Saddam Hussein's execution on Eid

Convenient timing for the execution on Eid day: the news was released just at the right time in North America, so that media outlets on this side of the Atlantic could put it into their front page. So this morning, as Americans wake up and read the papers over their coffees and espressos, they can wake up to the news that Saddam Hussein has been executed.

Executed for which crimes? Not one of his worst crimes that the US constantly mentions - the gassing of the Kurds at Halabja. He could not be tried in court for that crime because that would require a great deal of evidence to come forth - evidence that had messy blood trails leading to Rumsfeld. So he was convicted and sent to die on Eid for a crime that had no trails leading towards the US.

Since we are on the topic of crimes, lest it be forgotten: where is the alleged mastermind behind 9/11 - the one whom Bush had pledged to hunt down? Compared to Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and his secular Baathist party were small fry.

Nakoda Lodge

And the earth - We have spread it out, and set thereon mountains standing firm, and produced therein every kind of beautiful growth

To be observed and commemorated by every devotee turning (to Allah) {50.7-8}

Swearing in

The board that oversees the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here publicly distanced itself on Thursday from a member who recently condemned the first Muslim elected to Congress for planning to use a Koran during the private part of his swearing-in ceremony. In November, the board member, Dennis Prager, a conservative commentator and radio show host, said that Keith Ellison, the newly elected Muslim member of Congress, should give up his post if he could not take his oath on a Bible, which Mr. Prager said was the traditional religious text of the United States.

In its resolution, the council’s executive committee criticized Mr. Prager’s remarks as "antithetical to the mission of the museum as an institution promoting tolerance and respect for all peoples regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity.", "Holocaust Museum Rebukes Member for Koran Comment", New York Times, 21 December 2006

Amongst one of the newly elected members of Congress, is a Democrat from Minnesota who happens to be the first Muslim American elected to Congress - Keith Ellison. He wants to use the Quran, not the Bible, in a private unofficial ceremony that will see him sworn into office on January 4 2007. In the US currently, there is some uproar regarding this individual's decision to carry the Quran, not the Bible, into this ceremony.

Irony of ironies: the US Constitution protects religious pluralism. While we ask this elected official to swear to uphold the Constitution, we do so in a manner that asks him to deny his own religious identity. This is the great United States of America.

Meanwhile, a board member of the Washington-based Holocaust Memorial Museum, Dennis Prager, stated this gem: "My entire effort in the Keith Ellison matter has been to draw attention to the need to acknowledge the Bible as the basis of America’s moral values. Judeo-Christian values are the greatest single protection against another Holocaust."

Someone needs to send Mr. Prager a history book. It was the manipulation of "Judeo-Christian values" that allowed the Holocaust to occur in the first place. How ignorant to say that one group's values are the only beliefs that can save humanity from repeating the Holocaust. Prager obviously lacks information regarding Judeo-Christian-Islamic history and needs to refresh himself on the three Abrahamic faiths' parallel teachings and beliefs.

While the US dedicates itself to spreading democracy and religious pluralism in Iraq and Afghanistan, and doing a fine job of that as we can all see, the American administration might want to ensure that it doesn't trample upon those rights on the domestic front.

Little mosque on the prairie

Canada's 'Little Mosque on the Prairie' aims to ease religious tension, 2 October 2006

OTTAWA, (AFP) - Canada's public broadcaster CBC hopes to lighten religious tensions between this country's Christian majority and Muslims with a new sitcom, "Little Mosque on the Prairie."

The show is a parody of the acclaimed US drama "Little House on the Prairie" (1974-1983), starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about the life and adventures of the Ingalls family in the 19th century American West.

But instead of raising pitchforks, tumbling down hills and selling eggs at the general store, this fictional Muslim family struggles to find its place in Canada's vast western prairies in a post-September 11, 2001 world.

CBC spokesman Jeff Keay said Monday the broadcaster has ordered eight episodes and will begin airing them in January.

"The producers recognize that this is a potentially sensitive topic," Keay said.

The Roman Catholic pope Benedict XVI's recent comments on Islam, an alleged Toronto terror plot foiled in June and attacks on mosques have divided Canadians lately, he acknowledged.

"But, the show is a comedy. We hope people will laugh," he said.

Liverpool-born filmmaker Zarqa Nawaz wrote and produced the satire.

Her previous films include "BBQ Muslims" about two brothers who are suspected of being terrorists after their barbecue blows up, and "Real Terrorists Don't Belly Dance."

Her production company is called Fundamentalist Films; its motto is to put the "fun back into fundamentalism," according to its website.