c. 2004 Religion News Service
Bank Unveils Islam-Friendly Investments
TORONTO (RNS) The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has announced a new financial instrument tailored specifically to meet the needs of Muslim investors.
In a press release, the bank says the Shariah-Compliant Equity-Linked Note was released after a lengthy period of research and consultation, and is backed by a fatwah (religious ruling) issued by three prominent Islamic scholars.
The note, which matures in about 51/2 years, is the first of its kind in Canada and is “designed to provide a competitive investment opportunity compatible with the precepts of Islamic law,” the bank says.
“Stocks are selected from the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index, avoiding all haram (forbidden) sectors, such as arms, alcohol and pornography,” said Andrew Tice, the Royal Bank’s Middle East regional director.
“Until now, Islamic investors had few attractive investment opportunities due to the absence of low-risk investments following Shariah guidelines. With the RBC Shariah-Compliant Equity-Linked Note, they have a capital-secured, Shariah-compliant opportunity with a high growth potential.”
The bank’s move is the latest by commercial ventures, including large retail outlets, to reach out to Canadian Muslims and seek their business.
Ottawa Muslims Feel Besieged
OTTAWA (RNS) Nearly three-quarters of Ottawa-area Muslims believe they may be under surveillance by police or intelligence services, according to a survey by the Muslim Community Council of Ottawa-Gatineau.
The survey of 404 Muslims, conducted in May and reported in the Ottawa Citizen, found that 73 percent of area Muslims thought their phones might be tapped, while 75 percent felt they could easily be labeled as terrorists by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canadian Security Intelligence Service or the police. Eighty-two percent of those surveyed felt they do not have the same freedoms, rights and privileges as other Canadians.
Syed Mumtaz Akhtar, chairman of the council, said apprehension has grown among Muslims because of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, new security laws and practices, and the imprisonment in Syria of Ottawa-area Muslims Maher Arar and Abdullah Almalki.
“All these things have caused accumulated fear,” said Akhtar. “Now every Muslim fears they could be next.”
He said he does not believe that 75 percent of Ottawa Muslims really are under surveillance, but he said the fear has spread through the community to such an extent that many people think they might be targets.
Akhtar believes more than 100 people in the Ottawa area’s 50,000-member Muslim community have been interrogated since Sept. 11.
Former Anglican Primate Killed in Car Accident
TORONTO (RNS) A former primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Edward Scott, was killed in a car accident Monday (June 21) near Parry Sound, Ontario.
Scott, 85, who led the Anglican Church from 1971 to 1986, was described as a man of compassion whose progressive ideas guided the church through a number of significant debates.
He died after the car in which he was traveling rolled over and landed upside down on a metal culvert. Police are still investigating the accident but said no other vehicles were involved. The driver, a companion of Scott’s, was transported to a hospital with serious injuries.
Scott was born in Edmonton in 1919 and worked in Winnipeg and Vancouver before becoming primate in 1971. He was named moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches from 1975 to 1983. During that time he helped to focus global attention on the plight of black South Africans living under apartheid.
He frequently spoke out on issues such as abortion, the death penalty and the ordination of women, and he advocated recognition of same-sex relationships. His recent biography, “Radical Compassion” by Hugh McCullum, quoted him as saying: “Homosexuality is not a choice; it is a discovery. I now have a deep conviction that gays and lesbians were created by God and are loved equally with heterosexuals by God.”
He received the Pearson Peace Medal in 1998 and was named to the Order of Canada in 1978.
Jews, Unitarians to Share Synagogue
PETERBOROUGH, Ontario (RNS) It was all smiles this month at this town’s lone synagogue when leaders of the Jewish and Unitarian communities put their signatures to a lease agreement that will allow the Unitarian church to use the synagogue as its new home for the next three years.
Larry Gillman, president of Beth Israel Congregation, said the deal is a win-win for both faith groups.
The 40-year-old synagogue has seen its membership dwindle to about 35 families (in a city of 300 Jews) and has run a slight deficit for the past few years after it spent $250,000 on renovations four years ago. Gillman said the building has been underused and Beth Israel was looking to lower operating costs.
The local Unitarian church was experiencing the opposite problem. It had outgrown the cramped building it had been occupying. Membership has grown from 40 to 100 adults and a variety of programs have been expanded.
With rent coming in from the Unitarians, the synagogue, Gillman explained, can now complete upgrades, expand programming and free up members to contribute to charities outside the community. It might also allow the hiring of a part-time rabbi, especially during the high holy days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
The Unitarians held their first service in the synagogue last Sunday (June 20). The sole concession they will have to make is to keep the synagogue’s kitchen kosher.
Reform Rabbis Gather for Annual Conference
TORONTO (RNS) About 500 Reform rabbis from North America, Israel and Europe met in Toronto for the 115th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the Reform rabbinic umbrella.
The convention, which ran Sunday through Wednesday (June 20-23), had a wide-ranging agenda, from terrorism to transgender issues, and from physician-assisted suicide to the Zohar _ the central text in Kabbalah.
A major evening session was devoted to the Reform movement in Israel, and a subsequent workshop focused on connections between North American and Israeli Jews.
The final session featured U.S. Lutheran theologian Martin Marty, who discussed “The Religious Landscape in North America Today.”
“From the areas we’re covering, you can see that Reform Judaism very much responds to the needs of the modern Jew on every level, and that it strives to be inclusive and to bring people in and make them comfortable within our fold,” CCAR executive vice president Rabbi Paul Menitoff told the Canadian Jewish News.
The organization, founded in 1889, counts 38 rabbis in Canada among its 1,800 members. There are 12 Reform congregations in Israel.
Muslims Urged to Vote Liberal
TORONTO (RNS) Muslim community leaders are urging their co-religionists to vote Liberal in Monday’s (June 28) federal election, despite concerns about anti-terrorism measures the Liberals passed in the months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that were widely denounced among Islamic Canadians.
Many Muslims in Canada have gravitated toward the left-leaning New Democratic Party. Indeed, earlier this year, almost all NDP members of parliament (MPs) earned grades of “A” from the Canadian Islamic Congress, which issued a “report card” that graded all 301 MPs based on criteria the group said were important for Muslims. Many Liberals received F’s.
But at an emergency pre-election meeting held Monday (June 21), Muslim community leaders of the Toronto area urged a vote for the Liberals because the Conservatives are seen as worse for Muslims.
Besides beseeching Muslims to vote, the leaders urged meetings with Liberal candidates to seek revisions to the anti-terrorist law to assure that the rights and civil liberties of Muslims are protected and safeguard all Canadians _ especially Muslims _ against racial profiling.
Muslims are being advised that if their Liberal candidate fails to make a commitment on these issues, the NDP candidate should be supported.
In an earlier plea, University of Calgary political scientist Tareq Ismael urged Muslim Canadians to “just hold your nose and vote Liberal.” The alternatives could be “far worse” than a minority Liberal win, he added.
Science, Spirituality Clash Over Canadian Whale
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS) Scientists have postponed plans to capture and relocate a killer whale off Canada’s west coast until next week, following objections from members of a native band who say the animal may be the spirit of a dead chief.
“Luna” the whale, separated from its family pod, arrived in Notch Sound off British Columbia in 2001 at about the same time Ambrose Maquinna, chief of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht tribe, died. He apparently made a deathbed wish for his spirit to inhabit a killer whale.
Scientists, saying they feared the whale could hurt itself or others, planned last week to take the first steps to return the mammal to its family by luring it into a pen and later transporting it more than 350 kilometers (225 miles) by truck to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, off the southern tip of Vancouver Island.
But members of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht tribe thwarted the effort after they took to dugout canoes and used traditional singers to lure Luna away from the scientists.
Marilyn Joyce of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said after meeting with the band’s leaders that the capture effort had been put on hold until at least early next week (June 28) to allow the Indians to spend more time with the animal.
“What our operational team would like to do today is respect that the First Nations are practicing their cultural traditions on the water and give them some space to do that,” Joyce told Reuters in Gold River, British Columbia, where the capture effort is headquartered.
Killer whales, also know as orcas, play a major role in the spiritual culture of native Indians on Canada’s Pacific Coast.
The Indians, who refer to Luna as Tsu ‘Xiit (pronounced sook-eat), say the whale should be allowed to rejoin its family pod on its own.
KRE/PH END CSILLAG
