ARIEL LIEBERMAN In a speech to United States Congress in 2011, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated that,“Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights.” Still, he refers to Israel as the “Jewish Homeland.” In this case, who does the state really stand … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: December 2012
U.S. policy, a moral discriminator? Why sex worker stigmatization prevented a more fruitful outcome of the 2012 International AIDS Conference
JESSICA NEWFIELD Recognizing and protecting the civil rights, working conditions and opportunities of vulnerable and marginalized groups is an essential element of tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Minority sub-groups of society are generally the most affected by the spread of the HIV virus such as Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people, drug users and … Continue reading
Unity in Diversity—Religious Perspectives on Climate Change
MEAGHAN SHEVELL Climate change is a pervasive global phenomenon which transcends all national borders. At its roots, this environmental crisis is more than simply a scientific challenge – it is also a moral one. For many individuals, morality is encapsulated in religious beliefs. Oftentimes, religion is viewed as a divisive force serving to polarize people, … Continue reading
Religious vs. Non-Religious NGOs: A Volunteer’s Perspective
AMANDA MURPHYReligious affiliation can complicate many situations, including the often problematic developmental aid situation in Africa. Volunteers who have worked for both religious and non-religious NGOs offer a valuable perspective on the differences between the two types of developmental aid institutions. Naomi Goodman is a fourth year Civil Engineering and Society major at McMaster University. … Continue reading
The Role of Religion in Saudi Arabia
AMIR BEN SHABATMore than any country in the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia is identified with Islam. Islam is the state religion, the source of political legitimacy as it shapes state policies and activities and serves as the moral and legal code of society. This code is known as Sharia Law, derived from the Qur’an and … Continue reading
Religious Representation in the Parti Quebecois: A Question of Identity
OLIVIA ZEYDLER Quebec elected the Parti Quebcois (PQ) to lead its provincial government on Sept. 4, 2012 with 32 percent of the vote. The party, led by Pauline Marois, has expressed hopes to protect Quebec nationalism and proposed various policy changes regarding immigrants and religious expression to that end.One legislation introduced by Marois is the … Continue reading
Christian Conversions in India
BRENDA CHANG During the months of August and September 2012, five separate cases of church vandalism and Christian attacks in India have been reported via correspondence to the All India Christian Council, a council based in India and dedicated to the protection of Christians in the country. These acts of assault speak to the larger … Continue reading
Impediment and Progress: the dual role of religion in Indian sex education
CAMILLE KERSEBET AND MADELEINE SHEA “Culture is not a monolith; it needs to change and adapt to shifting realities.”- Anindita Sengupta, The Guardian, “India in denial over sex education” In India, this is certainly true: conservative religious pressures have led to a lack of health education and little knowledge of basic sexual safety. While this … Continue reading
Islamophobia: A new word for an old problem
VINCENT CARNEY The word Islamophobia is everywhere. It is one of those pervasive, ball of wax terms that is sufficiently meaningful yet vague that no one questions what it stands for. The word itself was coined over a hundred years ago, but its new-found popularity with the rise of human rights discourse and globalization has … Continue reading
Urbanization and Religious Tolerance
ZOE CHAPIN When we think of cities, we think of modernity: gleaming sky scrapers, bustling streets, innovation, and progressive thinking. We infer that cities, and the people that live in them, are more secular and more democratic. But does all of this mean that cities are more religiously tolerant? There is increasing evidence to suggest … Continue reading
LGBT Rights: Clinton’s Address and the Manhattan Declaration
JENNA TOPAN The protection and promotion of religious rights are crucial aspects of the maintenance of human rights, especially in North America. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion … [including the freedom] to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, … Continue reading
Censorship of religion in 21st century media
LEILA BAMBA We live in a time where the influence of the media can be felt in all aspects of our lives; from subjecting us to endless gossip on celebrities or to keeping us informed on current events. In our globalized era, this seems fine to most people until certain issues are put under the … Continue reading
Homosexuality and Religion: where do Canadian homosexuals fit in when it comes to Christianity? A Look Into Sainte-Pierre Church in the Gay Village
ALEX BADDUKECompared to the majority of other countries in the world, Canadian law is very inclusive of homosexual rights. In 1995, the Supreme Court of Canada read in sexual orientation to the Canadian Charter of Rights under Section 15, which outlines equality rights. This established the equality of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) … Continue reading
The road ahead for Christians in Syria
KARINA FORTIERAs Syria enters its 17th month of nationwide fighting, the Christian minority continues to support the ruling Assad regime. Several Christian-populated towns have been spared the violence ravaging the country, but many Christians fear for their rights should the regime succumb to revolutionary forces. The Rule of a Minority over a Majority Christians have … Continue reading
Is There a Zero-Sum Choice Between Social Well-being and Individual Rights?
MADELEINE SHEA In the past few decades, Singapore has received considerable praise for its social and economic policies. According to the Council on Foreign Relations,“conventional wisdom has held that economic growth will lead inevitably…to democracy.” Singapore has defied this logic; while it has experienced massive development, it has not become democratic to a corresponding degree. … Continue reading
Human Rights, A Conceptual Exploration
PAULINE CHERYThe United Nation General Assembly, in a move that has since been equated to one of the greatest achievements of the modern human rights movement, unanimously adopted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on Dec. 10, 1948. Not one single representative of the 48 countries then recognized by the UN Charter voted against … Continue reading
Sandy in the Caribbean: The Absent (Media) Storm
HATTY LIU I’m watching the forecast for Hurricane Sandy halfway across the world and the weather map invariably shows a storm on the move. The clouds stewed briefly above the Caribbean, sure, but the chief attraction is to see them pinwheel up the Eastern US Seaboard. It’s a heart-pumping prelude to a “frankenstorm’s” showdown with … Continue reading
Corruption in the Construction Industry: The Quebec Corruption Inquiry
OLIVIA ZEYDLER A city government safe so stuffed with cash that it couldn’t close? A city’s Senior Engineer slyly taking tropical vacations and receiving numerous bottles of wine in his office? These situations involving our elected officials are unimaginable. Yet these were the testimonies made by both construction bosses and government officials during the Charbonneau … Continue reading
International Environmental Law: A Promise for Corporate Accountability?
Indigenous communities in Latin America have suffered an especially oppressive history of dispossession and exploitation. Only the source of oppression has changed: if ‘indios’ were once enslaved to ‘latifundistas’, they are still today mistreated and kept from their own subsistence by multinational companies (MNCs). We have entered an era of ‘natural resource wars’, fueled by … Continue reading
Gangster Hip-Hop: Behind the Bling
CAMILLE KERSEBET “Rack city bitch, rack rack city bitch”. You have heard it all summer on the radio, on TV. We may have thought the age of aggressive rap was on its way out, but violence in the music industry is still very much alive. The United States presidential elections once again brought to light … Continue reading
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