Nova Scotia Scott

Growing anti-Semitism has brought “a grave and serious sadness” upon Jews in Canada and abroad. Canadian historian Ken Coates says that, while the Jews are very good at standing up for themselves, they should not be left to do so alone. Non-Jewish people need to speak up against their hate-filled enemies. Standing with the Jewish [...]

Straight talk from Yakin Erturk, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women: MUSLIM women around the world are facing a “growing crisis” as Islamic governments fail to honour commitments to end inequality and violence against them, a senior UN official has warned. […] “There is no time left to lose any more as this is [...]

A controversial new film entitled The Pain of Autumn explores what Istanbul Greeks call their “Kristallnacht”, 6 September 1955. Greeks and others were attacked in Istanbul, and more than 5000 houses and businesses destroyed in mob violence orchestrated by the Turkish government.. Greek-owned properties suffered most of the damage, but Armenians and Jews were also [...]

A survey of Palestinian Muslims indicates that support for suicide attacks is correlated, not with devotion to Islam as such (as measured by frequency of prayer), but with frequency of mosque attendance. The researchers surveyed Palestinian Muslims about their attitudes towards religion, including how often they prayed and went to mosque. The researchers found that [...]

Four women from Moldova were promised jobs in London but, when they arrived, they were forced to work as prostitutes for 20 hours a day. They have now won a landmark lawsuit against the couple who deceived and coerced them into prostitution. Identified only as AT, NT, ML and AK, the young women, all from [...]

The Taliban offered peace in Swat, northern Pakistan—for a price. The head of the hardline Tahreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) group and spiritual leader of Taliban militants in Swat, Sufi Mohammad, says he will ensure an end to fighting if the government enforces Sharia law in the region. It’s a deal, say government officials, and Taliban [...]

Canadian MP Irwin Cotler (Lib – Mount-Royal) is speaking in London this week at an international conference on anti-Semitism.  Ruth Gledhill has obtained an advance copy of Mr Cotler’s speech.  Here are the opening paragraphs. Global Antisemitism:  Assault on Human Rights [...] What we are witnessing today – and which has been developing incrementally, sometimes [...]

In Egypt, Mervat Ragy, a 24-year-old female Coptic lawyer, has been assaulted three times in a single week by Muslim Brotherhood lawyers.  They apparently wanted revenge for her exposure of complicity between themselves and police. This third physical assault occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning, 28 January, at her family home in the [...]

Poor families in Afghanistan are resorting to selling young children—sons as servants and daughters as wives—to pay off debts or settle tribal feuds. In Afghanistan, particularly in poor rural communities, child slavery and debt bondage practices are growing, but are often disguised as marriage, labour or family affairs not requiring state intervention. Extreme poverty, lack [...]

Stephan Hachemi has initiated a civil lawsuit before the Quebec High Court against the government of Iran in the death of his mother, photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. While visiting Tehran in June 2003, Ms Kazemi, who held dual Canadian and Iranian citizenship, was arrested, beaten, and died in custody. Despite repeated assurances by Iranian authorities that [...]

Islamist militants are taking control of the Swat Valley, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan. Some 200,000 of the region’s 1.8 million residents have reportedly fled for safety. From an IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: “We see terrible events here every day. The central [...]

It’s getting harder to tell Hindu extremists from Muslim extremists. Activists of a self-styled pro-Hindu moral brigade called Sri Rama Sene barged into a pub in the coastal city of Mangalore on Saturday and bashed up a few young girls for “violating traditional Indian norms”, police said Sunday. At least two girls were punched and [...]

Ahmad Obeidi, a 24-year-old Muslim man on trial in Hamburg, Germany, killed his younger sister Morsal (at right) because she wore make-up and tight jeans and went to the disco with her friends. He thought she should wear a veil and go to mosque every day. Meanwhile, he admits he regularly enjoyed drinking with his [...]

The shocking answer is yes.  Canada’s Department of Justice has devoted several online pages to the tragic reality of slavery in our supposedly civilised era.  Here’s the department’s definition of human trafficking. Trafficking in persons is a serious crime that involves: the movement of people across or within borders; threats or use of force, coercion [...]

This is Nigel Mutemagau, who is now being held in solitary confinement in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe. He was taken into custody with his parents nearly three months ago by Zimbabwe’s secret police, the Central Intelligence Organisation. Nigel’s parents are facing charges of recruiting “bandits” to topple Robert Mugabe’s [...]