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Muslims for Progressive Values

Canada: Strong and Free or Scared and Silent?

Shahla Khan Salter | Posted 05.07.2013 | Canada Politics
Shahla Khan Salter

Is it odd that we have gone from being a nation that respects the impartiality of the press to one in which government has no qualms about personally bashing senior journalists when they deliver unfavorable news? Government leaders take note. You serve as an example.

There Is No Place for Homophobia in Islam

Junaid Jahangir | Posted 04.15.2013 | Canada
Junaid Jahangir

In his April 11 show, "The Arab Underground," conservative political activist Ezra Levant interviewed a former Israeli army officer to highlight the imparting of homophobia in the government funded Edmonton Islamic Academy. Conservative Muslim parents need to be concerned whether their children are being taught values of tolerance or exclusion.

This Woman Risked Death to Go Topless

Shahla Khan Salter | Posted 04.05.2013 | Canada
Shahla Khan Salter

A 19-year-old woman, named Amina Tyler, who lives in Tunisia, was threatened with stoning after she exposed her breasts in a photo she posted online, scribbling the words -- "my body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone's honour" -- on her torso in Arabic.

How to Fight Hate Without Becoming Hateful

Shahla Khan Salter | Posted 02.06.2013 | Canada
Shahla Khan Salter

At Muslims for Progressive Values we at fight peacefully against those who call themselves Muslim and inflict crimes against humanity. The incitement of hatred, examples of which proliferate our society, does not help our cause, nor humanity as a whole. It does the opposite. Hatred begets hatred

Religious Rights Don't Trump Human Ones in Canada

Shahla Khan Salter | Posted 12.02.2012 | Canada
Shahla Khan Salter

In Toronto, this past June, Faith McGregor, walked into the Terminal Barber shop owned by Omar Mahrouk and asked for a haircut. Mahrouk said his barber shop did not serve women. McGregor's decision to file a complaint against Mahrouk was the right one. This is something that should not happen here in Canada.

A Muslim Canadian and a Muslim American Talk Politics

Shahla Khan Salter | Posted 11.04.2012 | Canada Politics
Shahla Khan Salter

The American Presidential election between Republican Candidate, Mitt Romney and incumbent Democratic Candidate President Barack Obama, takes place in only a two days on November 6, 2012. Its outcome may result in a remarkably different future for many. What happens in the U.S. affects us all -- both here in Canada and overseas. As a Muslim Canadian woman, I wonder, what is on the mind of a Muslim American woman right now?

No, Banning "Innocence of Muslims" Is Not the Solution

Shahla Khan Salter | Posted 09.17.2012 | Canada
Shahla Khan Salter

To my fellow Muslims -- the 99 per cent who are peaceful -- here is my message. Online articles, information and resources, including amateur video productions, are everywhere. "Policing" opinions on religious matters is unrealistic in most instances. But some of you say "Innocence of Muslims" is a special case and should be banned. Personally, I disagree. The video should not be banned, nor should any video that one finds disturbing because of its anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian or anti-religious content. Why? For a number of reasons.

Saving Rimsha: Religious Intolerance is the Real Blasphemy

Shahla Khan Salter | Posted 08.29.2012 | Canada
Shahla Khan Salter

An 11-year-old Pakistani girl with Downs Syndrome might be put to death for blasphemy. Killing people for expressing negative and/or dissenting views on religion, for burning Qurans, for writing letters -- is this Islam? No. In Islam, a law that penalizes a person for challenging or disparaging the religion -- is blasphemy itself.

Canada's No Safe Haven From Breivik-Style Hate Crime

Shahla Khan Salter | Posted 08.15.2012 | Canada Politics
Shahla Khan Salter

Is domestic terrorism, instigated by white supremacists, such as Breivik, on the rise? Recently, more incidents of hate crimes are reported to be taking place, with alarming frequency. There have been at least seven reports of hate crimes targeting Muslims and mosques in the last 10 days in the United States. Here in Canada we look down at the U.S. and say, "well, everything is worse down there, more guns, more violence, more racism." Not so fast. According to Statistics Canada figures from 2009, the frequency of hate crimes are up.