What a lovely morning. I woke up far too early (anxiety, no doubt), I spent most of an hour deleting spam from the comments database, then I got an email from a helpful reader (it is just barely possible that some of you can guess which one) who was worried that I might not realize that the signatories of the letter about ‘Christianophobia’ in the Telegraph were loopy. Apparently this reader, who reads B&W regularly and often and has done so for a longish time, thought that perhaps I posted that link because I approved of the letter and the signatories, or that while I might be a little doubtful about their stance I was perhaps not doubtful enough – … Read the rest
Faisal Bodi Gives a Cheer for ‘Religious Communities’
Jul 13th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd finds no one to agree with him.… Read the rest
Pickled Politics on ‘Connecting British Hindus’
Jul 13th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe report seems little more than an exercise by the Hindu Forum to make some noise.… Read the rest
Norm Geras and Nick Cohen Debate Front Page
Jul 13th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd give up in exasperation.… Read the rest
Manly Men
Jul 13th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonManliness needs women to be inferior and subordinate, and cute when angry.… Read the rest
Hindus ‘Yearn to be Understood as a Community’
Jul 13th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEveryone else is a community, in fact the community, so Hindus want to be the community too.… Read the rest
Letters Reject Communalism
Jul 13th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Racial and religious divides can go too far and lead us away from good community relations.’… Read the rest
Pastors Charge Government With Christianophobia
Jul 13th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The latest discrimination against Christians is the new law called the Sexual Orientation Regulations.’… Read the rest
Reliance on MCB May be Convenient But…
Jul 13th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGovernment is making a mistake if it hands the franchise of dialogue over to a single organisation.… Read the rest
Going to School
Jul 12th, 2006 10:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat life is like when there is no rule of law, no security, no strong-enough central government, no one able to keep the strong and cruel and violent and selfish from preying on everyone else. Thrasymachus world. Thug world, warlord world, Mafia world, feudal world, give me that world, extortion world. Do what I say or I’ll hit you with a stick or cut you with a knife or shoot you world. Nightmare world.
… Read the restEscalating attacks by the Taliban and other armed groups on teachers, students and schools in Afghanistan are shutting down schools and depriving another generation of an education, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Schools for girls have been hit particularly hard,
Human Rights Watch on ‘Night Letters’
Jul 12th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson3,000 (8%) of the 37,743 officially enrolled students in Zabul were girls in March 2006.… Read the rest
HRW on Threats to Girls’ Education in Afghanistan
Jul 12th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHRW documented 204 incidents of attacks on teachers, students and schools since January 2005. … Read the rest
Aaronovitch on ‘Mission Creep’ in Afghanistan
Jul 12th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonYou go in to get rid of the Taleban and you end up risking lives just to educate women.… Read the rest
France Observes Dreyfus Centenary
Jul 12th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The fight against the dark forces of intolerance and hate is never definitively won.’… Read the rest
Indian Newspapers React to Mumbai Bombings
Jul 12th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘We almost never apprehend those who kill in the name of politics and faith…’… Read the rest
Logic
Jul 11th, 2006 8:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is an interesting bit of reasoning.
The letter pinned overnight to the wall of the mosque in Kandahar was succinct. “Girls going to school need to be careful for their safety. If we put acid on their faces or they are murdered then the blame will be on their parents.”
That’s good, isn’t it? If we put acid on their faces, the blame will be on their parents. Well of course it will – if it hadn’t been for their parents, the girls wouldn’t be there to have faces that Talibanists can put acid on. Furthermore, if the parents hadn’t fed them all those years, again the girls wouldn’t be there to have faces. If the parents hadn’t … Read the rest
World This Weekend [audio]
Jul 11th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMuslims who don’t want to join the MCB have a hard time getting a hearing.… Read the rest
Francis Wheen on the Poet of Dialectics
Jul 11th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDas Kapital a literary masterpiece: Gothic novel, Victorian melodrama, Greek tragedy, Swiftian satire.… Read the rest
Bombs Kill At Least 130 on Mumbai Trains
Jul 11th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson7 near-simultaneous blasts went off during rush hour in the suburbs.… Read the rest