Islam

America! Fuck Yeah!

Ranting commenters on "America in decline" story perfectly summarize why America is in decline

That wild bolshevik magazine Time has had the gall to question the notion that America is the best country in the world. The March 14th cover story, by Fareed Zakaria displays a red foam finger the reads “We’re #1″ pointing downwards. “Yes, America is in decline,” reads the caption. Some could argue that the U.S… More »

Newspaper photo editors show their creativity when selecting images for this story. Bottom left is from the Star, that actually dispatched a photographer instead of using the file-photo cliché of "eyes peeking through veil"

Wednesday WTF: Quebec's headwear ban is obviously totally unconstitutional

Quebec is going ahead with its ludicrous ban on religious head-coverings like the niqab and the burka on provincial government property. It’s an astonishing piece of legislation that manages the improbable feat of being baselessly arbitrary and obviously xenophobic. The whole law is crafted to be targeted at a single identifiable—and extremely tiny—minority, but Premier… More »

Religion could stop climate change.

Stop Everything #4: Religion could stop climate change

I was sitting in my meditation practice working on quieting my thoughts when it hit me—religion could stop climate change. Well perhaps it wasn’t such a stroke of enlightenment, as it was keeping my ears open.  In this style of Buddhism led by Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thích Nhất Hạnh, the practice contains the reading… More »

Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam screens this weekend in Toronto, Montreal

I love the idea of willing a new subculture into existence, and that’s the story of Taqwacore, a documentary that opens in Toronto and Montreal this weekend about the birth of “Punk Islam.” (The trailer’s embedded above, or you can see it on the film’s website.) Kick-started by Michael Muhammad Knight’s book of the same… More »

A nomadic Somali woman leads her camels in the drought-afflicted north of Kenya. Photo by Siena Anstis.

In "Forgotten Kenya," mobile classrooms follow in nomads' footsteps

The drought in Northern Kenya this year is severe. Farah Olad, the Deputy Chief of Party of Education for Marginalized Children of Kenya (EMACK), an organization which works with Somali pastoral communities, tells me grey is the “color of death” in this rural region. And the whole landscape is grey: from the ground to the… More »