PRAYING FOR BARACK HUSSEIN

The day after Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, he'll attend a National Prayer Service at the Nation Cathedral. In keeping with his chants of tolerance and change, he has asked people of different faiths to participate. Sounds good, and it is... but nothing's perfect.

There are a total of 19 people participating; 14 of them are Christian; three of them are Rabbis; one is Muslim, and one is Hindu. Not very representative of the country... There are at least as many American Muslims as there are Jews, if not more. Still, I'm surprised he has only asked three Rabbis to participate. What about Buddhists?

On the gender side of things, the lineup is a little better. Religious leaders tend to be men, but there are five women participating in the National Prayer Service. One of them is causing another controversy altogether.

It's little surprise that the Muslim participant in Obama's collection of religionists is the subject of debate. Ingrid Mattson is the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). She's no stranger to the US political establishment seeking to curry favor with the Muslim community - it must be helpful that she doesn't look like a foreigner. While there are many Muslims who are probably upset that a Canadian woman is represnting them, that is not the problem.

The problem is that ISNA was named as a co-conspirator in a case charging the Holy Land Foundation of sending over $12 million to Hamas. Mattson herself is not directly implicated, but in this sensationalist media culture of ours, rest assured you'll probably be hearing more about this in the days to come (if you haven't already).

We have a long way to come in this country when it comes to racial and religious tolerance. While having a Black president will go a long way in increasing cross-cultural acceptance, he has done next to nothing to improve religious tolerance, particularly vis-a-vis Islam.