Haroon Siddiqui - When global goes local

Take the case of the woman ordered by a Toronto judge to remove her face veil while testifying.

Some people are mixing up religious and secular law.

Alia Hogben of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women has given what amounts to a fatwa against the niqab: "It's not a religious requirement to cover your face."

She seems oblivious to the fact that some Muslim women, albeit a handful, obviously do not agree.

But neither her opinion nor theirs has much relevance to public policy. It is not the business of the state to referee theological arguments. The duty of the state is to protect the rights of all citizens.

Just because a majority of Jews do not wear the kippa does not negate the right of those who do. Different groups practise different religions differently. Many do not follow any. As obvious as that is, it's lost in the hysteria over Islam.

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Having done the right thing for a Chinese dissident, why wouldn't Harper do the same for a Canadian, namely, Omar Khadr?

The answer is that Khadr is accused of a serious crime. But the response to that is that he has likely been tortured, that the prosecution process so tainted that the kangaroo courts at Guantanamo Bay have been suspended, and that the camp itself is to be closed.

He should be brought home and charged if there's enough evidence.

Strange, isn't it, that the Prime Minister of Canada has more faith in a universally discredited and now discarded American system than in the Canadian courts?