For hockey fans and non-hockey fans alike, HBO's 24/7 Flyers/Rangers: Road to the NHL Winter Classic is a must-see.

It gives everyone the opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at the NHL and its players.

In the first episode, Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov philosophizes about the universe.

He says, "Solar system is so humangous big, right? ...If you see our solar system, it was so small, you can't even see our galaxy." He then concludes his thoughts by saying, "So don't worry, be happy."

The series takes fans right into the lockerroom, where you can see coaches pumping up their teams and players bonding. This includes the Flyers' victory dance, something all of the players get into.

It also takes you on the ice, since players are mic'd. You can hear the chirps, the words of appreciation among teammates and the cheers from the players themselves.

But the show also humanizes the players.

Another part shows Rangers captain Peter Callahan meeting his grandmother after a game. His grandmother quickly tells him that a penalty he received in the game wasn't his fault and that if she could, she'd go down to the ref and tell him herself.

So if you want a different look at hockey, be sure to check it out. Be warned though: there is a lot of cursing.

If the weather outside doesn’t match your mood for winter holidays and is more ‘delightful’
than ‘frightening’ then you should type in the following on Google’s search bar: let it snow.
Snowflakes will fall all over the screen and gradually cover the Google result page in snow and
white fog of digital blizzard. If you eventually reach a complete virtual white-out, don’t worry
there is a de-frost button provided by Google too. Then the mouse button can be manually held
to de-frost and wipe off some of the white stuff and can be used to make images just like on a
frosted glass or window.

Another Google Easter egg, “do a barrel roll”, became quite popular earlier this year, completely
rotating Google’s search results. Google regularly swaps its traditional multi-coloured logo towith 'doodles' celebrating key dates or the lives of cult or influential figures

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

(‘Let It Snow’ is commonly considered a Christmas classic although the song doesn’t mention
Christmas at all.)

Le Congo : un cauchemar en milieu d’un vaste paradis. On l’appelle ainsi parce que ce pays est
considéré le cœur de l’Afrique. Riche en ressources naturelles, de fleurs et d’animaux. Cela ne se
suffit guère aux besoins du peuple. Des gens habitants au paradis tout en vivant en plein enfer.
Des milliers et des milliers de personne meurent la bas sans qu’aucun n’intervienne. Chaque
minute et seconde passées, le nombre des morts s’agrandit ne faisant qu’empirer la situation.
Le Congo ne manque de rien, c’est un riche pays. L’argent s’y trouve, les ressources naturelles
s’y trouvent aussi. Cependant, le problème réside dans le désir ardent et immodéré pour ses
biens. Beaucoup d’étrangers ont profité de ce riche pays afin de s’enrichir à travers ses propres
ressources. Beaucoup de pays, sachant parfaitement le conflit que le Congo connait, ferment les
yeux aux nombres de morts et l’abus des enfants. Donc si vous êtes un défenseur des droits des
enfants, vous devriez agir face aux problèmes qu’endurent les enfants congolais. Ou encore, si
vous avez une sœur, une mère ou une fille, et vous préoccupez des droits des femmes, sachez
que plusieurs filles et femmes se font violer et maltraiter au Congo. Si vous portez un diamant
ou un bijou, dites vous que peut être cette merveille est venu du Congo et que beaucoup de
petits enfants ont péris afin que vous le portiez.

Somewhere in the process of growing up, in the pompom ponytails, hours of playing with Lego blocks and Barbie dolls, cycles of fighting, loving, and arguing with your brothers and sisters, you became the woman in the reflection before you today. Taken back into time, the woman that glared back at you was completely unknown and unimagined.

Growing up with a beautiful family, living in your innocence, you created an identity. Taking the best of Belle, Cinderella, and Snow White you formed a fantasy of your own. You’ll grow up to be beautiful one day, intellectually capable, and the soft loved protagonist. Then one day the most handsome and caring prince charming would come into your life and just sweep you off your feet. Quite simple and all figured out right? Not really. But I’m sure if you’re a female, you know exactly where I’m coming from.

As we girls grow older though, these fantasies that we only described to our selves as long awaiting realities, become more and more of a taunting and haunting experience, more than anything. From the length of your hair and the colour of your skin to the size of your waist, you realize you’ll never be your childhood fantasy. That’s probably the biggest question I ask myself today, why were these fantasies so universal, among all of my friends and cousins, we all wanted to be that perfect princess.

What is perfection anyway? Growing up watching and reading about readily labeled beauty symbols such as Cinderella and Snow White, the definition of perfection became encrypted, not only into you, but all the fragile young girls that you grew up with at such a young age. If everyone believed it, it MUST be true. Beauty is to be white. Beauty is to be tall. Beauty is to be thin. The definition is exclusive. Disagree? Sorry, while we were growing up the women who were portrayed to live happily ever after never deviated from this definition. These characters created the realities that they only claimed to describe.

Emerging out of innocence, you look at yourself one day, critically. You’re not fair enough, you’re lips and cheeks aren’t the right shade of pink, and you most certainly don’t see the hour-glass shape in your young and fragile body. There begins the obsession to erase, recreate, and improve your entire existence. You just aren’t good enough. Out comes the concealer, blush, mascara, the curling iron, followed by hours in the gym and guilt filled food indulgences, all in the subconscious attempt to achieve your childhood fantasy.

Then you grow even older, the proposals begin to come in, and you search for perfection. None seem like prince charming. And again, you turn to yourself and begin to question. It must be my complexion, the circumference of my waist, or maybe the shape of my eyes? Something must be wrong. And there is something vey wrong, but it’s with the way perfection and values are subconsciously defined within us.

Fairytales of fair princesses may make great bedtime stories, but they most definitely don’t provide an accurate understanding of self worth. If beauty were so quantified and determining of our fait, we’d see ‘happily ever after’ in the lives of very different people. The woman glaring back at you, as you gaze at the reflection the mirror portrays, may look nothing like Cinderella, but that’s why she’s a splendor of her own.

Hirra Shaikh is currently a third year student at York University.

La mosquée est une institution primordiale en islam, c’est un symbole de l’identité et de la civilisation islamique.

Elle est un lieu de rassemblement des musulmans pour accomplir la prière : les prières quotidiennes, la prière du vendredi, et la prière de « el ‘aïd ». Aujourd’hui la mosquée est devenue aussi un lieu de création sociale, et architecturale comme :

• La mosquée Hassan II à Casablanca qui est un complexe religieux et culturel, aménagé sur neuf hectares et comporte une salle de prières, une salle d'ablutions, des bains, une école coranique, une bibliothèque et un musée. La mosquée peut accueillir 105 000 fidèles et la salle de prières 25 000 fidèles.
  
• La mosquée bleue en Turquie, est certainement l'une des plus célèbres et parmi les plus belles mosquées d'Istanbul et du monde musulman. Le bâtiment principal de la mosquée se compose d'une salle de prière surmontée d'une coupole de 23 mètres de diamètre dont le point le plus haut culmine à 43 mètres. La mosquée est dotée de six minarets, dont la forme élancée est spécifique à l'architecture ottomane.
  
• La mosquée du Taj Mahal en Inde, conçu pour les prières quotidiennes durant la construction du Taj Mahal, cette mosquée est aujourd’hui utilisée pour la prière du vendredi. Elle dispose de quatre tours octogonales et de trois dômes. L’intérieur de la mosquée est couvert de 539 tapis de prière en marbre. Cette mosquée est un mélange de l’art indien et l’art islamique ce qui explique sa beauté extrême.

Chaque mosquée au monde possède son propre style, son propre architecture, mais elle restera toujours un endroit que tous les musulmans partagent.

Et enfin, Je prie Dieu pour qu’il nous accorde le privilège de faire la prière à la Mecque, à côté de son prophète Mohammed (PBSL) et qu'il nous fasse parmi les habitants du paradis. AMINE ! 

It’s tough to be a goat in today’s society. Seem like everyone is looking down at you thinking you’re a part of some inferior species. Staring at you like you are a piece of meat. But you ignore it, keep going. 

And then there are those things that are marketing temptations of what kind of grass you should be seeking and how you should be looking and at times like that you work your hardest to keep your graze down. You’re working hard, doing your thing and hoping for a better tomorrow. Yet sometimes they don’t leave you alone, asking why don’t you go back to where you came from? And sometimes you feel like you should, but then you remember why you came here; you have to do it for your kids. Cause back home they were slaughtering goats and kids alike with no disregard every lunar year. Yeah you were a doctor back home and now you’re nothing but a farm animal working 12 hour shifts each and every day, rolling over whenever the big man says so. But hey at least the kids are safe. 

One day the kids will grow up and be more. They’ll appreciate all the sacrifices you made and almost been a part of. It’s tough to be a goat, but keep striding along and days will get baaaa-tter.  

On December 8, 2011 Scouts Canada’s chief commissioner offered an apology, “to former scouts who were sexually abused by volunteer leaders in the organization.” This apology came two months after an investigation completed by CBC titled, ‘The Fifth Estate’. This investigation revealed that former scout’s leaders abused 340 children from the 1940’s until this present day. More so, Scouts Canada knew about most of these cases and kept a secret list of pedophiles but never did anything about the crimes. The files were kept hidden from the public eye and it was a large scale cover-up.  Steve Kent stated in the apology that the organization, “sincerely and deeply apologizes to any and all former scouts who suffered harm at the hands of leaders.” He also went on to state that all of the former cases and records will be reviewed. As well, an expert panel will be coming together to examine Scout Canada’s current child protection policies.

However, many of the victims of these heinous crimes believe that this apology is not enough because it has come too late and does not heal the hurt and damage they have carried and endured for so many years.  Some also believe that it is a worthless apology because they question why it didn’t come sooner. They want Scout’s Canada to come forth with new and concrete plans to ensure that such things do not happen again.

There was a tray of moustache cookies being passed around as city councillors took their seats at City Hall on Nov. 29. Along with the men, many women councillors were adorning moustaches and a big striped blue tie, marking the end of Movember.

“Movember Canada encourages men to grow a moustache for 30 days during the month of November to raise awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer,” Mayor Rob Ford explained. “Participants are dedicated to the elimination of prostate cancer through research, education, support and survivorship.”

 According to Prostate Cancer Canada, 25,500 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011 alone. As such, Movember participants strive to raise awareness about the disease.

“Together these fine ‘Mo Bros’ and ‘Mo Sistas’ start conversations about men’s health and dedicate themselves to the appreciation of a fine moustachery,” Ford said.

“Therefore I, Mayor Rob Ford, on behalf of Toronto city council do hereby proclaim November 2011 as Movember in the city of Toronto.”

The city council Movember group, the Moliticans, raised $7,029.

Councillor Mike Layton, the son of late Jack Layton who suffered from prostrate cancer, raised $1,170, the most among his peers. According to his Movember profile, he participated in Movember for his mo-father and mo-grandfather.

Like Mike Layton, Councillor Paula Fletcher’s motivation was also to honour Jack Layton. Her Movember profile picture is a photo of her with a photoshopped NDP-orange moustache. Fletcher raised the most among women Moliticians with $320. However like other women at City Hall, she had problems adorning her stick-on ‘stache on the day of Ford’s proclamation, as it kept falling off.
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Khalil Andani is a young professional from Toronto. He is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and graduated with Bachelors of Math (BMath) and Masters of Accounting (MAcc) degrees from the University of Waterloo in 2008. Khalil is a contemporary Muslim thinker whose areas of focus include theology, philosophy, metaphysics, hermeneutics (ta’wil), comparative studies and the Perennial Philosophy (sophia perennis). Through his literary and intellectual activities, Khalil seeks to revitalize the Muslim intellectual tradition of philosophy and esoteric thought and unveil the common ground between Islam and other faiths. He can be contacted at kandani@gmail.com.



“Say: O People of the Book! Come to a common word between us and you: that we shall worship none but God, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside God. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto Him).”

(Holy Qur’an 3:64)

A unique feature of the modern age is the encounter taking place between people who belong to different religious traditions.  Unfortunately, some have branded the particular encounter between Muslims and non-Muslims as a “clash of civilizations” when it is actually a “clash of ignorance”.   An important aspect of such an encounter is the dialogue between Christians and Muslims – adherents of the two largest faiths in the world – and in this article I present a reflection on how such a dialogue can be approached from the eyes of a Muslim.

The Qur’an instructs Muslims to invite people to the recognition of God but also prescribes a specific manner in which this should be performed:

“Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and debate with them in the most beautiful manner…”

(Holy Qur’an 16:125)

This verse is often taken to refer to what Muslims today call da’wah – summoning people to the faith of Islam - and has taken many forms including preaching, debates, arguments, etc.   I ask us to direct our attention especially to the words “debate with them in the most beautiful manner” (jadilhum bi allatee hiya ahsanu) – with emphasis on the term ahsan (the superlative quality of “most beautiful”.  In the modern age, I would like to propose a method of dialogue – which is in fact a da`wah based on knowledge as opposed to adversarial debate or polemic – that seeks to fulfill the spirit of the Qur’anic emphasis on beautiful discourse.  The objective of such a “da’wah of knowledge” (da’wah ilmiyyah) is to attain “recognition” of one another – something which the Qur’an mentions as the very purpose of human diversity:

“O mankind! We created you from male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (lita‘arafoo).”

(Holy Qur’an 49:13)

This “recognition” (ma‘rifah) can only occur if all participants in the dialogue (as opposed to an adversarial debate) are permitted to clearly present the principles of their faith tradition whereby all parties are able to truly understand each others’ positions.  This is the only antidote to the “clash of ignorance” which has sometimes paralyzed such engagements. In light of this objective, I would like to propose some steps a Muslim can take in participating in such a dialogue involving Christians: