We Need to Fight the Battle for Enlightenment

Apr 27th, 2005 | By Azam Kamguian

I am delighted to be here today to speak at such a wonderful conference. Here, I talk as an apostate, an atheist who left Islam and religion altogether at the age of 15, a veteran activist of women’s rights who survived the atrocities committed by political Islam in Iran.

My being a Muslim, like all other children who are accidentally born into Muslim families, was hereditary. My parents were ordinary Muslims. My father was relatively open-minded but my mother indoctrinated us and used religious rules for protecting her children. In my childhood, faith meant that I had an all powerful all knowing father figure watching over me. Anything bad that happened to me – he’d take care of me. To … Read the rest



Why

Apr 26th, 2005 7:18 pm | By

So what is going on here? Why is this issue not on the radar?

David Hadley asks:

…within these oppressive religious regimes – in this case strict Islam – there is a form of sexual apartheid too. Where women don’t even get the luxury of being even second-class citizens. Which makes me wonder why none of the left-wing ‘progressive’ media are calling for sanctions and boycotts of these regimes.

Surely it is a great cause for them to rally behind, isn’t it?

Karl adds:

there’s that post-colonial guilt thing going on. Women’s rights, gay rights, individual rights–they’re all so modern and western. They’re all undermining those fragile traditional cultures and turning everyone into atomized consumers who exist without real purpose

Read the rest


Columbia University as Labour-gouger *

Apr 26th, 2005 | Filed by

Universities ‘liberal’? Not if you look at their labour policies.… Read the rest



Law on How to Teach Colonialism *

Apr 26th, 2005 | Filed by

French historians think it not up to state to say how history should be taught.… Read the rest



Horowitz’s War on Rational Discourse *

Apr 26th, 2005 | Filed by

Graham Larkin takes on an instrumentalist version of ‘truth.’… Read the rest



Cultural Highlights

Apr 26th, 2005 2:03 am | By

And a little more again, about that conference at the UN, because Azam sent me the link to this Commission on Human Rights report, and it has more detail than the news articles. You should read it.

Ms. Azam Kamguian from Iran was the first speaker in the session on ‘Infidels and Apostates’. She started by describing her own experience; growing up with an all powerful and pious father. The temptation to subordinate her being to God was very strong but when she was an adolescent she decided that she did not need religion to tell her who she was. “Even though I left Islam, I had to live with it”, she stated.
According to an extremist interpretation of

Read the rest


Sharia TV *

Apr 25th, 2005 | Filed by

Whatever you’re doing, stop.… Read the rest



Girls Abducted Into Armed Groups *

Apr 25th, 2005 | Filed by

To do domestic and military work, and nearly always as sexual slaves too.… Read the rest



Another Pogrom in the Making *

Apr 25th, 2005 | Filed by

Muslim majority threatens minority sect in Bogra, Bangladesh.… Read the rest



Tom Frank on Bizarro US Populism *

Apr 25th, 2005 | Filed by

Where tax cuts on stock dividends are a blow against elites.… Read the rest



Victims of Jihad *

Apr 25th, 2005 | Filed by

Report from the Commission on Human Rights.

External Resources

Read the rest


Campaigning against the Sharia Court in Canada

Apr 25th, 2005 | By Homa Arjomand

The reasons given for a Sharia Court in Canada by Islamists and their multi-culturalist supporters are not what they seem. They say Muslims do not want their family problems to be made public; these tribunals will deal with civil disputes not criminal matters; one can choose not to go before the Sharia tribunal; and that it will take less time than a Canadian court and cost less.

Let me address each one separately. Why do the initiators of the proposal not want family disputes to be publicised outside of their ‘communities’. In communities where Sharia law interferes with people’s lives, family problems are not simply disagreements between a man and a woman and who gets what. In fact, private matters … Read the rest



For Example

Apr 24th, 2005 8:12 pm | By

A little more about that meeting and press conference at the UN last week. It’s interesting that one of the available articles is from the CBC – the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – since Canada has some ‘issues’ itself on this stuff, as regular readers of B&W know. Homa Arjomand has been working tirelessly to oppose the introduction of Sharia law in Ontario, but Ontario in its wisdom has not changed its decision. Ontario should have been at the UN last Monday. Ontario needs to pay attention.

Hirsi Ali, a Somali immigrant who has become a prominent women’s advocate in the Dutch parliament, said European countries have to accept that women are more threatened within Muslim communities than in their wider

Read the rest


Labour Vows to Force Religious Hatred Bill Through *

Apr 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Pledge in letters mailed to mosques across Britain by Home Secretary’s office.… Read the rest



Repeal of Blasphemy Laws Urged *

Apr 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Ashiq Nabi the latest killed because of the blasphemy laws.… Read the rest



Man Murdered for ‘Blasphemy’ in Pakistan *

Apr 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Mob of angry villagers kill man for ‘desecrating’ the Koran.… Read the rest



What Did the Pope Mean, ‘Relativism’? *

Apr 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Anything short of papal absolutism. Blackburn, Baggini give different account.… Read the rest



Membership in Catholic Church is For Life *

Apr 24th, 2005 | Filed by

No matter what the disagreements. Best not to join then.… Read the rest



Paganism for the Differently Abled *

Apr 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Service animals can double as familiars. Channel power through your prosthesis.… Read the rest



Vatican Has Odd Priorities *

Apr 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Gay marriage iniquitous, condom ban virtuous. Whatever.… Read the rest