All entries by this author

Iran renews the fatwa on Salman Rushdie *

Sep 17th, 2012 | Filed by

Iran has seized on the current movie-rage to revive the death threat against Rushdie, raising the reward for killing him by $500,000.… Read the rest



Erdoğan: “Islamophobia” is a crime against humanity *

Sep 17th, 2012 | Filed by

Erdoğan said the government will immediately start working on legislation against blasphemous and offensive remarks.… Read the rest



Rushdie on religious extremism v free expression *

Sep 17th, 2012 | Filed by

“If you look at the way in which free expression is being attacked by religious extremism, it’s blasphemy, heresy, insult, offence – it’s this medieval vocabulary.”… Read the rest



Amplification and glamorization

Sep 16th, 2012 5:23 pm | By

I like to get useful advice, and helpful suggestions for how to learn more about things so that I can understand better and not be wrong. I saw some advice on Twitter about what to do about internet trolls.

If you want to understand why jumping up & down in outrage isn’t the best reponse to internet trolling, you could do worse than learn about old-style Chicago School subcultural theories of deviance. Albert Cohen & Walter Miller, in particular, would be relevant.

In one way that advice is odd, because it comes from someone who has done a lot of “jumping up and down” (which I think means talking or writing) in outrage about “FTBullies” for many months…but then … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



A kinder gentler Old Testament

Sep 16th, 2012 12:28 pm | By

I think Richard Dawkins called the UK’s ”Chief Rabbi” (whatever that is) a very nice man somewhere on RDF before their BBC debate. I thought at the time that that was dubious, and it seems all the more so now that the CR, Jonathan Sacks, has said RD’s description of the Old Testament god in The God Delusion is “profoundly anti-Semitic.”

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Sacks really is a nice guy, and just says and does and thinks some nasty things. That can be the case, obviously. But enough quantity or quality of nastiness and you no longer have a nice person.

The thing I dislike about Sacks is his boast about being glad his dying father didn’t have the … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Chief Rabbi says Dawkins is a Christian atheist *

Sep 16th, 2012 | Filed by

Jonathan Sacks claims that it’s anti-Semitic to say the Old Testament god is a murderous shit.… Read the rest



Scientologists upset about “The Master” *

Sep 16th, 2012 | Filed by

“They feel strongly that they think it’s a religion and as such they think the subject
matter shouldn’t be explored.”… Read the rest



John Forte saved Corfu from Scientology *

Sep 16th, 2012 | Filed by

He helped to prevent L Ron Hubbard from setting up a university on the island.… Read the rest



The quest for the Islamic bicycle *

Sep 16th, 2012 | Filed by

Mustafa Akyol called the idea of an Islamic bicycle an “expression of the self-isolating mentality that has stagnated Muslim thought.”… Read the rest



All the rights they will let you have

Sep 15th, 2012 5:48 pm | By

Human Rights Watch says Tunisia’s draft constitution needs improvement. Now there’s a surprise.

The shortcomings in human rights protections largely concern the status of international human rights conventions ratified by Tunisia, freedom of expression, freedom of thought and belief, equality between men and women, and non-discrimination, Human Rights found in an analysis of the proposals.

Quite a few things, in other words. Quite important things.

Article 3 threatens freedom of expression by stipulating that, “The state guarantees freedom of belief and religious practice and criminalizes all attacks on the sacred.” This provision, which defines neither what is “sacred” nor what constitutes an “attack” on it, opens the door to laws that criminalize speech, Human Rights Watch said.

Anything for … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Egypt PM urges US to end ‘insults’ to Islam *

Sep 15th, 2012 | Filed by

Hisham Qandil said it was “unacceptable to insult our Prophet.”… Read the rest



All it can

Sep 15th, 2012 11:22 am | By

Egypt’s Prime Minister wants the US government to do all it can to “stop people insulting Islam.”

Time out while I sigh a huge sigh.

No. Shut up. Fuck off.

First of all, there’s no such thing as “insulting” a religion to begin with. “Insult” is a human term. You can’t “insult” socialism or libertarianism or skydiving or birdwatching or apricots or cats.

What you mean is “disparage” or similer. We’re allowed to do that. Everyone should be allowed to do that.

If you tried to persuade the US government to do all it can to stop people disparaging Islam, you would still be doing a silly and bad thing. There’s a lot about Islam that cries out for disparaging, … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Photoshopped again!

Sep 15th, 2012 11:06 am | By

Kristina Hansen demonstrates her aversion to bullying again by turning me into an Amish crone in a bonnet. Hahahahahahahahaha she is one witty blogger.

Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Another one

Sep 15th, 2012 11:00 am | By

In Cairo, it’s reported that a mob attacked a Christian man, who was then arrested for being an atheist.

An angry mob of Egyptians gathered around a Christian man’s home on Thursday evening, attacking the building and demanding the man be put to death for his beliefs. Police arrived as the mob grew in size, but instead of dispersing the crowd, the Christian man, Alber Saber, was subsequently arrested.

His charge? He was accused of being an atheist. The mob also accused him of disseminating the anti-Islam “film” that has created massive unrest among Muslims in the Islamic world.

Saber has since been held by police pending an investigation. An online Facebook page in solidarity with the man has

Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



What makes a message grossly offensive?

Sep 15th, 2012 10:46 am | By

Bernard Hurley did a very informative comment about the law under which Azhar Ahmed was found guilty of  “posting an offensive Facebook message.” It’s too informative to hide in comments so here it is.

Bernard Hurley

Ahmed was prosecuted under clause 127(1)(a) of the Communications Act 2003. The purpose of the act is to define the rôle of OFCOM and to regulate such things a local radio and indeed any services running over publicly funded or partially publicly funded electronic networks. Section 127 is buried in the middle of it and reads:

127 Improper use of public electronic communications network (1) A person is guilty of an offence if he—

(a) sends by means of a public electronic communications network

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Storify fame

Sep 15th, 2012 10:25 am | By

Well there’s one thing about the ElevatorGATE stalker’s obsessive stalking and Storifying, which is that it makes it easy to point to some crazy.

I can’t remember why I decided to look at his Storify just now, but I did, to find that he’d storified a conversation I was still having with Amy and Glendon and Melody. Whew! Don’t I feel special! Being watched every second…yeah, that rocks.

But he also Storified this one, in which two people who have lived in totalitarian countries earnestly testified that yes indeed “they” really are totalitarians.

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Susan Jacoby on the dearth of women in secularism *

Sep 14th, 2012 | Filed by

Adapted from her speech at the Women in Secularism Conference sponsored by the Center for Inquiry and held in Washington, DC, in May 2012.… Read the rest



No defence

Sep 14th, 2012 5:43 pm | By

Jacques Rousseau has a good post on The Bumblebee Affair and assigning blame and when bullying is what’s called for. (Spoiler: never.)

The takeaway:

No matter how you assign blame for past actions, or what your character judgements are in relation to all the players in this soap opera, we should all remember to include ourselves in those character judgements also, and try to be objective when thinking of our roles in causing or facilitating harm to others. In this instance, Ms Bumblebee has no defence – in the knowledge that Jen McCreight has been jeered off the stage, and had a long-standing depression triggered, she doesn’t take the option of silence (never mind sympathy). Instead, she broadens the net

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



In which I eat crow

Sep 14th, 2012 4:42 pm | By

A bit of housekeeping. I asked Chris Stedman about that whole business of my doing something not 100% unlike what Booly Wumblebee did the other day in the matter of Jen and her father. He replied honestly that he thought my self-repudiation should have been more public than comments. Fair enough!

It was June last year. The title was Helicopter parents. It was not my finest hour. I hadn’t even remembered it when I wrote the post about Kristina Hansen’s version. That’s one time when the obsessed haters who monitor my every word actually did get something right, and taught me something.

There are a lot of comments on the Helicopter parents post, but never mind that; they … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



The Virginia Taliban

Sep 14th, 2012 11:17 am | By

Parents in Virginia can prevent their children from getting any education at all if they want to, provided their reasons are religious. What a great arrangement.

Nearly 7,000 Virginia children whose families have opted to keep them out of public school for religious reasons are not required to get an education, the only children in the country who do not have to prove they are being home-schooled or otherwise educated, according to a study.
Virginia is the only state that allows families to avoid government intrusion once they are given permission to opt out of public school, according to a report from the University of Virginia’s School of Law. It’s a law that is defended for promoting religious freedom and

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)