c. 2003 Religion News Service
Alliance Marriage Motion Defeated
OTTAWA (RNS) The Canadian Alliance party’s motion asking members of Parliament to reaffirm the heterosexual definition of marriage was defeated narrowly by a vote of 137-132 Tuesday (Sept. 16), revealing deep divisions within the ruling Liberal party on legalizing same-sex marriage.
Over 50 Liberals broke with their party and voted in favor of the Alliance motion to preserve the traditional definition of a marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The result could have been a dead heat, if not for New Democratic Party dissidents who did not attend and several backbench Liberals who switched votes at the last minute.
The close vote, widely interpreted as a deadlock, now turns the explosive issue over to voters in next year’s federal election, Alliance leader Stephen Harper said.
“It’s obvious now that this will be an issue in the next federal election,” Harper said.
He said the Liberals’ plan to legalize gay marriage would eventually force religious groups that oppose gay marriages to perform them.
Justice Minister Martin Cauchon said religious groups now have, and would continue to have, the right to refuse marriage to anyone who does not meet the faith’s requirements for marriage.
“I believe it is about equality, dignity and respect for all Canadians,” said Cauchon. “I would have no fear whatsoever of campaigning on fundamental principles like equality and the freedom of religion.”
Muslims Angry About U.S. Jailings
TORONTO (RNS) Canadian Muslim leaders say Canada should press the United States for changes to its post-Sept. 11 border-crossing policies after U.S. immigration officials threw a prominent Muslim cleric in jail without bringing any charges against him.
“We’ve had hundreds of complaints from people who have been treated badly at the U.S. border, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Raja Khouric, president of the Canadian Arab Federation, told the Toronto Star.
On Sept. 11, 2003, Ahamad Kutty, one of Canada’s most moderate and respected Muslim clerics, was ordered off his Orlando-bound flight from Toronto and interrogated in a Fort Lauderdale airport holding cell and a local jail for 16 hours.
Kutty, an imam and scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto and at the city’s Jami Mosque, was detained with fellow Toronto cleric Abdool Hamid. They were traveling to Florida to give a series of lectures at a religious seminar.
Khouric said his organization has been urging the Canadian government to speak out against U.S. policies, which he said are inherently racist.
The Muslim Canadian Congress has warned Muslim Canadians not to travel to the United States “for their own safety” and urged a boycott of U.S. products.
It also lashed out against Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham for not denouncing recent detainments.
Publisher Fears Threats Against Author
TORONTO (RNS) Random House, publisher of a provocative new book that criticizes Islam, is seeking police protection for its Canadian author, Irshad Manji, herself a Muslim.
The book, “The Trouble with Islam: A Wake-Up Call for Honesty and Change,” came out in Canada Sept. 16. It was published earlier this month in Germany and is scheduled to appear next year in Britain, France, the United States, Australia and elsewhere.
Calling Islam fundamentally anti-Semitic, anti-feminist, racist and anti-homosexual, Manji, who is gay, further contends the faith needs to stop regarding the Quran as the absolute, indisputable word of God, and open itself up to discussion, debate and dissent.
The Quran, she writes, “is not transparently egalitarian for women. It’s not transparently anything except enigmatic. … It’s Muslims who manufacture consent in Allah’s name.”
Random House editor and publisher Anne Collins wrote to federal Solicitor-General Wayne Easter on July 25, requesting that Manji, known for her outspoken views, be accorded International Protected Person status.
The letter said Random House and Manji had met with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Toronto police, private security officials and religious scholars _ all of whom agreed the author would be exposed to risk.
The Solicitor-General rejected Random House’s request for protected status, saying it is available only to foreign visitors to Canada.
No specific threats have been issued against Manji, although her Web site contains several ominous warnings.
Manji has reportedly installed bullet-resistant glass in her Toronto home.
Faith Leaders Want Child Poverty Addressed
TORONTO (RNS) Sixty leaders from Ontario’s faith communities joined forces Monday (Sept. 15) to call on the heads of Ontario’s three main political parties to make specific commitments to address child and family poverty.
The sweeping coalition of religious leaders, unprecedented in its diversity, wants leaders to talk about poverty as they campaign in the Oct. 2 election, and to address it in upcoming debates.
Speaking at a press conference, Rabbi Arthur Bielfeld, co-chair of the Campaign Against Child Poverty, said polls show 78 percent of voters believe child poverty is a top priority on which the next government should focus.
Rev. Lillian Perigoe of the United Church of Canada said the coalition is calling on the Ontario party leaders to invest in affordable housing and licensed child care services, raise the minimum wage and social assistance rates, and end the termination of the National Child Benefit for families on social assistance.
The coalition is comprised of leaders from all major Christian denominations as well as Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist representatives.
Anglican Diocese Performs Same-Sex Marriage
TORONTO (RNS) A Toronto Anglican parish has performed what may be the first public blessing of a same-sex union in Canada’s largest diocese, reports the Anglican Journal.
Alison Kemper and Joyce Barnett, two Anglican deacons who have worked actively for the recognition of same-sex marriage, had their recent civil marriage formally blessed on Sept. 6 at Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity, a downtown parish with close ties to the city’s gay and lesbian community.
The couple, who have two children and have been together for almost 20 years, were married in a civil ceremony at Toronto City Hall in June, just days after a ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeals allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry. They were among the eight same-sex couples who initiated the court challenge.
As the diocese of Toronto has not endorsed the blessing of same-sex relationships, the incumbent at Holy Trinity, Rev. Sara Boyles, asked Archbishop Terry Finlay for permission to perform the blessing, which he said he declined.
“Holy Trinity welcomes gays and lesbians and has been requesting permission for this for some time,” said the archbishop in an interview. “In terms of this particular situation, I’m not surprised, but I certainly did not give permission for this blessing to take place. … Now that I know this has happened, I will be asking (Boyles) to have a conversation with me.”
Finlay allowed that similar same-sex blessings may have happened in the past in the diocese without his knowledge.
Poll Finds Mainly Neutral Attitudes Toward Muslims
OTTAWA (RNS) In a recent Canadian Islamic Congress survey of Canadian university students, 80 percent of respondents reported feeling neutral toward Muslims, while 10 percent expressed positive feelings and only 5 percent held negative opinions.
Asked to mention an event or word related to Islam, 38 percent said Sept. 11, 2001. But more respondents (43 percent) mentioned religious terms such as Ramadan and Mecca. Those mentioning other associations, such as the war on Iraq, numbered 17 percent.
Those students who obtained information about Islam from the media was 78 percent, while 7 percent were informed through friends or family. Islamic organizations reached only 12 percent of those surveyed.
More than half the respondents (56 percent) reported they have Muslim friends. When the same respondents were asked if they would marry a Muslim man or woman, the answers were nearly even; 27 percent said yes and 29 percent said no. The remainder said they didn’t know.
Only 4 percent of respondents identified themselves as Muslim.
The survey was conducted among 1,441 second- and third-year university students during the last winter term (Jan.- May 2003).
The results show that local mosques and national Islamic groups “must do a great deal more in reaching out to Canadians at large, especially the youth,” admitted Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress.
Rabbis Question Kashrut Policy
MONTREAL (RNS) Several prominent Orthodox Montreal rabbis are questioning a policy of the city’s kashrut authority that bars imported kosher fresh meat and poultry, reports the Canadian Jewish News.
The rabbis say the policy, which prevents imported meats from receiving the city’s “MK” (Montreal Kosher) stamp limits competition and keeps prices high.
Rabbi Saul Emanuel, the executive director of the city’s kosher supervision authority, the Vaad Ha’ir, defended the practice of refusing an MK certification to imported fresh meat and poultry, citing historical reasons and the need to preserve the integrity of a rigorous kashrut process.
He also insisted prices of kosher meat and poultry in Montreal are generally comparable to _ and in some instances lower _ than those in other North American cities.
But that view is rejected by several leading Orthodox rabbis in the city who say a closed market benefits producers, not consumers. The absence of outside kosher meat and poultry suppliers, they said, keeps prices in Montreal exorbitantly high, compelling many Jews who would otherwise keep kosher at home to purchase non-kosher alternatives.
Rabbi Yonah Rosner said many young people, as well as pensioners who have kept kosher at home their whole lives, are buying nonkosher meat and poultry because of the “prohibitive” price of the kosher equivalent.
“It tears my heart out,” he said. “The consumption in Montreal (of kosher meat and poultry) has gone down, down, down.”
New Testament Now Available in Dogrib
YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories (RNS) More of Canada’s northern aboriginal people can now read the Christian Scripture in their own language.
The Canadian Bible Society recently unveiled the first-ever translation of the New Testament into Dogrib, one of the languages of the Dene people.
Last year, the society took the wraps off a translation of the entire Bible into Inuktitut, a task that took 23 years.
The Dogrib Bible was dedicated last month as part of the annual Dogrib Assembly.
The language has 2,100 speakers in the region bounded by Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake in Canada’s far north. Two speakers of the language were involved in the translation team.
The first run of 650 volumes proved so popular that the Canadian Bible Society printed an extra 200 copies.
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