Aqsa Parvez and the Curse of Religion

She was a beautiful young Canadian who just wanted to be like the other girls. She didn't want religion. She didn't want to wear a hijab. And now she's dead.... killed by her own father.

Nobody could save her. But everybody has a theory about why she died. The right wing hatemongers are blaming immigrants and Mooslims.

We used to be rude to every immigrant that came to Canada, with the result that most of them got their acts together and assimilated.

Only recently have we begun telling immigrants to maintain their own traditions, and the result is a dead Muslim girl.

If they are wearing "traditional garb" but "don't necessarily want to do so" -- their "masters" will soon come around when we start shunning them everywhere they go.

Other more rational people are pointing at the immigrant experience.

And the head of the Canadian Islamic Congress says it's just a "teenager issue."

But of course the REAL problem is religion.

All of the major ones were written by hairy, superstitious , monumentally ignorant desert dwellers who believed that men were made to rule the world. Or at least the tent where they lived with their camels...and their fifty wives.

And that women were born to serve them.

Or carry their divine seed like flowerpots.
















To be owned ....or smashed.

I mean just checkout what the mad medieval monk in the Vatican is raving about this week.

Nuclear arms proliferation, environmental pollution and economic inequality are threats to world peace -- but so are abortion, birth control and same-sex marriage, Pope Benedict XVI said in a statement released by the Vatican Tuesday

You can't get more patriarchal.....or INSANE than that.

The question is what do we do about it at a time when all over Canada clashes between religious and secular values are fuelling a sometimes ugly debate....before it degenerates into something even worse?

My suggestion? The opposition parties should come up with this kind of motion:

Whereas we in this country believe that everyone should have the freedom to practice the religion of their choice. And we encourage all Canadians to accomodate their differences in a reasonable way. We also strongly believe that if and when religious freedoms collide with human rights, the human rights of Canadians must ALWAYS prevail.

It would draw a line in the sand and send out a powerful message to everyone living here...and those still to arrive That's the kind of Canada we want and if you don't like it too bad .....or don't come.

A bit like this symbolic message Quebec sent out today.

Until the curse of religion is lifted off our backs...and we have a truly secular society....women will never be equal. Girls like Aqsa Parvez will be continue to be abused or murdered. So will gay people. And the world will just get crazier and crazier.

Of course..... I realize it would be a horrible blow to Stephen Harper. He would have to choose between supporting the motion...and losing his religious base.

Or opposing it and losing Quebec and other parts of Canada.

Which means either way he would probably NEVER form a government again.

But hey...if you're trying to head off an ugly problem. Trying to make sure that what happened to poor Aqsa never happens again.

And you end up getting rid of an ugly government....full of religious fanatics.

Isn't that a bonus?