All entries by this author

NAS Tries to Close Science-Religion Gap *

Jan 5th, 2008 | Filed by

‘Acceptance of evolution does not require abandoning belief in God.’ Fine; next question?… Read the rest



War on Xmas is War on Secularists *

Jan 5th, 2008 | Filed by

‘Yesterday’s Herod is today’s Dawkins and Toynbee, seeking the total extermination of all forms of Christianity.’… Read the rest



Don’t submit

Jan 4th, 2008 12:02 pm | By

Anthony Grayling points out a great and central struggle of ideas:

[A]re individual human beings capable of overcoming such limitations of circumstance…to achieve by will and endeavour what they identify as good…? Or are people, or the vast majority of them, too weak, too fallible, too constrained by those circumstances, to be able to do this, meaning that they are essentially dependent, and need to be instructed and guided by the few who assume the role of leaders, teachers, those who know the right answers and possess the truth?

I would say we’re all more or less weak and fallible and constrained, but not so weak and fallible and constrained that we are essentially dependent. That’s perhaps a somewhat … Read the rest



A C Grayling on the Importance of Autonomy *

Jan 4th, 2008 | Filed by

Are individuals capable of overcoming limitations to achieve by will and endeavour what they identify as good?… Read the rest



Celebrities Making Fewer Mistakes on Science *

Jan 4th, 2008 | Filed by

Sense About Science launched a drive for celebrities to check the facts before making claims.… Read the rest



Jasvinder Sanghera on Forced Marriage *

Jan 4th, 2008 | Filed by

A girl of 14 was forced to marry an older man who raped her to conceive a child to make the marriage work.… Read the rest



There Must Be Violence Against Women *

Jan 4th, 2008 | Filed by

Human rights organizations fuss, but wives, daughters, sisters have to be controlled by men.… Read the rest



Taslima Nasreen: ‘I Am Like the Living Dead’ *

Jan 4th, 2008 | Filed by

Benumbed; robbed of the pleasure of experience; unable to move beyond the claustrophobic confines of my room. … Read the rest



Hitchens on the Iowa Scam *

Jan 4th, 2008 | Filed by

Media report the open corruption of the Iowa caucuses with an astonishingly deadpan and neutral tone.… Read the rest



Eutopia

Jan 3rd, 2008 1:09 pm | By

The Vatican seems to have a strange lack of acquaintance with reality – at least its Council for the Family does. It has a statement on the family and human rights which floats weirdly free of the difficulties that humans tend to encounter.

The father and the mother, as a couple, with the characteristics proper to them, procreate and raise the child. The child thus has the right to be welcomed, loved and recognized in a family.

That’s a pretty idea, but the trouble is, it’s the Vatican itself that does more than any other human institution to make that right impossible to implement. It’s the Vatican that forbids birth control, thus removing (in intention at least, which is what’s … Read the rest



What seems to be the problem?

Jan 3rd, 2008 12:47 pm | By

A lot of women in Saudi Arabia attempt suicide. Now there’s a surprise.

Within family circles, boys always get preferential treatment. What is more, there is very little or no communication between girls and their parents. The report highlights many factors that can lead women to consider killing themselves, one of them being forced marriages.

Others probably being things like no freedom of movement, no ability to walk around in public looking at the sky and the flowers and anything else that comes along, no sense of having equal rights and duties. That must get a trifle dispiriting.

Disregarding a woman’s free will and her right to choose her life can simply lead her to desperation.

Well yes. It … Read the rest



Why Saudi Women Attempt Suicide *

Jan 3rd, 2008 | Filed by

Disregarding a woman’s free will and her right to choose her life can simply lead her to desperation.… Read the rest



Chicago Man Accused of Killing Pregnant Daughter *

Jan 3rd, 2008 | Filed by

And her husband and child. The husband ‘belonged to a lower caste.’… Read the rest



Jeff Weintraub on the Hijab and Social Pressure *

Jan 3rd, 2008 | Filed by

Many Turkish secularists foresee a situation in which social pressure will force women to wear hijab.… Read the rest



133 Women Killed in Basra Last Year *

Jan 3rd, 2008 | Filed by

Murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for violating Islamic teachings.… Read the rest



Cover Your Hair or We’ll Kill You *

Jan 3rd, 2008 | Filed by

‘Next time I want to see you wearing a hijab or I swear to God the three of you will be killed immediately.’… Read the rest



Hijab: Freedom or Coercion? *

Jan 3rd, 2008 | Filed by

If everyone is free to wear the hijab, is anyone free not to wear it?… Read the rest



Two Women Attacked by Mob in Mumbai *

Jan 3rd, 2008 | Filed by

The women were teased and harassed by a crowd of men outside a hotel.… Read the rest



‘Give Ken a Third Term’ *

Jan 3rd, 2008 | Filed by

Because the undersigned say it is ‘in the best interest of the Muslim communities of London.’ … Read the rest



Assassinated Because She Was a Woman *

Jan 2nd, 2008 | Filed by

The fear of women, of women’s freedom, runs through Islamism. It is a large part of Islamist hatred of the West.… Read the rest