“When the Toronto Star publishes its perennial Christmas and Easter ‘Was Jesus real?” articles, I don’t threaten the editor so that he’ll give respected theologians as much space as he gives to Tom Harpur. I merely put down his paper in disgust and pick up The Catholic Register instead. If The Register came with a TV guide, there’d be no need for my family to take the Star at all. Freedom of the press means freedom of the religious press.
“This in mind, I asked Faisal Joseph how many newspapers the Canadian Muslim community had. He didn’t seem to know, but he cited a Muslim newspaper in London, Ont., with a circulation of 5,000 readers. How about Montreal, I asked. How about British Columbia? Any papers? ‘But those are community newspapers,’ said Joseph. ‘That’s like comparing grapes and watermelons.’
“I’m not so sure about that, especially as the tiny Catholic Insight, like Maclean’s magazine, is considered worthy of an HRC complaint. The issue, then, appears to be not that Muslims associated with the CIC are denied freedom of the press, but that the CIC wishes to publish its views in a press with a wider circulation than it can itself achieve…”
