggers are victims of their own success…or failures, depending which way you look at it.

I expect that mainstream Americans rude awakening is already happening, as they begin to see exactly what the shrieking of “smaller government and less taxes” brings them–paved, unlit streets in their cities and towns, as well as a rapidly deteriorating public education system.

I suspect that many Americans, after extended periods of unemployment and no prospects of future employment despite all efforts to find work, are now seeing that that whole “Anybody can achieve the ‘American Dream’ of prosperity if they simply worked hard and didn’t rely on their government” is nothing more than bull-shit propoganda.

Again,  while Beck transforms from potent pundit to roarin’ reverend representing the evangelical Christian far right sub-culture, while worrisome and never to be underestimated; I would also take this as a sign that  the weepy Glenn Beck may well be on his way to becoming a has been, as mentioned above, the Vicks Vapo rub ain’t even working anymore. I noticed that in Sa-wah as well during what little of her speech I heard; don’t know about you, but I got the feeling that she was straining to stay relevent. She talks about being the parent of an Iraq war vet. Big deal, so are thousands of people in America today. Many of whom have lost their children in these senseless wars, yet we don’t hear most of them shrieking her stupidities. They’re too busy trying to somehow pick up the pieces of their lives.  She offered nothing new. Not even any fun stuff like cheat notes smeared all over that white suit jacket!

The blogger from Daily Kos concludes this:

Put simply, this is a crowd of mostly older, white-folks-in-lawn-chairs™ who fear change, even if for the benefit of themselves, their families, and the country at large.  They are the heels in the sand of progress and like it or not, we progressives will drag them forward, kicking and screaming, to a better day, as we have always done.

I wish them all the luck in the world with this endeavor.   Lord knows they’ll need it.

Go read Apost8′s diary at Daily Kos, many fun pics and a poll over there.

Sidenote: Good to see that there was another group led by Reverend Al Sharpton, who not only continued to honor Martin Luther King’s memory and reminded the next generation of what he did and how they must continue his fight for civil rights and equality for all, but also   didn’t  allow Beck’s and Sa-wah’s  desecration  and perversion of  Dr. Martin Luther King’s memory. Turns out, both events simultaneously happened with little incident, other than the usual taunting between the two groups. Little skirmishes like:

“One woman from the Beck rally shouted to the Sharpton marchers, “Go to church. Restore America with peace.” Some civil rights marchers chanted “don’t drink the tea” to people leaving Beck’s rally.

Sharpton basically appealed to his group to take the high road; to not take their bate.

“The folks who used to criticize us for marching are trying to have a march themselves,” he said. He urged his group to be peaceful and not confrontational. “If people start heckling, smile at them,” Sharpton said.

After reading the above quote as well as the rest of that passage in the Huffington Post story, I got the feeling that Sharpton as well as the other civil rights’ marchers,  may almost (“almost” being the key word here) feel sorry for Beck and the tea-baggers.  I could be wrong, but that’s my impression, thus further giving me the idea that the tea-bagger hit parade in the US may well have hit its’ peak and is dwindling, that is, until their next crisis, whatever that may be.

Now for something entertaining. No, no painful videos of either Glenn Beck or Sa-wah Palin. How about a little segment of Psycho Talk with Ed Schultz , demonstrating how both Sa-wah and Beck have a combined IQ in the single digits.

Good.

Now only if he did that when health care reform was being hammered out and then perhaps every American would  have had a shot at decent health care. But I digress… I only hope that this is the beginning and that Obama stops attempting to play nice with the rethuglicans and trying to please the tea-bagger hit parade, the Fox News crowd and the Rush Limbaugh machine.

Here’s some of what President Obama had to say on the subject:

Recently, attention has been focused on the construction of mosques in certain communities – particularly in New York. Now, we must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan. The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. The pain and suffering experienced by those who lost loved ones is unimaginable. So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground.

But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are. The writ of our Founders must endure.

Why not build a Muslim Center? It’s been nearly a decade since 9/11 and it seems that no one has been really serious about building anything on Ground Zero ever since.  From what I understand, there is still a gaping hole from where the explosions happened. It would seem to me that whether one left a gaping hole or built anything on the site, there will always be painful memories associated with the area.

What many fail to see is that many Muslims were victims of those attacks as well. Perhaps they would like to remember them as well as the other victims.

Perhaps building this center could be a way of trying to bridge the differences; to show that most Muslims denounce what a bunch of extremist thugs did.

And let’s face it, every religion has blood on its’ hands. Not one denomination can come out honestly to say that their clerics and followers have practiced as they should. Every denomination has extremist socio-paths, yet we only seem to not only concentrate on the Muslim ones but we tag the entire religion to them.  We seem to ignore other extremist socio-paths when they break the law. Remember that pulagamist sect in British Columbia not that long ago? Men in their 50s, 60s and 70s marrying many women and young girls; girls as young as 12; those same girls getting raped by these men, yet we as a society ignore them and ignore those poor girls. This brings me to my next point, many claim we’re in Afghanistan to protect the young Afghan girls from Taliban attrocities but we ignore the young girls on our own soil trapped on those compounds; why is that? Many are still pleading to society to forgive the priests who abused children and shame on those of us who want them brought to justice. I’m not going to compare which crimes are more serious; only comparing and contrasting our attitudes when Muslim extremists commit attrocities in the name of their religion vs when socio-paths of other denominations commit attrocities in the name of their religion. Again, I go off topic, but I simply wanted to make a point about how bigotted and paranoid we’ve become, to the point where ignore our own religious shortcomings; to point out our own hypocrisy.

Luca Manfredi, who is actually one of the more sane blogging tories provides some interesting arguments. While he believes it’s a gamble and has some reservations, overall, he believes the project should go ahead for the following reasons:

Firstly, its location would be a poignant reminder to its attendees about what happened close by. With a good and scholarly imam it could indeed turn into a centre preaching tolerance and peace. I wouldn’t set the odds too high on that one though.

Secondly, and no less importantly, the interest surrounding it could be a stimulus for both religions to study each other without resorting to rhetoric. Right now the dialectic resembles an exchange between Mullah Omar and Fred Phelps. Understanding and tolerance can come solely through a deep mutual study, in order to see  each other’s moral and philosophical bedrock. Islam is not radical by nature, but it does lend itself to misinterpretation. If the Cordoba centre helps correct the mistakes of many, it won’t be a waste of space and money.

Thirdly, it might at last serve as a stepping stone for many budding American Islamic scholars and imams. What should be encouraged (and maybe given a little money by Bloomberg the appeaser) is a closer tie to Egypt’s Al Azhar University rather than wahhabi Saudi madrassas. I am sure there are tons of American muslim youngsters who would love to study their religion and preach it. Their dreams are hijacked by the Saudis, who groom them into radicalism. Maybe, just maybe, Cordoba could be persuaded to reverse this trend and begin breeding a generation of well-versed American imams. That would go a long way to nipping the mosque radicalisation in the bud.

Sometimes I have to wonder about folks like Tarek Fatah and Raheel Raza. They came out against the center recently. Here is their take in the Calgary Herald. I read their arguments and to me, it sounded like they were catering to paranoia.  I understand that in their way, they want to be the voices for moderate Islam; to speak up for the silent majority, but often I find they take the wrong approach. I find that they’re simply pandering to western bigotry and ignorance rather than educating and reaching out to them, thus further feeding the sociopaths who are hijacking their own faith and culture. Such suggestions like this one sound alarm bells:

If Rauf is serious about building bridges, then he could have dedicated space in this so-called community centre to a church and synagogue…

How absurd! Rauf is Muslim; as Manfredi points out, what would he know about building a synagogue or a church for that matter? About as much as a Rabbi or a minister/priest building a mosque.

I can’t help but wonder if Fatah and Raza are suggesting that the only way to build bridges is to submit to Judaio-Christian society? Come to think of it; why haven’t any Jewish or Christian organizations thought about building a church or synagogue in that area in the last nine years? While we’re at it; why hasn’t Wall Street? Or any other company or NGO?   Why did no one think of building a commemorative plaque, another suggestion of Fatah and Raza? Is everyone simply content to leave a gaping hole of where it all happened?  Someone thinks to build something and many are now presuming to tell him what to build? To build what they themselves didn’t think of building in the last nine years?

Somebody is now expressing an interest in building and it is to be an Islamic center. Mayor Bloomberg has come out in favor of this project. And now, so has President Obama.  Sure, it is hitting him in the polls, but with the gang of tea-bagger misfits in the Rethuglicans these days, he may well survive this. Hell, if he can keep his spine throughout the rest of his mandate, perhaps he could even beat Sa-wah in 2012.  It’s good to see Mayor Bloomberg standing behind the president:

“clarion defense of the freedom of religion.”

Hopefully, many more, perhaps some fellow Democrats come forth to stand with their leader on this issue.

As for the GOP and the tea-baggers all crying out “it’s a slap in the face against the 9/11 victims”; I didn’t see their outrage when lil’ Georgie & Dickie cut 77% of health care funding  and cancelled a health monitoring program to these very same victims and former workers who can no longer work.  Their newfound solidarity for these victims now to cover their own paranoia and bigotry is really hollow.

Yeah, many, including, no doubt, Fatah and Raza, probably believe that the building of this Islamic center is nothing more than a deliberate provocation; a taunt to the Americans. I highly doubt that and we should give them the benefit of the doubt. If that proves to be the case somewhere down the road, then, shouldn’t it be incumbent upon us to not fall into that trap and rise above that? Wouldn’t that be a new attitude to show to the world?

Luca Manfredi is right though; it is a gamble, but not only for the reasons he mentioned in his post.   Read some of the comments at his post if you dare; much hatred and such awful creative evil ideas from some of them. Yes, for a blogging tory, that took guts for him to write so hats to him. I commend anyone publicly taking a stand in favor of the project; Dan Delmar had nothing but screeching callers who needed rubber rooms and surprisingly, redneck Ryan came out in favor too in spite of insane callers. I can only imagine those involved with the project must be going through. I wonder how many death threats Mayor Bloomberg is getting these days? Threats with President Obama seem to be a regular happening. For those reasons,  I, too, have some reservations about the project. I’m concerned about the safety of the contractors and all the workers building this project as well as potential sabotage. If it did get built and once the new Islamic center was built, I would be concerned about the safety of its’ members trying to attend. That said,  I also believe in nothing ventured; nothing gained. I say go ahead with the project but proceed with caution.

There really aren’t that many words to say about this doozy.

Pope Ratzy has come out and said that pedophilia is a sin. No shit, Shirlock!!  But here’s the kicker; in the world according to ol’ Ratzy, so is ordaining women, apparently, it’s right up there too;

In the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church, both are equally “grave delicts,” according to revisions in internal Vatican laws published Thursday.

Women who attempt to preside over any ceremony or attempt to be ordained will be ex-communicated. Wow! I wonder if the pope or any of his flunkies have attempted to tell any female Protestant ministers this? Do they even have the balls?

“Lumping us with the men who are the perpetrators of these crimes is absolutely mean-spirited and completely out of touch with reality,” said Sudbury’s Marie Bouclin. From 1959 to 1966, Bouclin was a nun in Ottawa. After leaving her order, she continued to work for the Catholic Church until the early 1990s, eventually becoming the personal secretary to a bishop.

But Bouclin became overwhelmed with the ways she believed her church was unfair to women. After she spoke up about it one too many times, she was let go from her position.

Now, she considers herself a Catholic priest.

What I don’t get is why doesn’t Bouclin simply convert and become a Protestant minister? At least her church would not only respect her, but she would be recognized as full fledged clergy as much as her male counterparts.

And another thing, I don’t recall any of those pedophile priests being ex-communicated.

Now, here comes the manditory apologist where he starts spinning things, saying that the Vatican is not equating pedophilia with Ordaining women.

“It does a disservice to everyone when you draw these parallels quickly without reflection,” said MacCarthy. “It does a disservice to the victims of abuse and to the women who are making great contributions to the church.”

First off, Mr Apologist, your church has already done more than a disservice to the victims of abuse at the hands of your priests.

Next, and certainly not least, how can women make any significant contributions to the Catholic Church if  his popeness has made it a sin for them to do so?

You put both of these items in that same rule book.  More on their rules here.

Yanno, you’re not going to win new parishioners with these draconian, mean spirited laws.  I daresay you’ll probably lose more women.

Again, I hope that many Catholic women consider converting to Protestantism (if they choose to be clergy that is) or whatever else suits them.

Go, Gilles Go!

Duceppe blasted the Conservative Government for the “ideological decision” to fund “religious groups that believe in the imminent return of the Messiah and translate the Bible into African and Asian dialects.”

In a follow-up comment Duceppe went further, saying sarcastically, “Will it really help women to send preachers … to Africa or to have the Bible translated. What a huge help and so essential.”

This straight from that delightful little web site, Lifeshit News.

Rona Ambrose, then tries to stand up to Gilles Duceppe  by completely avoiding his questions and as usual, showing that she has more hair than brains.

It’s amusing watching Harpercon women really stick their foot in it for the oh so Dreamy Master Steve.  I realize I’m about to have a trashy Hunter moment here, but I do wonder if these Harpercon women like Mullethead Hoeppner and Bev Odious cream their panties when massah Steve is in the room?? I bet they do. Ok, not a good visual if you’ve just finished supper.

It appears that  Harpercon MP Diane Ablonczy really and truly is either delusional about Master Steve promoting her again, or she has a massive crush on him; here she comes swinging in a futile attempt to redeem herself to the great Master Steve. Apparently, she takes issue with Gilles Duceppe’s sarcasm, as she sees her Stepford sisters unable to logically refute the Bloc leader.

Yes,  to paraphrase Antonia Z from her article yesterday,  The timing of  the release of Marci McDonald’s new book, The Armageddon Factor, is nothing short of divine.

“was what I consider to be an intolerant attack on Canadians who hold beliefs that are contrary to his own.”  Ablonczy added, “In my view, the remarks that he made were bigoted and divisive. This kind of rhetoric, in my view, is completely unacceptable in our pluralistic society. “

Wow! Very good! Taken a cue from the master: shifting your own guilt onto your adversary. It’s your government that’s trying to remove pluralism by turning Canada into an evangelical state to prepare for the end times.  Divisiveness is what your master does. No matter what you say or do, Diane, Steve will never forgive you for funding the Gay Pride Parade last year.

Can someone explain to me how the bible being translated into African and Asian dialects is supposed to help a poor weak and tired woman feeling nothing but despair, wondering how she’ll feed her kids today?  Or how does sending preachers to explain how end times are a comin’ to women whose time has come now or that of her child’s due to starvation and lack of proper health care? And a question that I share with ACR’s Pale Cold:  How comforting can a preacher who has translated the Lord’s Prayer be to a woman who is dying from complications to giving birth to 13 kids in a 10 year span?

I find it rich that an MP from probably the most intolerant party in Canada preaching tolerance to Gilles Duceppe, or any other opposition party for that matter.

Read Marci McDonald’s new book, before Harpercons censor it and/or start American bible belt inspired book burnings; and then stand up and fight, before  a Harpercon theocratic totalitarian regime takes over, because intolerance is going to have whole new meaning.   Talks about censorship? Practically the only top 40 song that would be allowed on Harpercon radio will be  Paul Anka & Odious Coates’ “Having my Baby”, Nickelback  and Christian Evangelical music.

For those who want to send encouragement and/or Kudos to

Gilles Duceppe: Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca

Anyone want to send jeers to Master Steve?  No problem!   pm@pm.gc.ca

Well, Sarah Palin wants the U.S. to go back to rules based on the 10 commandments. No surprise there. But I have a question: for her group, the bible is considered to be too liberal; to the point of Conservapedia founder, Andy Schlafly has taken it upon himself to rewrite it, to take out all that Liberal nonsense of love thy neighbour, heal the sick and condemning greed and selfishness, you know, real Christian values of social justice.

Have a listen to Sawah for yourself:

Well, no, actually, the American constitution was not influenced by the bible nor the ten commandments.  There are no references to Jesus or Christianity in the consitution, only mention of “nature’s god”.  Not surprisingly, see Sawah run is  her usual confusing self.

The principle misunderstanding of Mrs. Palin’s, is that her interpretation of “our rights to have freedom of religion” translates in her mind to ‘ the right of Christians to impose their beliefs and practices on American law, politics, society and education.’

Sound familiar? It should. It’s exactly how Steve, McVety and all their pals and supporters on the religious right think as well.

In fact, the religious right in the U.S. seem to exist solely to provide paranoid Americans comfort; to lift a sense of helplessness; a misguided notion that if they follow the bible and the rules of extreme Christianity, they would be able to fight off the evil boogie men; communists in the 1950s; Muslim Soshalists in the present.

It was not until the 1950’s, almost 200 years after the founding of the country, and during the frenetic ‘Red Scare’ days of McCarthyism, that Christian Fundamentalists were able to infuse their doctrine into the politics of a frightened and bewildered nation. It was during this time of fear-mongering about communist insurgents (like the fear-mongering about terrorists, socialists, communists etc. today), and of ideological purity tests (like the litmus tests we see among the Tea Party and conservatives today), that the people of the country were coerced into proving their anti-communist and pro-American fidelity by accepting these seemingly benign and ostensibly unifying proclamations.

There are many who ask  if there are any true fiscal conservatives or the so-called Libertarians left? It is indeed a good question. The American Tea-party movement certainly started out that way, but the religius wingnutz are taking it over.  Many now seem to look more to Sarah Palin than to the more Libertarian Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas).  Why would that be?

As for Canada, it’s not much different.  Brother Steve admitted in 2003 that he pretty much doesn’t have the time of day for any of those economic conservatives or “neo-cons,” but would rather follow the agenda of that theo-con base; social conservatives who care passionately about hot-button issues that turn on family, crime, and defence. Even foreign policy had become a theo-con issue, he pointed out, driven by moral and religious convictions.

“The truth of the matter is that the real agenda and the defining issues have shifted from economic issues to social values,” he said, “so conservatives must do the same.”

Are they they the noisy minority? Or is that wishful thinking on our part?  In the United States, that would be debatable, but then their religious right movement is older than that of Canada’s.

Marci McDonald talks about her new book, The Armageddon Factor, The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada,  released today talks about the growing Evangelical Christian right sub-culture in Canada.  She says that while Canada’s Evangelical sub-culture  is a mere fraction of  the American Evangelical Christian movement, they are so well organized that they can And yes, and  whatever this book says about Brother Steve and his friends  should be confirm whatever uncertainty or doubts we may have had about Brother Steve and his friends.  Here is another preview of the book For those who wish to continue to look the other way, it will become increasingly difficult to do so.  Bene D seems to think that this is important reading. I would have to agree; it is must reading; particularly those who are skeptical about this theocratic totalitarian regime taking over.

Unlike Sawah who wears her evangelical wingnuttery on her sleeve ever so prominently,  Brother Steve does everything he could to keep his evangelical Christianity as well as his governing intentions a deep dark secret. Although,  it is becoming a secret that comes out more and more everyday. Steve and his Harpercons are also deliberately revealing the Christian Evangelical Agenda for Canada more and more.

Brother Steve did get ‘chatty’ about his  new found Christianity with Drew Marshall, a radio show host with 1250 Joy in 2003.

“Let’s jump into the Jesus stuff here,” Marshall said. “Rumour has it that you actually are a genuine follower of Christ.”

To which he responds with what  we do know but  brings up that obvious lie.

“Yes, I became a Christian in my twenties,” he replied, before acknowledging, “I don’t talk a lot about it.” Still, he attempted to reassure secular listeners who might have tuned in. “I won’t say I always keep my faith and my politics separate,” he said, “but I don’t mix my advocacy of a political position with my advocacy of faith.”

Yes, he began his conversion while hammering out the credo for the newly formed Reform Party with his mentor, Preston Manning. Read more, Preston Manning was more than just his boss, he was his spiritual advisor.  This is that same mentor and spirtitual advisor’s name that is among the top of the short list for Governor General.  Oh, imagine the horrors!

Here is more about Brother Steve’s Alliance Church here.  It is described as looking more like something we would catch on TV with those flashy evangelists  than an actual church.  Below is pretty much their mantra:

The Alliance Church, to which Harper has belonged for decades, believes Jesus Christ will return to Earth in an apocalypse, won’t ordain women, strongly opposes abortion and divorce, condemns homosexuality as the most base of sins and believes those who aren’t born-again are “lost.”

Pretty much every evangelical from either Canada or the U.S. or anywhere  would say that if one wasn’t ‘born-again’, they’re lost.  Well, that’s where that cult type of recruitment comes in to play. Don’t cults generally succeed in recruiting members who are ‘lost’? The majority of those ‘centrists’ who find nothing inspiring about Canadian politics could get inspired by this growing movement to propell Canada back to the dark ages.

It’s also how Sawah maintains such popularity; it is why she could well end up  President of the U.S.  in 2012.   She is giving something back to Americans; something to believe in again; that religious movement that got all but lost since Barak Obama took office.

Obama won with promises to be different. After GW Bush destroyed the country and was the straw on the camel’s back that caused the global recession with all that financial deregulation in 2003.  Health care costs were rising and accessibility to it was getting more and more prohibitive for most. Blood was being shed in two modern day ‘Vietnam’ wars Georgie started, with no end in sight.  Obama pretty much promised to rectify all of those things. He gave Americans something to believe in again.

Well, Obama has failed miserably. His health care bill is soooo watered down to be taken too seriously.  He became the war president. And he seems to be in over his head when it comes to the economic crisis.  He had a wonderful opportunity to get all those things he wanted to do accomplished he will never see again: Democrat majority in both the house and senate. No, he had to pander to the GOP as well as the Rush Limbaugh and Fox News crowd; not to mention, heavy corporate influence that seems to plague U.S. congress.  Given mid-term elections coming up this November,  I would expect a gain for GOP , thus Obama really won’t be able to get anything done. He becomes a lame duck.

Enter Sawah asking Americans  “How’s that hopey-changey thing working for you?” With that, she has disillusioned American voters in lockstep with her.

Canadian voters of today aren’t much different; they too are not inspired by the politics in their own country. They too need something to believe in.

For the time being, the Canadian religious right is only a fraction of their American counterparts. However, as Ottawa communications consultant Dennis Gruending points out,

“Groups that are well organized can punch above their weight — particularly in an era of fractured parliaments and minority governments.” A former New Democratic Party MP, Gruending laments that “there is little in progressive Ottawa to rival the networks that have been created by the religious and political right.”

Jack, Iggy (Donolo) take notes here!   Jack, I realize you may think you can get better deals with Steve, that may prefer to align yourself  with a ‘winner’ to live vicariously through, but  does the rest of your party want to go that Evangelical Christian route of no return?  Wouldn’t you rather keep some semblence of what your party stands for and perhaps align with the Liberals? And Donolo, maybe it is best cut Iggy off now; look at it this way, your numbers can’t really suffer that much more for cutting loose yet another leader, especially if you nominate one  everybody can get behind; to give voters an alternative to believe in.

As for Canada, well, it has always been a more liberal, tolerant and compassionate country, that is, until Brother Steve and his cronies came on the scene and took ownership of most of the Corporate media outlets. Steve wants his majority so bad he can taste it.  In 2006, his membership to the Evangelical far right sub-culture would never have gotten elected.  Given the recent survey out of the Manning Center,  and the way the right slanted media is more and more successful at getting those election weary Timmy’s Centrists searching for anything to believe in these days,  it would seem,  like Marci McDonald,  I have to say that wishful thinking on our parts just isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Remember,  cults, as I’ve mentioned above, recruit those who are ‘lost’; folks who seem to no longer believe in anything.  Consider the Religious political right to be a large cult,  gaining votes from a large group who were given something to believe in again. Remember how most politicians don’t keep their campaign promises? Well, one thing to say about Steve, think back to his days of Reform and the National Citizens Coalition. Remember everything he’d like to accomplish. Betchur bottom dollar he will do everything he said way back when and then some.  It’s not for nothing he is no longer taking painstaking care to keep his evangelical intentions secret. All one has to remember Senator Nancy Ruth losing it, all those  groups that don’t support his evangelical ideologies getting their funding cut, the abortion debate back on the front burner, not to mention, that wingnut Chuckles McVety nearly single-handedly got Premier McGinty to scrap a sex education program. Antonia Z. goes more into detail here.

Antonia points out another scary thing about our Evangelical Religious right movement that gets even more terrifying.

According to The Armageddon Factor, evangelicals believe Canada has to clean up its act on abortion, feminism, and homosexuality because it has a special role to play in the “end times.”

The reason they believe this is even more ridiculous.

Steve and ol’ Vic Toews tough on crime bills are also part of that religious agenda. Like the religious right convincing paranoid Americans that only they can keep them safe from Communist Muslim boogiemen, Steve and Vic will convince Canadians that only they can keep them safe if they can ‘purify’ Canada.

As McDonald says, we have to be vigilante now.  If we don’t want an Evangelical Christian Fascist Canada, the time to act is now before it’s too late.

I sincerely hope that Americans too will wake up, but I’m not finding that likely unless, perhaps,  Obama develops some balls.

If this all weren’t so damned scary and a potential reality; I would be entertained by all of this as I’m sure many would. Watching Steve go in Canada and See Sawah Run state side; put them in the same picture and name them the Tammy-Faye and Jim Baker of Politics.

Sidenote: It seems that Marci McDonald is striking a chord. Ol’ Ezzy IrreLevant is having yet another hissy fit. Thanks Dawg for making my day. I like to think of this: whenever Ezzy or his friends turn purple due to their blood pressures hitting the bell, an angel gets her wings.

Question: If those who haven’t found Christ or those not born again are considered to be ‘lost’; aren’t Jewish people considered to be lost given that they don’t believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah?

I was looking for further news about Jean Charest and the latest scandals and or polls and whether or not he’s going to resign sooner rather than later.  There will be some kind of  Quebec Liberal Party conference in St-Hyacinthe (still researching that, so not really sure of the exact nature of meeting) this evening. More to come on that.

Far more important fish to fry than to ban or not to ban the niqab in Quebec these days, like huge, career wrecking scandals, which by the looks of things, can certainly compare to that of ADSCAM; or how Charest, himself was attempting to sell the idea of Americanizing our health care system, but no, it seems that some are still hell bent to stick with the niqab ban.

Somehow, there are some who are trying in vain to twist this into a feminist issue. Not grasping how though; the ban, if anything is supposed to promote equality for all in more ways than one.  Apparently, the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, (Department of Women’s Studies at Concordia) has decided to weigh in on this, also claiming it’s a feminist issue: go figure!

I have already expressed my views on this subject here, so I will not rehash them in their entirety. I disagree. The fact is, most of these women who walk through life with their faces covered are repressed in their own homes at least.  As for those women who choose this way of life are actually repressing themselves, and for what? As many have pointed out (Myself included), the Canadian Muslim Congress condemns the practice as more of a political extremity originating from such places as Saudi Arabia & Afghanistan and no, it is not a religious symbol.  When an Islamic organization comes out against the practice,  they at least, deserve to be heard as well.

It is also to be noted that Islamic countries have banned niqabs and other face coverings. Such countries like Turkey and Tunisia. Egypt has banned it in their universities and I believe its’ work force.  An acquaintance was in Syria and in order to cross borders, they have to  show their faces.

I find it strange that Quebec’s bill 94  received more coverage across Canada than the Alberta Courts ruling that a sect of Hutterites who insisted on not having their pictures taken for their drivers licenses, must have pictures on their licenses or don’t drive.  Why is bill 94 much more fascinating than the Hutterites in Alberta being forced to be photographed if they want a valid drivers’ license?

Martin Lemay, a Parti Quebecois MNA wrote a very interesting column  on this subject today while, at the same time reminding everyone that not only are  Quebecers not more bigotted or anti-semitic  than the rest of Anglo Canada, but he also reminds us of events throughout history proving  how bigotry is not an exclusive Quebecois thing.

I can’t help but wonder if a province like Ontario or British Colombia were to ban the facial coverings, how would the rest of Canada react, then? I can’t help that the reaction would be far more subdued and that it would certainly get far less media coverage.

Likewise, those camera-hating Hutterites in Alberta who didn’t get nearly as much air time; would they be talked about far more if they were in Quebec as opposed to Alberta?

Yes, there are wingnutty extremely paranoid French Quebecers out there; and their leaders are folks like Pauline Marois. They are, of course, of a minority.   Hint: in spite of Charest’s political career spiralling out of control over much more serious matters and scandals, Marois still has a very low opinion rating as a leader at only 27%. `

I’m sure Rene Levesque would be turning over in his grave to see how the leader of his party was an insufferable and intolerant shrew.

Now, on to more important matters affecting the province I call home these days.

Well, in  showing his true Evangelical Christian Fundy Blue colours,  St-Stevie will not only not include safe abortions in financial aid plan to help mothers in developing countries, but also refuses to cover contraception. Apparently, birth control simply doesn’t save lives, thus showing more of those religious colours coming through. I, for one, would love to know how not helping funding of any birth control helps save lives. Bev Oda pointedly left birth control off the list of aid projects the government intended to support, saying that “saving lives” was more important than family planning. In other words, in the Harpercon mantra,  family planning doesn’t save lives in any shape or form.

Fern Hill over at Dammit Janet makes the case of how not only readily accessible birth control, but accessibility to safe, clean abortions also save lives.

T.R. Reid, a columnist with the Washington Post and the author of The Healing of America,  A Global Quest For Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care also makes the case that countries that offer safe, readily accessible and free abortions actually have fewer women getting abortions. He makes this case while opponents of health care reform state side are all goin’ nuts and paranoid and all Bart Stupak-ish over abortion being more accessible.

There’s a direct connection between greater health coverage and lower abortion rates. To oppose expanded coverage in the name of restricting abortion gets things exactly backward. It’s like saying you won’t fix the broken furnace in a schoolhouse because you’re against pneumonia. Nonsense! Fixing the furnace will reduce the rate of pneumonia. In the same way, expanding health-care coverage will reduce the rate of abortion.

At least, that’s the lesson from every other rich democracy.

The latest United Nations comparative statistics, available at http://data.un.org, demonstrate the point clearly. The U.N. data measure the number of abortions for women ages 15 to 44. They show that Canada, for example, has 15.2 abortions per 1,000 women; Denmark, 14.3; Germany, 7.8; Japan, 12.3; Britain, 17.0; and the United States, 20.8. When it comes to abortion rates in the developed world, we’re No. 1.

St-Stevie would do well to read T.R. Reid’s article in the Washington Post.  He would do well to heed T.R. Reid’s advice, not only in the type of foreign aid from the G-8  to help mothers and children in developing countries, but also to think about keeping abortion legal and not Americanize what’s left of our public health care system. Because, if as St-Stevie, and buffoons like Bev Oda and Lawrence Cannon really really cared about saving and preserving lives, they would help to fund abortions and contraception in Developing countries as well as doing more to protect what’s left of our universal health care system.

Oh let’s be real. Saving lives comes a distant second after their evangelical twisted neo-con ideals for the Harpercons. Reality is, sadly, St-Stevie has followed that American mantra of  ‘greed will lead to …something?’ Yes, Stevie, at the very least, stop disguising this as life saving measures. This is about you trying to score some much needed points on the world stage as well as sticking to your fundamentalist beliefs as well as your selfishness.

Yeah, Steve, Fuck off! ‘Cause you certainly sent us that message as well as those poor women in the developing world.

Fern Hill’s post regarding taxation on sterilization particularly grabbed my attention this morning. She found this idiotic idea from yet another one of those unstable blogging neo-tards where she expresses idiotic ideas like hitting childless couples with heavy tax penalties and taxing contraception (500%) to the point of turning it into illegal contraband like cocaine and machine guns. Like most of those Romper roomies, those ideas didn’t just hit her. She was reading more convoluted causes of of the recession being caused by anything but the real cause which is, of course,  unregulated corporate greed, Bush’s deregulation of the banking system and everyday folks going bankrupt because they bought into those western ideals that measure a person’s value by how big their houses and cars are and how many material posessions they don’t use they can get their hands on simply for the sake of bragging rights to ooo-ing and aw-ing neighbours.

This time, this blogging neo-tard can get all relieved and even cum in their pants  now because the Vatican Economist is stating that the recession is not the fault of the banks, but rather, the fault of lower birth rates.

This of course, brings me back to a time when Lucien Bouchard enraged many folks when he stated in October of 1995:

“We’re one of the white races that has the fewest children.”

All Bouchard did was make a whole lot folks pissed.  Socon or bust honestly thinks that beating childless couples over the head with excessive “sterilization” taxes will turn these women into instant baby factories.  What about couples who are infertile who do want children but can’t afford fertility treatments? You want to tax them to death due to being baron, but you also stress that you don’t want our health care system to cover fertility treatments? How does that work?

A future workforce, after all, is essential to the growth and continued existence of the State.

Again, a problem with that;  even though many are retiring these days, most of their jobs are not being refilled either in the public or private sectors.  My current job is an example of that. Due to the retirement of the receptionist at the point of service where I work, my position and her’s merged. In addtion to doing my duties, I’ve also had this retired receptionist’s work load added. I don’t mind, I’m always up for to a challenge and it keeps me employed at a place I really enjoy working at.  I am merely providing an example of the current work trends.

 It’s been a long time since either Canada or the U.S.  has produced more than we consume. We keep outsourcing manufacturing and call-center jobs to China, India, Thailand and other Asian countries.

In a few years, due to either this recession or a raise in the retirement age, the flow of workers retiring will come to an eventual halt, thus not much new job growth, nor much opportunity to grow in any industry.

Also, as technology evolves, there is less of a need for manpower. In other words, even if we all get barefoot and pregnant, we would probably have a bunch more unemployed adults who would need to use government resources, much like the aging baby boomers.

Do I really have to touch on the utter stupidity on taxing contraception 500%??  That will really curb the spread of AIDS and other STDs.

Yes, yes,  While Bouchard, Socan or Bust, other neo-cons and theocrats and the Vatican Economist all twist themselves over no one in the western world is having babies to condemn them to indentured servitude, they seem to forget that there are many,  many babies born in the developping world.  Their own economies don’t help these families to help themselves or any economy of the future for that matter. This whole we’re not having enough babies thing kind of flies flat doesn’t it?

 I’m surprised they haven’t gone for the most offensive and insist that childless westerners adopt third world babies a la Madonna and Brangelina, thus having more future tax-payers, but then, that would bring us to our current “problem” here in Canada, according to many Canadians bigots: too many immigrants. This, of course, is no surprise, check out that CBC comments page today. Many of their comments go in so far as to really come off as white supremacists. 

Yes, they’re all scared they may have to make certain concessions and learn to be tolerant of these new tax payers. This too would make them blame us for not having white babies to endenture them to a life of servitude and to protect the lilly-white neo-con greedy bigots.

My question is to these neo-cons like Socon or Bust: Are you all barefoot and pregnant expecting minimum your 5th child. Hell neo-con evangelicals like St-Stevie and GW Bush only have two children each, for the most part.

Once again, this is a case of neo-cons shifting the blame in order to justify their own selfishness in order to hide from the real cause of the recession which was greed; pure unabashed capitalist greed and now they bitch and moan over the lack of births and can’t stand it when they have to learn to live in the same world as our new immigrant tax-payers. After all, unless you’re Native Indian,  you too are derived from immigrants.

No, it’s about time to swear off greed and materialism and start thinking about the communities in which we live.   Job creation is vital and we have to stop sending our jobs overseas at the expense of our workers. And yes, more regulation is definitely needed in the banking industry.

The blame game just doesn’t accomplish anything anymore, neither does greed nor bigotry.

I agree with Fern Hill on this one: I personally don’t care who is paying for our social programs.and such

Just when we think she can’t get anymore ridiculous, hypocritical and dumb, she sinks to whole new levels and so do her supporters it would seem.

This time, it comes so shortly after telling a captive Calgary audience willing to forgo grocery money or paying bills for the overpriced ticket, that her brother’s burnt ankle survived the Evul, Gulag-styled, ‘socialized’, death panels of Whitehorse.  No, her ‘irony’ was not missed on folks with more than a grade 6 education. Neither was her hypocrisy after telling the character of Marg Delahunty of This Hour Has 22 Minutes that we should  basically scrap our single payer health care system in favor of the free markets so enterprises can turn a profit.

Well, she popped up at a Fetus-Fetishest rally to of course, open her mouth about the usual shit she spews like death panels, protecting the unborn and how she never would have aborted Trig, her down syndrome baby (she always does like to make a point of that don’t she?) and how her unwed knocked-up teen-aged daughter, Bristol didn’t have an abortion. Wow! Hot yippety dog!! Remember folks, people actually pay for this drivel!!

Well, anyhow, See Sawah run has a whole new excuse now for writing cheat notes on her hand, “God did it”. No shit! One of her bible thumping supporters sent her this passage from
Isaiah 49:16L:

¹⁶ See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
       your walls are ever before me.

Oh boy, I wonder if that supporter was part of the Andy Schlafly crowd, feverishly attempting to ‘de-librulize’ the bible?

Pretty much every story and every passage in the bible is open to interpretation. Even one of the priests at church when he gives the homily reminds us of this. In fact, he too, doesn’t believe many of the stories verbatim, but he’s very good at giving us his interpretation as to their meaning.

Using Isaiah 49:16 the way See Sawah Run did goes beyond an interpretation. It even defies logic, especially to one who studied pre-history.  To state the most obvious, they didn’t have pens or pencils or any tools for writing back in those days.

Furthermore, to believers, God is an entity; a spirit,  a supreme being, not some kind of being like a human or even an animal. God wouldn’t have hands.

Here is one possible interpretation of  Isaiah 49:16: and here’s another.  There are many other interpretations of Isaiah 49:16, as with any biblical passage, but, it most certainly would not mean God wrote on his hand, as See Sawah Run and her inbred bible-thumping fan club seem to strongly believe.

“Hey, if it was good enough for God, scribbling on the palm of his hand, it’s good enough for me, for us. In that passage, he says, ‘I wrote your name on the palm of my hand to remember you.’ And I’m like ok, I’m in good company,” she told cheering supporters.

As I’ve said, just when she can’t get any more ridiculous, self-contradictory or just plain dumb, she comes back with more…

The next time, she’ll stick in foot in it will more than likely be that debate started in the U.S. about backing out of NAFTA. Just think how she’ll find some way of exploiting her children for that one.

However, humour aside,  Sawah’s statement implies that typically fundamental Christian extremist that she, herself is.  It’s as if she is comparing herself to God, which is always a dangerous assertion for anyone to make, largely in part, it’s a symptom of schizophrenia and many other mental illnesses.  But then, I always did wonder about her stability as I would with any other religious extremist.

And remember, folks!! She could well be the next president of the U.S. of A. in 2012!

Have you ever heard of anything this wild? Well, actually we have. It doesn’t get much nuttier than St-Stevie’s poll numbers shooting up because of Olympic gold. However, this little incident at CEGEP St-Laurent (For those outside of Quebec whod don’t know, CEGEP is  sort of a playground between high school and university instead of grade 12.)  in the north-west end of Montreal certainly can take a close second. 

Dan Delmar is surely going to speak of his favourite topic of banning burkas and niqabs on the radio this afternoon. It seems to be all he talks about when he fills in for various hosts at Astral Media Radio or when he writes.

An Egyptian lady taking a French class at the CEGEP had her classmates and teachers bending over backwards to accommodate her ‘needs’.  She was one of those extreme Muslims wearing a niqab. According to Cyberpresse this morning, this woman was not only allowed to wear her niqab, but also give her oral presentations at the back of the class instead of the traditional front and give them with her back turned to the class as well as getting the male students to move so they wouldn’t see her face.

Le collège a tout fait pour satisfaire la dame, qui pouvait porter son voile et faire ses présentations dans le fond de la classe, le dos tourné aux élèves. Pendant un cours, elle a même demandé aux hommes de se déplacer parce qu’ils lui faisaient face.

It was starting to cause problems for the school. Especially the particular nature of the class, one of its’ objectives is to encourage face to face dialogue.

Apparently, she has, on a few occasions, removed the niqab when alone with female staff and to have her student ID photo taken.

The Quebec government intervened. Roger Giroux, director of Francization with the Quebec Department of Immigration had finally issued an ultimatum: remove the niqab or be expelled. After insisting on having this in writing, she chose the latter.  She was also informed that she can take the same class on the internet.

Just a question,  if this class requires face to face interaction and oral presentations, how can this course be effectively given on line? I believe any language class, particularly an oral or conversation class does require face to face interaction in  order for the learning experience to be effective.

Unless, of course, this is more of a written course and orals are recorded onto a cd.  Of course something would have to be offered to her. The Office de la Langue Francaise wants Quebecers to speak French. This woman was taking a French course.  However, perhaps she may be better off doing this course on line as suggested if she doesn’t wish to compromise. No one was telling her to remove her long clothes or head scarf. Just the face covering.

For the risk of pissing off some progressives to the point of even pleasing some of Romper Roomies  (God, I hate that!), I hope the CHRC does not rule in this woman’s favor. While I don’t support legislating an all out ban because it just gives these extemists more publicity than they deserve, I do  support the school in trying to handle a situation the best way it could. They did try to accommodate her.  

My blood always runs cold when I’m face to face with someone with only her eyes in view, simply because I wonder if she or her family members are extremists. They’d have to be to either make her wear a face covering, of if she decided to continue that just like back home . No one’s face should be hidden to the world, unless of course it’s halloween or some other masquerade ball. I don’t feel at ease. What are they hiding?I don’t believe in discrimination, but those who do insist on walking through life here in Canada with their face coverings  do bring the discrimination onto themselves.

A lot of folks are not shy about Islam bashing because all the Corporate media machine talks about are the extremists and the dark side of fundamental Islam.  Women in the face coverings don’t help their cause.  It just fuels further bigotry, even escalating to violence. No, I’m not saying accommodate the bigots. I’m saying we shouldn’t be fueling them.

Yes, there are only a handful of  women in facial coverings, but that is all the media allows us to see, thus today’s society with their short attention spans, penchant for all things shiny and inability to think outside the box only get to know Islam through the terrorists and extremists portrayed.

Unless we take the time to actually meet Muslims, we would find, as I have,  that while there are bad apples, like in every group,  they are peaceful, charitable and gentle folks. While many Muslim women wear the head scarf, many that I have talked to don’t condone face coverings themselves. They say that women should have a modest appearance; a covered face goes beyond modest.

Also, has anyone ever noticed when a woman in niqab or burka walk down the street with their husband (or another male family member), they never walk beside them? They seem to follow their male companion. It sends the wrong message to women and girls.

I don’t think a work place or a school is out of order for requesting  to be able to see everyone’ s face clearly.

I am not alone in these beliefs. The Muslim Canadian  Congress agrees with me and they even requested that Ottawa legislate  the banning of  burkas and niqabs in public dealings.

…not only is the wearing of a face-mask a security hazard and has led to a number of bank heists in Canada and overseas, the burka or niqab are political symbols of Saudi inspired Islamic extremism.

The Muslim Canadian Congress also say that the Quran does  not say anything about women having to have their faces covered. They say that allowing these face coverings solely promotes  a political agenda.

CEGEP St-Laurent has had issues in the past with cultural accommodations; some going well some not, but this woman is the only one out 39, 000 students to be expelled for such a thing.

Religious extremism carried out from any denomination should never be encouraged or facilitated as it is a danger for society as a whole. 

In this case, the Canadian Human Rights Commission should not even entertain this woman’s case.  If any accommodation should be availed to this woman, it’s the online French course offered.