But according to a new poll, one in five Americans think that he is: Americans increasingly are convinced — incorrectly — that President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and a growing number are tho...
Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson, recently reinstated by the Pope, much to the anger of Jewish groups worldwide, has issued the classic non-apology apology: “Amidst this tremendous m...
https://www.segacs.com/2009/holocaust-denying-bishop-issues-non-apology-apology.html
This one’s a real doozy: EU worried about freedom of religion in Iran. Every joke I could make here would be just too easy, so I’ll let it speak for itself. The post From the priceless head...
https://www.segacs.com/2008/from-the-priceless-headlines-file.html
The endless squabbling between the Hasidic Jewish Community and the general population in Outremont/Mile End has a new chapter. In the past, they’ve argued about the right to build succahs, to ...
These women stood up to speak out against radical fundamenatalism in the middle east and in the world: “We must speak out now, because we’ve got nothing to lose,” said Dr. Wafa Sultan, one ...
These ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are traditionally the days when Jews ask forgiveness from people and from G-d for any wrongs we might have done throughout the year. I’m not ...
Believe it or not, other newsworthy things happened in the world yesterday and today. You’d never know it from watching the local news, of course, which has been covering Dawson nonstop since y...
Something Damian Penny wrote the other day came back to me just now: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Damian was, of course, referring to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad�...
Hurricane Wilma is heading towards Florida in what seems like an extra underline to this year’s horrible “act of God” season: Tropical Storm Wilma is the 21st named storm of the 2005 season...
Here’s Irshad Manji, once again refusing to be silenced on what she believes despite what I’d imagine is relentless pressure: Still, as long as Muslims live in pretense, we will be affirming ...
I haven’t done one of these in a while. And some bloggers have been writing very, very good posts. So it’s high time, I guess. Here’s Lynn on so-called “messianic Judaism”: We Jews have...
I was watching an old repeat of the West Wing the other day, from back when the show was good. And I couldn’t help but think of it when I saw this news item: A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled ...
Terrified by yesterday’s departure of Pat O’Brien from the Liberal fold, Paul Martin has agreed to amend bill C-38 on same-sex marriage before passing it, to appease some members of his party...
https://www.segacs.com/2005/martin-scrambles-for-a-compromise.html
Where were Newsweek’s fact-checkers on this story? Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to ...
https://www.segacs.com/2005/oops-where-were-newsweeks-fact-checkers.html
Since the elimination of denominational schoolboards in Quebec in 1997 in favour of linguistic ones, Roman Catholic and Protestant instruction in public schools has been on the decline. Already, ...
https://www.segacs.com/2005/no-more-religion-in-quebec-schools.html
Germany’s Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI. I don’t really feel qualified to comment on the leadership of another religion. The media reports make him sound like a conservat...
According to Vatican spokespeople, it’s official: Pope John Paul II has passed away. The post The Pope is dead first appeared on Segacs's World I Know .
According to this religion quiz, seems all those years I spent thinking I was Jewish were wrong. I shall join the ranks of Lisa Simpson because I believe I’m actually Buddhist: You scored as Bu...
A school district in Wisconsin will teach creationism in classes, claiming that it’s just as valid a theory as evolution: Members of Grantsburg’s school board believed that a state law govern...
https://www.segacs.com/2004/wisconsin-school-district-teaching-creationism.html
Religious Jews will be allowed to build succahs, according to the Supreme Court of Canada, who ruled against their condo association that was trying to limit them from doing so: In a 5-4 decision...
Muslim women’s groups are outraged at a Canadian court ruling allowing “Canadianized Sharia” in Ontario: Then the province of Ontario quietly approved its use. Under the 1991 Arbitration Ac...
Lynn has some good news from Israel on the subject of religious marriages: Former chief Sephardi rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron yesterday advocated dismantling the Orthodox rabbinate’s monopoly over...
Ok, maybe not funniest ever. But pretty damn funny. I challenge you to read this without laughing. Oh, scroll down on the page past the movie review first. (Via Tainted Glass.) The post Funnies...
What on earth is that William Hung kid doing performing on Jay Leno? Sheesh, he’s so bad it’s embarrassing! I’d feel bad for the poor kid… but he’s more successful than most real musici...
Glad to see I’m not the only one who thinks that the reaction of major Jewish organizations to The Passion of Christ has only served to give the film more publicity than it deserves: Just as we...
https://www.segacs.com/2004/more-publicity-than-it-deserves.html
Purim has a Scrooge, and his name is Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: The crazy Sephardic rabbi Ovadia Yosef has made some new ridiculous extremist pronouncements for Purim. He says it’s forbidden to dress ...
I didn’t want to write anything about the Mel Gibson “Passion” controversy. Really I didn’t. I felt – and still feel – that all the whining is just giving the film tons of publicity t...
Yep, good ol’ France, as expected, overwhelmingly backed the ban of religious symbols from the classroom, thus endorsing what is arguably one of the best candidates for prominence on dumblaws.c...
https://www.segacs.com/2004/france-bans-religious-symbols-from-classrooms.html
It seems I was right and that the issue is much more about childish personality squabbles than I’d realized: Unfortunately, personality conflicts – chiefly involving Dollard borough Mayor Ed ...
https://www.segacs.com/2004/update-on-dollard-mosque-story.html
France is maybe the most prominent example in the media these days on total idiocy about the concept of freedom of religion… but there are other, smaller-scale examples closer to home. Today’...
… Et stupidité: President Jacques Chirac called on Wednesday for a law banning Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses from French state schools. “In all conscience,...
An interesting editorial in today’s Jerusalem Post calls for the institution of civil marriages in Israel, an idea whose time is long overdue: The obvious solution has yet to be formally presen...
If this is true, it’s a disgusting example of what can happen in places where gays are the last remaining legally persecutable minority: An 18-year-old student has filed a suit in Palm Beach Co...
https://www.segacs.com/2003/expelled-florida-student-sues.html
This morning’s Gazette has an interview with Irshad Manji, the Muslim-Canadian author of The Trouble with Islam (which, incidentally, is on my Amazon wish list – hint, hint). Manji, a 34-year...
https://www.segacs.com/2003/interview-with-irshad-manji.html
A group of Egyptians is launching a lawsuit against the Jews, alleging that in the biblical exodus from ancient Egypt, the Jews stole gold and property (via Eric, Adam): Dr. Nabil Hilmi, a dean a...
https://www.segacs.com/2003/egyptians-lawsuit-against-jews.html
No disrespect intended here, but isn’t idol worship prohibited by Christianity? A Ten Commandments monument at the center of a bitter dispute over the constitutional separation of church and st...
https://www.segacs.com/2003/ten-commandments-monument-dispute.html
Isi Lieber, the senior Vice-President of the WJC, writes a glowing editorial singing the praises of Israel’s new friends, Evangelical Christians: Now it has suddenly dawned on us that there are...
The world’s been a pretty messed-up place lately. We’ve got fires, we’ve got floods. There are unusual heat waves and cold spells. We’ve got SARS epidemics and mad cow disease. Not to men...
The Vatican is saying that Jean Chretien will “burn in hell” for supporting granting the right to marry to gays and lesbians. I don’t pay Chretien compliments very often, but in this case i...
https://www.segacs.com/2003/gay-marriage-debate-heating-up.html
Today’s Jerusalem Post has an interesting interview with Tashbih Sayyed, a Muslim American who speaks out against militant Islam in his publication, Pakistan Today: “As a little boy, I though...
https://www.segacs.com/2003/interview-with-tashbih-sayyed.html
StatsCan released the latest census figures on religion, and the results were pretty predictable. Most Canadians are Christian, there are a bunch of Muslims and Jews . . . but 20,000 claimed to b...
Josh pointed me towards this great article by Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times on the issue of school prayer in the U.S. In it, Ebert argues that while he has no problem with personal prayer,...
Frequently, clerics and political leaders among the Palestinians claim that the “Jews are destroying Muslim holy sites”, in effort to arouse anger and incite riots and violence. The truth is ...
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has published a report by David Raab about the systematic discrimination against Christians in Palestinian-controlled areas. However, the reality of Christ...
https://www.segacs.com/2003/palestinian-anti-christian-discrimination.html
I wonder how many of Daniel Pipes’ critics have read his article entitled Islam isn’t evil: (via Damian Penny) It is a mistake to blame Islam (a religion 14 centuries old) for the evil that s...
The Raelians are now claiming that the first supposedly cloned baby, “Eve”, is actually in Israel, not the United States as they’d previously claimed. Judging by the horribly antisemitic ch...
I just love it how international journalists complain about Israeli restrictions on its generally free press, but say nothing about things like this: Three journalists were formally charged Tuesd...
https://www.segacs.com/2003/journalists-charged-in-jordan.html
Honest Reporting points to some pretty disturbing hate speech on the Raelians’ website. This is what Damian Penny has to say about it: I used to think the Raelians were just a bunch of cranks w...
Lynn B. deconstructs an article by Ari Shavit from Friday’s Ha’aretz. I suggest checking out her extensive commentary, but one thing in particular about the article struck me: We visited Shei...
The Raelians are claiming that a second cloned baby was born. Apparently there’s about as much evidence to support this claim as there is for the first supposed clone. The post Another Raelia...
Those wacky Raelians claim to have cloned a human baby, but suddenly there’s a question on whether a DNA test will be done after all. Of course, these are people who want us to take on faith th...
This quiz link (courtesy of Mike Silverman), can help you find out. It’s humourous, but it also surprisingly accurately described my beliefs as fitting most closely in with secular humanist Jud...