Don’t miss it.… Read the rest
David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton: Ethics Bites
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEach week they talk to a philosopher about issues like death, censorship and historical blame.… Read the rest
Fred Halliday on the Elusive Divine
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The word “tradition” should alert a person to the very modern forces it connotes, and often conceals.’… Read the rest
More Fuss About Taslima Nasreen’s Visa
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMuslim clergy and political leaders warned they would take to the streets if the state continues to shelter her.… Read the rest
Taslima Nasreen Talks to Tehelka
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonI am against all kind of fundamentalism, dogmas, bigotry and conservatism.I support free minds and free thought.… Read the rest
The ‘Culture Wars’ Are Not About to Disappear
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere are deep disagreements about the sources of moral authority, the nature of knowing, the ‘limits’ of science.… Read the rest
Ziauddin Sardar on the Archbishop and Sharia
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt is not just in the west that the sharia conjures up instant images of oppression and brutality.… Read the rest
The Archbishop’s Message
Feb 16th, 2008 | By Azar MajediPerhaps Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury thought his statement about Sharia Law would be received enthusiastically as well-intended and an effort to reduce racial tensions in the society. However, his proposal got him into trouble. He was attacked from right and left. Those who saw their “white Christian culture” under threat asked for his resignation. Women rights activists, secularists and such like attacked him for the negative effects of Sharia Law on human rights, particularly the disastrous effects of such a practice on women in so-called Muslim communities. In response to harsh criticism he tried to qualify his proposal by stating that he did not mean the whole Sharia Law, but only in family matters. He has just missed … Read the rest
It is not just in the west
Feb 16th, 2008 11:31 am | By Ophelia BensonZiauddin Sardar sets the archbishop straight.
… Read the restIt is not just in the west, as the archbishop suggests, that the sharia is misunderstood, or where it conjures up instant images of oppression and brutality. It is also misunderstood by most Muslims in countries other than Britain, countries where it is seen as a total system of divine origin, and where it sometimes leads to oppression and brutality…The sharia needs to be reformed totally before it can be implemented anywhere – among the Muslim minorities in liberal democracies or in the Muslim-majority states. Giving the sharia as it stands legal sanction in Britain, even in limited areas, will replicate all the problems of gender inequality that it has produced in Muslim
How’s that again?
Feb 16th, 2008 11:27 am | By Ophelia BensonI don’t understand this. I must (as so often) be missing something. Roger Scruton says we we owe to ‘the Christian legacy’ the idea that law is and ought to be a secular institution, then he says we owe it to Roman law, but he goes on saying it’s a Christian legacy.
… Read the rest[O]ne of the things that we owe to [the Christian] legacy is the idea that law is and ought to be a secular institution, whose authority is founded in human decisions and is independent of, and in an important respect takes precedence over, divine commands…The privatisation of religious law was clearly a part of Jesus’s mission…His striking pronouncement in the story of the tribute money, that we should
CNN on Tasneem Khalil
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘I’m going to tell my story again and again and again,’ Khalil told CNN. ‘It’s not only my story.’… Read the rest
HRW Says Torture is Rampant in Bangladesh
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMany of the people arrested under the emergency rules have been tortured to extract confessions. … Read the rest
The Guardian on Tasneem Khalil
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHRW accuses international community of ignoring Bangladesh’s clandestine detention and torture system.… Read the rest
Cross-dressers in Sharia Court in Nigeria
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Under Sharia law a man must dress like a man and woman must dress like a woman.’… Read the rest
Dane Starts ‘Sorry, Mo’ Group on Facebook
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘That is why I apologise for being a Dane coming from Denmark,’ Anders explains. … Read the rest
Protection Needed for Targets of Death Threats
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAyaan Hirsi Ali has appealed to the EU to create a fund to help protect people under threat.… Read the rest
The Sound of Mullahs
Feb 15th, 2008 | By El Omar Rodgers and Ibn Yusuf HammersteinSung by a chorus of dancing mullahs:
SHARIA
She’s by a tree with young Ali
Her husband is away.
We see here there
And grab her hair, she knows she’s going to pay–
And poor Ali he had to flee his parents couldn’t bear
To see him stoned for doing what is natural…..
She doesn’t seem repentant,
So we choose the largest stones;
The Prophet calls it mercy
(plus they’re good for breaking bones)
And young Ali has joined us
As a witness on his own;
We’re going to make her pay for what seems natural….
—I’d like to say a word before we throw….
Then say it Mullah Ibrihim
–Sharia says ‘Aim low.’
(Chorus)
O, How do you solve … Read the rest
Human rights in Bangladesh (there aren’t any)
Feb 15th, 2008 10:27 am | By Ophelia BensonMore on Tasneem. From the Guardian.
“Rampant illegal detention and torture are clear evidence of Bangladesh’s security forces running amok”, said Brad Adams, [HRW’s] Asia director…Tens of thousands of people were arrested in the weeks that followed the declaration of a state of emergency, and security forces have been accused of flouting standard arrest and detention procedures. Khalil said there was now a culture of “self-censorship” in the country, and people were afraid of the consequences of speaking out. “I am taking a calculated risk in speaking out because I still have family in Bangladesh,” he said. “But I feel it is important that people know what is really going on in my country.”
From CNN (Tasneem has reported … Read the rest
HRW Pleads for Condemned Saudi ‘Witch’
Feb 14th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMan said she made him impotent; she is to be executed.… Read the rest
Mary Ann Sieghart on the Joys of Sharia
Feb 14th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMortgages are one thing, women’s lives are another.… Read the rest