Vishal Mangalwadi, a Christian who was born and raised in India, says that Barack Obama was elected president because Americans hold a belief that is rare in most other countries—human equality—and Americans believe in human equality because of their Christian heritage.
Thomas Jefferson was wrong about one thing: Human equality is not “self-evident.” Inequality is self-evident.
[…]
The [...]

Fast-food behemoth McDonald’s has finally introduced its Quarter Pounder in Japan. In hopes of generating a viral buzz for the launch, it selected a few key locations in trendy areas, re-painted the shops, and placed a few accessories outside.
[T]hey painted the signature red-and-yellow facade completely red&black and veiled it with a black curtain. Then [...]

Earlier this week, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan walked out of a debate with Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres about the war in Gaza.  The moderator of the debate gave Mr Erdogan only a minute to respond to a long statement by Mr Peres defending the Gaza action.
Before he left, Erdogan said this.  (From the [...]

A Detroit-area radio station is broadcasting messages by Father Zakariah Botros, and local Muslims claim he has “repeatedly defamed” Muhammed. So, do the protestors want to broadcast rebuttals of Fr Botros’s statements? Do they want to organise a public debate with the elderly Coptic priest?
No, they just want to shut him up.
Muslims and [...]

More evidence that Islam does not require women to wear the hijab.
An Uzbek cleric is urging women not to wear the Muslim hijab, or head scarf, as the number of women wearing religious dress has significantly increased in Uzbekistan, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports.
Anvar Qori Tursunov, the imam of Tashkent’s Central Mosque, told women to return [...]

Cartoon by Steve Nease, Oakville Beaver

It’s a very old joke, I know, but a British-born blogger who lives in Poland has added some hilarious updates.
This has been around for years in one form or another but I always enjoy it. Here’s a version that was in the Spectator recently:
Socialism – You have two cows. The State nationalises one and gives [...]

Joy Smith, Conservative MP for Kildonan-St. Paul, Manitoba, has tabled a private member’s bill imposing a minimum five-year sentence on those convicted of human trafficking involving children under eighteen.
Last year, a Niagara man was convicted of human trafficking. He made over $350,000 off of a young 15 year old girl by sexually exploiting her daily [...]

In three recent discrimination claims, the Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission has ordered businesses to pay over $38,000. Of this, $17,500 has been paid out to compensate for injuries to feelings and dignity.
The most recent case involves a wheelchair-bound man whose feelings were hurt by being required to pay for a cab company’s handi-van [...]

Stéphane Leman-Langlois, a criminology professor at the Université de Montréal, has published an article in the journal Criminologie analysing the estimated 116 incidents of religion-based terrorism in Canada since 1975.
So, which religious group has committed the most acts of terror? You’ll be surprised.
The Doukhobors are an orthodox Christian sect from Saskatchewan and British-Columbia who [...]

The government of Morocco has forbidden unIslamic names for children born to Moroccans living in the Netherlands. Specifically, Berber names may not be used because they are said to conflict with Islamic identity.
By far the biggest group of Moroccans in the Netherlands are of Berber origin, a region in the mountainous north of Morocco. [...]

Police attacked a restaurant run by six Christian brothers in Port Sa’id, Egypt, because it was open during Ramadan. The brothers have now been sentenced to three years in jail for resisting arrest and assaulting authorities.
Last September, 13 police officers raided the café in Port Sa’id, a city in Egypt’s Nile delta, overturning tables, [...]

A UCLA psychology professor has linked deteriorating critical thinking skills with advancing technology. She tries to put a positive spin on her findings by arguing that technology has boosted visual skills, but I think wise people would generally view that as small compensation for an important loss.
As technology has played a bigger role in [...]

Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak has removed the justice portfolio from MLA Louis Tapardjuk because he wrote this in an e-mail to his staff:
“Often, in cases of domestic disputes, both parties share the blame but, according to the Criminal Code, the person who gets physical is charged, even though the other party initiated the conflict,” Tapardjuk [...]

The Canadian Auto Workers Union has given $20,000 to a homosexual rights group.
In a generous expression of its continued commitment to issues of equality and social justice, the staff from the Canadian Auto Workers Union has donated $20,000 to PFLAG Canada. PFLAG Canada supports diversity initiatives in schools and the workplace by providing education and [...]