Sadly, it still seems en vogue, possibly even necessary, to react with hysterical abandon and with bigoted superiority to the Muslim. 

Never has this reality been more evident than it is today, when one reads the violent opinions in response to the arrests made in the alleged ‘honour killings’ of Zainab, Sahar and Geeti Shafia, and Rona Amir Mohammad.

In a world when technology allows information to spread as a global wildfire and when our attentions are turned to the TinyURL, it becomes easy to miss the macro politics that may be playing out within a given political situation.

Among the calls for reform in Iran, there is great opposition and dissent amongst the reformists themselves.  We need to be cautious when we are told to believe it is a case of black and white, without shades of grey, a case of Ahmadinejad vs Mousavi.

While reading the news coverage of the recent Tamil protests in Toronto, one could easily be misled to believe that the protests are neither in support of human rights nor in opposition to a particular political situation which has degenerated beyond redemption, because neither of these points seem news worthy. 

On January 22, 2009, the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act (NECEA) was submitted to Congress for consideration. It was introduced by Congressman Alcee L. Hastings of Florida, a man who, in 1989, became only the sixth federal judge in the history of America to be removed from office by the Senate for corruption and perjury.

Last week, the Globe and Mail reported that retired judge Paul Staniszewski, who funds scholarships at the University of Windsor and Osgoode Hall Law School, "is asking that those scholarships not be awarded to any students 'of Islamic background.'"

Staniszewski asserts that his decision is a form of "retaliation" against the Taliban's beheading of a Polish engineer. Never mind that Islam is not merely a background, but is rather one of the world's greatest faith traditions; let's focus instead on Staniszewski's execution of judgement in this context.

On January 10, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement: "Israel appeared to be using white phosphorus as an ‘obscurant' (a chemical used to hide military operations), a permissible use in principle under international humanitarian law (the laws of war). However, white phosphorus has a significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity on fire".

The recent war on (not to be confused with the popular news cultures' 'with') the civilian population of Gaza has been one of the greatest and most violent attacks levelled by Israel since its birth. We repeatedly hear that this is the worst it has been since 1967, but when one considers the awesome advancement in military power since 1967, there really is no precedent to the Israeli terror currently being inflicted on Gazans.

Last week, the Supreme Court of Canada heard a challenge to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Certificates or, as they are more commonly known, the Orwellian “security certificates.” In the name of protecting “national security,” the Security Certificates provide for the arrest and indefinite detention of non-Canadian citizens.