Posts Tagged ‘ Religious bullying ’

Come back a different person

Dec 11th, 2012 12:19 pm | By

So clearly the guilty verdict on Nechemya Weberman, unlicensed “therapist” to rebellious young girls, presents a problem for people who need to control rebellious young girls. What to do, what to do. Export them!

Embarrassed by the sex abuse trial of a Hasidic counselor, leaders of Williamsburg’s pious Satmar sect are considering a different way to deal with rebellious teens: shipping them out of the country for treatment.

For “treatment”? Rebellion isn’t an illness.

Without addressing the allegations against Weberman, a Satmar official told the Daily News that leaders are considering ways to avoid similar accusations by victims.

“This was a wakeup call; nobody denies that,” said Gary Schlesinger, who heads a nonprofit tied to Satmar leader Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum.

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Xianityophobia

Sep 29th, 2012 4:14 pm | By

Right right right, I’m an “Islamophobe,” and criticizing Islam is punching down because Muslims are a despised group. (The second part is true, but the first part doesn’t follow. Punching Muslims is punching down, but punching Islam isn’t, because Islam itself is what punches down. Islam has huge, illegitmate power in many many parts of the globe. Punching Islam does not equal punching Muslims. Yes one can be a stalking horse for the other, but that doesn’t make them identical.) So allow me to be a Christianityophobe for a few minutes. Not that I wouldn’t be anyway, but I feel like pointing it out.

Russia. Russia seems to be getting more and more priest-ridden and believer-whipped. This time it’s believers … Read the rest

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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

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No joy

Aug 27th, 2012 11:32 am | By

Life should be dull and empty and joyless, because god. No music, no dance, no play, no laughter, no frivolity, no flirting, no getting jiggy. No faces, no conversation, no friendship, no mingling, no color. No joy – because that’s the devil’s work.

AFP reports:

Taliban insurgents beheaded 17 civilians, including two women, who were holding a party with music in a southern Afghanistan village, officials said Monday.

Party. Music. Women. Mingling. Too much fun. No fun for you! No fun, no pleasure, no heads.

“I can confirm that this is the work of the Taliban,” the Helmand provincial governor’s spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP, referring to Islamists notorious during their rule for public executions and the suppression of

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People must accept that we will impose Sharia whether they like it or not

Aug 6th, 2012 4:58 pm | By

The Islamists in Mali aren’t bothering about winning hearts and minds. Hundreds of people protested their plan to chop off someone’s hand and a radio journalist was beaten up for urging the protesters on.

“We don’t want to know what this young man did, but they are not going to cut his hand off in front of us,” a resident said on Sunday, according to the AFP news agency.

Journalist Abdoul Malick Maiga has now regained consciousness after being beaten by MUJAO fighters, a doctor at Gao’s hospital told AFP.

One resident said Mr Maiga was attacked live on air.

Oumar Ould Hamaha, a fighter who said he was speaking as a MUJAO spokesman, confirmed the incident, according to

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My useful advice

Jun 20th, 2012 4:53 pm | By

Career advice: don’t do anything book-related in Malaysia. They bust people for managing bookstores that distribute Irshad Manji’s book.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A Borders bookstore manager in Malaysia has been charged with distributing a Canadian writer’s book that was banned as being against Islam.

The government in the Muslim-majority country regularly bans books it considers threats to religious stability. “Allah, Liberty and Love” was banned in late May.

Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz could face a two-year prison sentence and fine if convicted of the charge that was filed Tuesday.

For managing a bookstore that distributes a book, a decent book, a hopeful book, a book by a Muslim. She’s a progressive, liberal, reformist Muslim, yes, but … Read the rest

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Only you can help prevent bishops

Jun 15th, 2012 10:50 am | By

CFI is also taking on the bishops, by defending birth control and telling Obama to do likewise.

And we can help.

HHS is allowing public comments on the new guidelines until Tuesday, June 19, 2012. Here’s how you can get involved:

1.   Visit www.regulations.gov.

2.   In the search field, type the following: CMS–9968–ANPRM.

3.   Scroll to the top result and click on “Submit a Comment.”

This drawn out debate over something as basic as birth control is a perfect example of the harmful influence of religious institutions on public policy. Send a message to policy makers at HHS right now and tell them it’s time to finalize the contraceptive rule and move on.

Remember, the deadline is Tuesday,

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CFI expresses outrage over the sentencing of Alexander Aan

Jun 15th, 2012 9:42 am | By

The Center for Inquiry is organizing a protest outside the Indonesian embassy in DC next week. The protest is at the prison sentence handed down to Alexander Aan for expressing an opinion about religion.

Alexander Aan did nothing more than exercise the most basic of human rights — the liberty to express his beliefs — yet he is now in great danger. Not only has he lost his freedom, but many people in Indonesia are calling for his death. It is unconscionable that any person could be jailed or face death threats for simply stating his or her position regarding religion. Freedom of belief and expression are universal rights that should be afforded to all individuals.

In response to today’s

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Singing dancing sluts killed for singing and dancing

Jun 6th, 2012 3:07 pm | By

Well now I feel sick.

Last week there were news reports that four women and two men in Pakistan had been sentenced to death for singing and dancing at a wedding. Yes that’s right; singing and dancing at a wedding. It’s fornication, you see, because they were mixed. Only they weren’t – the photographs and video waved around to show the fornicators fornicating actually don’t show that.

Abdul Majeed Afridi, district police officer, said: “It was decided that the men will be killed first, but they ran away so the women are safe for the moment. I have sent a team to rescue them and am waiting to hear some news.”

“All of them were shown separately in the

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They hid behind masks & helmets while beating up ordinary people

May 12th, 2012 9:22 am | By

Actually, that Jakarta Post account of the “protest” at Irshad Manji’s bookstore talk was a good deal too minimal. Manji gives a fuller account on (ironically) Twitter.

Four years ago, I came to Indonesia and experienced a nation of tolerance, openness & pluralism. In my new book, I describe Indonesia as a model for the Muslim world. But things have changed. Last night at LKiS community center religious extremists assaulted about 150 citizens of Jogja, as well as my team. My colleague, Emily Rees, was struck with a metal bar and had to be rushed to hospital. Her arm is now in a sling. Two other attendees sustained head injuries. I have spoken with them both and, by God’s grace,

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Donohue’s success

Apr 27th, 2012 3:24 pm | By

Useful background on the Catholic League.

The Catholic League was founded in 1973 by Jesuit priest Virgil Blum. William Donohue assumed leadership in July 1993. Since then, the membership has grown from 27,000 to 200,000. According to Donohue, the League has “won the support of all of the U.S. Cardinals and many of the Bishops as well…We are here to defend the Church from the scurrilous assaults that have been mounted against it, and we definitely need the support of the hierarchy if we are to get the job done.” Thus it can be considered an arm of the Church. It supplements or replaces priest-controlled organizations of the past described by Blanshard and Seldes. The League apparently has a

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A duty to raise a new generation of bigots

Apr 26th, 2012 11:49 am | By

Simply revolting.

The Roman Catholic church has written to every state-funded Catholic secondary school in England and Wales asking them to encourage pupils to sign a petition against gay marriage…The Catholic Education Service, which acts for Catholic bishops in England and Wales, contacted 385 secondary schools to highlight a letter read in parish churches last month, in which two archbishops told worshippers that Catholics have a “duty to do all we can to ensure that the true meaning of marriage is not lost for future generations”.

The CES also asked schools to draw pupils’ attention to the petition being organised by the Coalition for Marriage, a Christian campaign which has attracted more than 466,000 signatures to date.

This is … Read the rest

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They should follow it without any argument

Apr 25th, 2012 5:29 pm | By

It’s a small (comparatively) sect in India that insists on mutilating girls’ genitalia.

The Bohra brand of Islam is followed by 1.2 million people worldwide and is a sect of Shia Islam that originated in Yemen.

While the sect bars other Muslims from its mosques, it sees itself as more liberal, treating men and women equally in matters of education and marriage.

But in matters of slicing off major chunks of the genitals with a razor blade, not so much.

For generations, few women in the tightly-knit community have spoken out in opposition, fearing that to air their grievances would be seen as an act of revolt frowned upon by their elders.

Right. Obviously. This was something imposed on … Read the rest

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Reportedly offended by

Apr 24th, 2012 11:22 am | By

Egypt.

A court in Egypt has upheld the three-month prison sentence given to the leading comic actor, Adel Imam, for insulting Islam in his films and plays.

Is that an accurate translation? Is that really what the charge is? “Insulting” Islam? How do you “insult” an abstraction? In English, at least, you don’t. You don’t “insult” capitalism or advertising or libertarianism or computer programming or socialism. You can only insult people. The word implies reception and reaction, which imply consciousness, and fairly elaborate consciousness at that. You can only insult something with a mind. Insult requires Theory of Mind.

The case brought against Imam by Asran Mansour, a lawyer with ties to Islamist groups, accused the actor of frequently

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A triumph for the Texas Taliban

Mar 15th, 2012 2:54 pm | By

So there’s this couple in Texas looking forward to their second baby, a brother for their 2-year-old daughter.

Yet now my doctor was looking grim and, with chair pulled close, was speaking of alarming things. “I’m worried about your baby’s head shape,” she said. “I want you to see a specialist—now.”

My husband looked angry, and maybe I did too, but it was astonishment more than anger. Ours was a profound disbelief that something so bad might happen to people who think themselves charmed. We already had one healthy child and had expected good fortune to give us two.

Instead, before I’d even known I was pregnant, a molecular flaw had determined that our son’s brain, spine and legs

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More strident shrill atheism

Mar 14th, 2012 3:34 pm | By

A high school in Iowa got a Christian rock band to come to the school to tell the students some good stuff, but it didn’t work out as well as the school expected. (Secularism? What secularism? We don’t do no stinkin’ secularism round here.)

Everyone anticipated the message from Junkyard Prophet, a traveling band  based in Minnesota, to be about bullying and making good choices. Instead,  junior and senior high students at Dunkerton High School and faculty members  said they were assaulted by the group’s extreme opinions on homosexuality and  images of aborted fetuses.

“They told my daughter, the girls, that they were going to have mud on their  wedding dresses if they weren’t virgins,” said Jennifer Littlefield, a parent 

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True or false: atheism is the source of all evil

Mar 7th, 2012 9:40 am | By

More anti-atheist bullshit, this time from a college in Dublin. Michael Nugent explains.

Hibernia College Dublin, in its Higher Diploma in Arts in Primary Education, is teaching as part of its Religion module several untrue statements about atheism and at least two defamatory allegations about modern atheists. This includes course notes that claim that “What bothers very few of its latter-day exponents is the fact that atheist humanism produced the worst horrors history has ever witnessed, namely Nazism, Fascism and Marxism…” and a mock examination where the student is expected to answer that it is “True” that “Atheist humanism produced the worst horrors history has ever witnessed.”

The jaw drops. The eyes stare. The brain freezes.

Atheist Ireland sent … Read the rest

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“Atheists are not being persecuted”

Mar 7th, 2012 8:54 am | By

Another pile of foetid dingo’s kidneys bashing atheists at spiked.

The title (not necessarily chosen by the author): God save us from atheist whining. The subtitle (ditto): A US campaign encouraging atheists ‘out of the closet’ is fuelled more by victim culture than secularist principles.

Says a UK publication, says a Swedish writer. I wonder if they really know enough about the US to be sure it’s a matter of “victim culture” as opposed to just plain victims. I wonder if they really know how bad it can get here. I wonder if they pause at all over this business of sneering from a distance at people who face very real persecution. I would urge them to refresh their … Read the rest

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What price the golden rule eh?

Feb 26th, 2012 9:16 am | By

Another truculent Christian who plans to go to the Reason Rally in order to interfere with other people’s event.

Richard Dawkins will be one of the  main speakers, which tells us about all we need to know. Richard Dawkins of course is the leading horseman of the new atheism with his book “The God Delusion.” This book has practically become a Bible for most online atheists today with a new fundamentalism that says “Richard says it! I believe it! That settles it!” Dawkins has spoken. The case is closed.

Never mind that Dawkins has ran with his tail between his legs from William Lane Craig and most recently has done so from a clergyman who interviewed him. In reality, most

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More “confronting with love”

Feb 25th, 2012 11:40 am | By

From “the Thinking Christian” (they do love to pretend it’s all perfectly reasonable, don’t they).

In the meantime I’ve joined up with a handful of Christian thinkers and leaders planning to bring Christians to the Reason Rally for the purpose of sharing quiet conversations with Reason Rally attendees, offering bottles of water to the thirsty, and letting them know of a new book that will take an extended look at atheism, Christianity, and reason.

I’ve joined up with some Christians for the purpose of harassing Reason Rally attendees because we think that what we think gets to trump what they think.

It’s fascinating to me how the New Atheists have chosen reason as their main brand image. It’s clear that

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