REJECTED by Globe & Mail, Jan.1/06

Re: “Muslims pray for Canadian troops”, January 1, 2006

The headline for this news article is grossly inaccurate.

I applaud the Muslim Canadian Congress for their soul-warming “solidarity from a very humanitarian perspective” by holding a prayer service for Canadian soldiers who were martyred in the line of duty. That duty was the implementation and securing of Canada’s core (universal) values: education for girls, health care, security, rule of law, freedom and democracy.

I note that 70 people, both Christian and Muslim, held the prayer service at the Eternal Spring United Church in Hamilton, Ontario, after the Muslim Canadian Congress had been turned down by every mosque they had approached. Such an apartheid attitude by the leadership of those mosques is reprehensible.

The more accurate headline sadly should have read: “Few Muslims pray for Canadian troops.”

-- Wally Keeler