All entries by this author

Nick Cohen on Liberal Condescension *

Dec 1st, 2007 | Filed by

How does Garton Ash know what seeds Hirsi Ali is planting in the minds of Muslim women?… Read the rest



Turkish Publisher Faces Jail for Atheist Book *

Dec 1st, 2007 | Filed by

Dawkins’s publishers threatened with legal action by prosecutors who accuse TGD of ‘insulting believers.’… Read the rest



Book or no book?

Dec 1st, 2007 1:02 am | By

Ed Husain takes Ayaan Hirsi Ali to task.

Just as Wahhabites and Islamists bypass scholarship, context, and history in the name of “returning to the book”, Hirsi Ali and others such as Robert Spencer and Ibn Warraq commit exactly the same error…Let’s take the question of apostasy. At an Evening Standard debate the other night, Rod Liddle had no qualms in declaring Islam, with a barrage of other baseless abuse, “a fascistic ideology”. Why? Because the Qur’an commands the killing of those who abandon it…[T]here is no verse in the Qur’an that calls for the killing of apostates…There is no stronger argument against religious fanatics than to illustrate the scriptural weaknesses of their case.

Well, maybe so, when you’re … Read the rest



Like bread

Dec 1st, 2007 12:54 am | By

Just a little more.

First of all, I mostly agree with Norm here.

One thing we are saying is that the human worth of those prisoners in the camps was being denied. Making them stand naked and vulnerable in the circumstances I have described was a way of announcing that anything – anything at all – could be done to them…To put the same thing differently, the respect or status we normally hold to be due to people simply in virtue of their humanity has here been removed.

But then that is putting it differently, and that’s what I’m saying. I don’t really literally think ‘dignity’ is meaningless – but I do think it means too many things and that … Read the rest



Taboo

Dec 1st, 2007 12:47 am | By

And just a little more. I’m like a dog with a bone, you know. There’s a rather Kassian argument in comments on an older post (combined with some vituperation to make it go down more smoothly). It’s interesting.

One doesn’t need to be a Christian, or even a theist, to be extremely alarmed at some of the directions that secular ethical thinking seems naturally inclined to go in – especially in its common utilitarian and more generally consequentialist forms…The concept of human dignity is central to any attempt to articulate the strong feeling shared by many (including many atheists) that something has gone badly wrong with this sort of ethical thinking….It’s difficult to say what’s wrong with necrophilia (if anything

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In the image of

Dec 1st, 2007 12:36 am | By

Dignity. We got an interesting discussion in the comments, and I suddenly realized (belatedly) that I could think of contexts in which the word ‘dignity’ wouldn’t repel me: contexts and situations in which people have managed to hang onto their dignity despite the assaults of other people or of nature. I probably still wouldn’t use it myself, but I would see the point of it.

But where this started was with Leon Kass; that’s why potentilla asked the question that prompted my series of them. I left Kass out of the dignity post, because I wanted to talk about the idea more generally and also (partly) more loosely. I wanted to free associate, partly. But now let’s look at … Read the rest



Taslima Nasreen Will Censor Her Own Book *

Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by

‘Some people are upset with what I have said, I have decided to drop the controversial portions.’… Read the rest



Mo is on a Pedestal *

Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by

You have to say a little prayer every time you say his name. But pictures?! Never!… Read the rest



Pope Attacks ‘Cruel and Unjust’ Atheism *

Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by

All wrong; only God can do everything; God doesn’t happen to feel like it, that’s all.… Read the rest



Freud Not Taught in Psychology Departments *

Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by

Why? Lack of evidence. Fine for gender studies, post-colonial studies, Queer theory though.… Read the rest



Biometrics Will Fix Everything *

Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by

Or perhaps not. Ben Goldacre fools the machine.… Read the rest



Foreign Office Seeks Gibbons’s Release *

Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by

The FO was in contact with Sudan’s government overnight and will repeat demands for her release. … Read the rest



Sudanese Ambassador Called Back to Explain *

Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by

Officials at the Foreign Office say the mood has changed as a result of the verdict. … Read the rest



Demo in Khartoum to Demand Tougher Sentence *

Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by

Some of the protesters chanted “No tolerance – execution” and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad”. … Read the rest



Tell them we’re overflowing with respect

Nov 29th, 2007 12:15 pm | By

Joan Smith nails the problem.

In the past, Catholics and Protestants took turns to slaughter each other as Sunni and Shia are doing now, but Christianity has to a large extent been secularised…At the heart of this process is an alteration in the status of religious texts…The idea that a single book written centuries ago has unique authority – in effect, a veto over all other ideas – makes no sense in societies where intellectual curiosity is valued and encouraged. Yesterday Inayat Bunglawala, assistant general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, criticised the arrest of Ms Gibbons in Sudan and described it as a “quite horrible misunderstanding”. But during a public debate in London two weeks ago, he

Read the rest


Normblog on Human Dignity *

Nov 29th, 2007 | Filed by

‘Degrade’ carries on its face that there is a standard in light of which some person is being reduced.… Read the rest



Indian Government Will Shelter Nasreen – If *

Nov 29th, 2007 | Filed by

Expected that the guests will refrain from activities and expressions that may hurt the sentiments of our people.… Read the rest



Tom Clark on The Specter of Scientism *

Nov 29th, 2007 | Filed by

Tikkun also worries about the supposed dangers of scientism and the need for a spiritual way of knowing.… Read the rest



Turkish Prosecutor Ponders The God Delusion *

Nov 29th, 2007 | Filed by

Publisher could go on trial if the prosecutor concludes the book incites religious hatred and insults religious values.… Read the rest



‘What can’t be named Muhammad?’ *

Nov 29th, 2007 | Filed by

‘What are the rules on using the name?’ Step one: wring hands. Step two: call the MCB.… Read the rest