From the Globe and Mail website
It’s already a happy new year for religious extremists
By Gerald Caplan
Friday, Jan. 06, 2012
Palestinian police officers intervene in a fight between Greek Orthodox and Armenian
clergymen during the cleaning of the Church Of The Nativity in Bethlehem on 28th December, 2011.
Photo: Bernat Armangue / AP
The Harper government is about to create a new Office of Religious Freedom, designed to champion religious freedom around the world. For those who have questioned, especially in a time of deep austerity, the need for such an office, activities within and among the world’s three great monotheistic religion during the recent Holy Days – in order of birth Judaism, Christianity and Islam – provide a ready answer. There is much work for Canada to do.
In the United States, for example, large numbers of conservative Catholics and evangelicals joined forces in a search for an appropriate Republican candidate to take on Barack Obama, an alien Muslim from Kenya. God-fearing Republicans of all denominations cheered for capital punishment (the more the merrier), applauded the possibility that a man without health insurance might die and booed a gay soldier serving his nation in Iraq.
Across the Middle East and throughout immigrant communities in Western Europe, many Sunni and Shiite Muslims united in embracing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated anti-Semitic document that invented a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world and for generations was treated as gospel by many Christians regardless of denomination.
In Israel, Jews across the vast spectrum of Judaism, from the most secular to the ultra-orthodox, came together in a determination never to recognize the just rights of the Palestinian people.
It is true, however, that such welcome signs of unity have not been the entire story of the season. In fact, one might say that faith-driven conflict has had a very creative few weeks.
Full Article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/gerald-caplan/its-already-a-happy-new-year-for-religious-extremists/article2294260/singlepage/#articlecontent
Related Article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/conservatives-laying-groundwork-for-office-of-religious-freedom/article2288479/
