All entries by this author

Satirists, Nervous, Try Not to Offend Muslims *

Mar 10th, 2006 | Filed by

Fallas festival in Valencia has survived attacks by Church, Franco, but now self-censors.… Read the rest



Creationism Included on Science Syllabus *

Mar 10th, 2006 | Filed by

Exam board is accused of confusing pupils by including religion.… Read the rest



Denmark Hosts Meeting With Muslims *

Mar 10th, 2006 | Filed by

Danish government has apologised for the distress, but not for the cartoons themselves. … Read the rest



Historical Accuracy Matters *

Mar 10th, 2006 | Filed by

‘Historical accuracy has prevailed over mythological ideas of history,’ says Michael Witzel.… Read the rest



Dworkin

Mar 9th, 2006 7:37 pm | By

Dworkin also good. I don’t agree with all of it, but there’s plenty of welcome clarity.

Freedom of speech is not just a special and distinctive emblem of Western culture that might be generously abridged or qualified as a measure of respect for other cultures that reject it…Free speech is a condition of legitimate government…So in a democracy no one, however powerful or impotent, can have a right not to be insulted or offended. That principle is of particular importance in a nation that strives for racial and ethnic fairness…Whatever multiculturalism means – whatever it means to call for increased “respect” for all citizens and groups – these virtues would be self-defeating if they were thought to justify official

Read the rest


Disrepute

Mar 9th, 2006 7:16 pm | By

Wole Soyinka asks: who is really bringing Islam into disrepute? He mentions the riots and death fatwa over the ‘Miss World’ contest and a journalist’s comment in Nigeria two years ago.

Predictably, I denounced the murderous orgy. To my astonishment, some liberal voices of the Western world, always liberal with the blood of others, and liberal in defense of the aggressor, chose to concentrate on the “impropriety” of importing “Western decadence” to the pristine innocence of and polluting her cultural values…The core of the main discourse was nearly lost – the sanctity of human lives over and above the claims of any icons of faith, however universally revered. Through such distractions is impunity born, and the law of the

Read the rest


Kitchener Poster

Mar 9th, 2006 6:01 pm | By

Your time has come at last. Remember last November I did a post called Things Fall Apart about the way bits were dropping off B&W which I couldn’t fix, and great crowds of you came surging forward to offer to help? Yes you do. Come on, of course you do. You said. Come back here right now –

No but really, it’s not much. I promise. It’s just to do with the update, and sending it out. I still keep getting sad emails from people who really liked reading the update every week, and passed it around to other people and discussed it, and miss it terribly. Each one is like a stab from a serrated dagger. So I’m … Read the rest



Roya Hahakian on Tehran Bus Strike *

Mar 9th, 2006 | Filed by

What did enlightened people do to support the strikers? Very little.… Read the rest



On International Women’s Day in Iran *

Mar 9th, 2006 | Filed by

‘Stop executions and stoning,’ the large gathering of women chanted.… Read the rest



Aventis Prize for Popular Science Books Longlist *

Mar 9th, 2006 | Filed by

‘The science is so absorbing and surprising it can make fiction seem dull.’… Read the rest



Dworkin Defends Ridicule *

Mar 9th, 2006 | Filed by

In a democracy no one, however powerful or impotent, can have a right not to be insulted or offended. … Read the rest



On Grayling’s Among the Dead Cities *

Mar 9th, 2006 | Filed by

Only by acknowledging where mistakes were made in the past can we avoid making them in the future. … Read the rest



The Psychopaths of Faith and Their Appeasers *

Mar 9th, 2006 | Filed by

Wole Soyinka says the atavists of religion have expanded the ‘territory of insult’ into a limitless one. … Read the rest



Extract from Breaking the Spell *

Mar 9th, 2006 | Filed by

Having religious convictions is not very much like having either epileptic seizures or blue eyes.… Read the rest



Einstein’s Wife: Mileva Marić

Mar 8th, 2006 | By

In the more innocent world of the 1950s there used to be on BBC radio a comedy programme called (appropriately) “Does the team think?” in which the participants were called upon to answer such tricky questions as “Who composed Beethoven’s 5th symphony?” An up-to-date version of this line of question might take the form “Who produced Einstein’s theory of special relativity?” Only in this case some people take the view that this is an entirely pertinent question, and indeed go further and would ask who wrote Einstein’s celebrated papers of 1905 on Brownian motion, special relativity, and the photoelectric effect.

It is not the case, of course, that they are suggesting that Einstein had no hand in writing these papers, … Read the rest



Multicultural Correctness Gets it Wrong *

Mar 8th, 2006 | Filed by

Most Western academic feminists have not focused on gender apartheid in the Islamic world. … Read the rest



Women to Be Allowed on Buses in Afghanistan *

Mar 8th, 2006 | Filed by

In dramatic UN plan, drivers will be expected to stop for women.… Read the rest



Marina Mahathir on Muslim Women in Malaysia *

Mar 8th, 2006 | Filed by

Second-class citizens held back by discriminatory rules that do not apply to non-Muslim women. … Read the rest



Protests in Sudan Over UN as Darfur Peacekeeper *

Mar 8th, 2006 | Filed by

Death threats against Western diplomats have been published, militia groups have warned of a holy war. … Read the rest



Religion Comes With Heresy Attached *

Mar 8th, 2006 | Filed by

If more institutions become religious, questions of heresy will become relevant to all users.… Read the rest