NATO largely ignored the ethnic, cultural, religious and other aspects of how Afghans live
The hasty, defeatist and craven withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan in August has compelled the “civilized” Western nations and their leaders to confront the failures and errors of the past 20 years, which resemble those of earlier conflicts. The initial supposed conquest of Afghanistan relegated the remnants of the Taliban zealots to…
The victims’ families deserve justice, and the people of both Canada and Iran deserve the truth
On January 8, 2020, the Islamic Republic of Iran shot down Ukrainian flight PS752, causing the death of 176 people, including 138 Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and others with close ties to Canada. While Tehran called the downing a mistake, a recent report from the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims identifies several key…
But to claim Islamaphobia is endemic in Canada is wrong
October was Islamic History Month in Canada. In a letter introducing the month, former Diversity Minister Bardish Chagger wrote, “Today and everyday, I stand with Muslim communities, and indeed all Canadians, to denounce the hatred that fuels Islamophobia.” Muslim leaders also wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister in June asking for a National…
Sadat had committed the cardinal sin of making peace with Israel
On Oct. 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was gunned down while presiding over a ceremony celebrating the eighth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. It was a brutal reminder of how passionate political differences can claim the lives of even the most prominent. Political assassinations weren’t exactly unheard of in the second half of…
Multilateral bodies have an important role to play in spreading democracy
With democrats everywhere grieving over recent events in Afghanistan and the 20th anniversary of 9/11, it is worth recalling that as the first plane struck the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, all 35 Organization of American States (OAS) member governments were in Peru signing a democratic charter that denied OAS membership to…
Joe Biden rivals his predecessor, Donald Trump, in the peddling of lies and false promises
During the final week of Canada’s modest evacuation flight effort, Canadian visa holders outside Kabul International Airport took their chances to fight through the crowds and make it to one of the ever-changing gates that occasionally would open and admit tiny fractions of the throngs of people desperately trying to get on an evacuation flight.…
Will Canada’s leaders put election campaigning on hold just long enough to deal with this humanitarian crisis?
Afghanistan’s religious minorities are facing nothing less than a genocide but the Canadian government has yet to make a firm commitment to protect some of the most vulnerable among them, say Canadian human rights activists. Hazaras and Christians – two of these minorities – have been cornered into a desperate situation ever since the fall…
Biden’s claim that the invasion’s original “objective” was achieved is ignorant at best, misleading at worst
Very few people have given a damn about Afghanistan for the last several years. It doesn’t impact their lives. It’s “over there.” The troop count has been low, Western casualties have been effectively nil, and the country’s situation has rarely punctuated the mainstream headlines. I’ve been guilty of the same apathy, especially during COVID. Yet,…
Freedom of religious expression is a human right
According to the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practise, worship…
The Islamist group has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 2.3 million people since 2009
The world reacted with shock and horror when 276 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. Some of the girls managed to escape, others were rescued by military forces, but many were coerced into serving the group’s terrorist agenda, some acting as suicide bombers. While the mass abduction in the small Nigerian town…