Immigration: Child bride loophole can not be closed | Canada | News | Toronto Sun

Federal immigration officials say there’s little they can do to stop “child brides” from being sponsored into Canada by much older husbands who wed them in arranged marriages abroad.

Top immigration officials in Canada and Pakistan say all they can do is reject the sponsorships of husbands trying to bring their child-brides to Canada. The men have to reapply when the bride turns 16.

The marriages are permitted under Sharia Law.

Muslim men, who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, return to their homeland to wed a “child bride” in an arranged marriage in which a dowry is given to the girl’s parents.

Officials said some of the brides can be 14 years old or younger and many are forced to marry. The practice occurs in a host of countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Lebanon.

via torontosun.com

Presbyterian Church elders defame Israel

The U.S. Presbyterian Church is on the verge of a blunder that would severely damage interfaith harmony. Its 3 million lay members must call the hierarchy to its senses.

A nine-member special committee of the religious denomination is set to release a report on the Middle East that takes moral equivalence to dangerous new heights - and embraces parts of a manifesto by Christian Palestinians who call for an end to Israel as a Jewish state.
The document has yet to be published, but the church news service revealed it regurgitates the most specious anti-Israel canards. It even puts a footnote on the phrase "the right of Israel to exist."
It reads: "The phrase 'the right of Israel to exist' is a source of pain for some members of our study committee who are in solidarity with Palestinians, who feel that the creation of the state of Israel has denied them their inalienable human rights."
How to stop Israel's sins, in the mind of the Presbyterian special committee?
The U.S. ought to employ "the strategic use of influence and the withholding of financial and military aid in order to enforce Israel's compliance with international law and peacemaking efforts." Meaning tighten the screws on an ally until it stops defending itself from terrorism.
No similar tactics are recommended against anyone else in the region. Not against Hamas, which fires rockets at Israeli homes and schools. Not against Iran, which pursues nukes and dreams of erasing Israel. Not against Hezbollah.
As for the manifesto by Christian Palestinians known as Kairos Palestine, the news service said the panel endorsed its "emphasis on hope, love, nonviolence and reconciliation." Saying nothing of how the manifesto ridicules the notion of Palestinian terrorism by putting quotation marks on the word. For example: "The roots of 'terrorism' are in the human injustice committed and in the evil of the occupation. These must be removed if there be a sincere intention to remove 'terrorism.'"
Most perniciously, Kairos Palestine asserts that Israel itself is an error on the map: "Trying to make the state a religious state, Jewish or Islamic, suffocates the state ... and transforms it into a state that practices discrimination and exclusion, preferring one citizen over another."
Those are the seeds of horrid divisiveness, not coexistence. Presbyterians - and everyone of sincere faith - should reject them.

via nydailynews.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Palestinians seethe over Churva synagogue

The Old City of Jerusalem's Churva synagogue, which was destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948, has been restored and will be rededicated on Sunday and Monday. This has given the 'Palestinians' more reasons to seethe.

Naturally, the Muslims are furious at Jews daring to rebuild a synagogue in a spot that they had lived continuously for well over two thousand years. As I reported a few months ago, what really bugged them was the height of the structure, because in Islamic tradition mosques should always be the tallest buildings in the area. Since the Jewish Quarter is on a hill, the Hurva dome will be higher than the domes on the Al Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock.
Now, however, they have a new reason to seethe. Ever since Ha'aretz reported a (pretty much unfounded) rumor that the Vilna Gaon had predicted that the Third Temple would be built on March 16, 2010, they have been convinced that Israel has evil plans. Saraya, the Islamic Jihad newspaper, says that Hurva is being built on an Islamic neighborhood, and says that the construction of the Third Temple will commence on March 16th. The Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation says that the Hurva dedication will take place on Sunday and Monday, also to be followed by the public start of the building of the Third Temple, as well as more Jews "storming" Al Aqsa for Passover at the end of the month.

It should only happen. Heh.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous