Bullies usually are.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
UK Anti-abortion Groups Take to Intimidation
Mar 28th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Activists’ are encouraged to bombard teachers with hate mail.… Read the rest
Human Rights in Tension With Religious Law
Mar 28th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJudges will defend rule of law even when their decisions defend the unpopular.… Read the rest
That Would Be Nothing, Madders
Mar 28th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Fascinating debate about what scientific method can reveal about faith, and what theologians have to say about science.’… Read the rest
Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Dwight Macdonald
Mar 28th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe isn’t strictly out of print, but he cries out for proper reissue.… Read the rest
Reading
Mar 27th, 2006 11:31 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’m reading Anthony Appiah’s Ethics of Identity. It’s a terrific book. And it keeps startling me by talking about things I’ve been thinking about for years – sometimes down to the smallest detail – such as a particular comment by Martha Nussbaum.
I’ll quote you a bit. Page 40.
… Read the restThe controversy over how to formulate autonomy…immediately lets on to another: whether autonomy…is or ought to be a value in the first place, at least outside the liberal democracies of the West. An availability of options, an endowment with minimal rationality, an absence of coercion: if this is the core of personal autonomy, what could be more anodyne and unexceptionable? And yet…many political theorists write about it as if it
Support
Mar 27th, 2006 8:04 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere is one complication about this free expression march, at least to my mind. I suppose that’s why I didn’t flag it up beforehand as much as I could have. I flagged it up some, but not as much as I could have. That’s because it wasn’t specific enough – and that I suppose relates to why I wish Peter hadn’t caved in on the cartoon issue. I didn’t particularly want to cheer on a march for free expression in general, I wanted to cheer on a march for free expression as opposed to religious censorship, or as opposed to toonophobia, or instead of bullying by offended taboo-wielders, or as the alternative to charges of blasphemy and apostasy and … Read the rest
NY Times Runs Advertising Supplement for Sudan
Mar 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSudan activists flooded the Times with demands for an apology. They have so far refused. … Read the rest
Philip Pullman on Libraries
Mar 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Libraries of every sort are treasure houses…I could not bear to live in a society without them.’… Read the rest
Protests Against Rahman’s Release
Mar 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAfghanistan has an Islamic constitution which must be respected, protesters said.… Read the rest
Peter Tatchell on Lies About Saturday’s March
Mar 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The ultra-left propaganda machine has insinuated that a mini-Nuremberg took place.’… Read the rest
Mafioso Proud to Have Shot His Sister in the Face
Mar 27th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘It is a question of honour,’ he said.… Read the rest
Wot’s All This Then?
Mar 27th, 2006 3:44 am | By Ophelia BensonMaryam tells us more about what happened to Reza Moradi at the free speech demonstration. The Washington Post, as I mentioned, reported that he was questioned by the police.
… Read the rest“It’s my freedom, everyone’s freedom, to expose these pictures and encourage everyone to do the same,” said Reza Moradi, 29, a protester who identified himself as an Iranian who has lived in Britain for eight years. Moradi was later questioned by police after someone lodged a complaint regarding the “nature of his placard,” which featured a copy of the Danish cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, a London police spokeswoman said. After a brief, heated exchange with officers, Moradi left the protest on his own
Run That By Me Again?
Mar 26th, 2006 8:29 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere’s a lot of ‘How’s That Again?’ at the moment. There is the half-laughable half-weepable mess of the ‘March for Free Expression’ ha ha for instance. The ‘March for Free Expression’ which had to be renamed at the last minute the ‘March for Free Expression Only as Long as the Free Expression in Question Doesn’t Irritate Anyone Too Much’ – which, you have to admit, is a pretty lame halting stumbling weak-kneed shambling unimpressive unstirring sort of march. More like a ‘Keep on Lying Down for Thoroughly Hedged “Free” Expression’ than a march for anything. You might as well march against a war and have on all the banners ‘Unless You Really Really Want to Of Course’. You might as … Read the rest
You’re Too Kind
Mar 26th, 2006 7:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonTime for yet another installment of that long-running series, ‘How’s That Again?’ or What the Oxymoron Said. Sit down, stop whispering, fold your hands, don’t kick the seat.
The scene this time is Afghanistan, where a judge is explaining things to BBC reporter Sanjoy Majumder.
… Read the restUnder the interpretation of Islamic Sharia law on which Afghanistan’s constitution is based, Mr Rahman faces the death penalty unless he reconverts to Islam. “The Prophet Muhammad has said several times that those who convert from Islam should be killed if they refuse to come back,” says Ansarullah Mawlafizada, the trial judge. “Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance, kindness and integrity. That is why we have told him if he regrets what he did,
Boris Johnson Rebukes Hand-wringing Wetness
Mar 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘They weren’t doing it for Shabina; they weren’t doing it for the other female pupils.’ … Read the rest
Reports from March for Free Expression Kind Of
Mar 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCould have done better.… Read the rest
Was God the Protection or Was it Soldiers?
Mar 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCrimes against humanity that would have produced outrage in the 90s are met with indifference today.… Read the rest
A Religion of Peace, Kindness and Tolerance
Mar 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘That is why we have told him if he regrets what he did, then we will forgive him’ and not kill him.… Read the rest
Police Question Man Carrying Motoon Placard
Mar 26th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFree speech demonstration enacts irony after irony.… Read the rest