Totalitarian minds are in part created by the ease and invisibility of euphemism.… Read the rest
Cass Sunstein on the Obama He Knows 
Mar 18th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Obama has a genuinely independent mind, he’s a terrific listener and he goes wherever reason takes him.’… Read the rest
Saudi Vice Cops Deny Humiliating Woman
Mar 18th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Director of Commission said the commission’s act merely protected the honor of the student and her family. … Read the rest
Saudi Religious Cops Questioned in Deaths
Mar 18th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Religious police saw a man and a woman in a car and gave chase. The car crashed and the couple were killed.… Read the rest
Is the weight of it on their shoulders?
Mar 17th, 2008 5:59 pm | By Ophelia BensonTry a thought experiment. Suppose a newspaper publishes some satirical cartoons about neo-Nazism, the BNP, and other far-right nationalist and/or anti-Semitic groups. One cartoon has Hitler wearing a military cap in the shape of a crematorium labeled Auschwitz, with smoke rising out of it. Nothing much happens, then after a few months a couple of neo-Nazis travel around Europe with the cartoons plus three new ones, one of which is Hitler in drag being sodomized by a donkey – no, by a Jewish donkey. The neo-Nazis show this collection to other neo-Nazis, and with persistent effort get them worked up enough to go out into the streets and cause riots. Some people are killed in the riots. Death threats are … Read the rest
Sage (or Satirical?) Advice From Kuwait Times
Mar 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘It is time for the politically correct Europe to come to its senses and stop defending its democratic principles at all costs.’… Read the rest
Doctors’ ‘Ethical Qualms’ Should be Explicit
Mar 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Catholic and Muslim doctors fear ‘brutal’ interpretation that would not respect doctors’ rights to freedom of conscience or religion. … Read the rest
Saudi Religious Police Defend Starbucks Arrest
Mar 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A woman was sitting with a male colleague, making ‘suspicious gestures.’… Read the rest
Saudi Vice Police Bust Restaurant
Mar 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Some families left hurriedly, others chose to defy the religious police and ate the rest of their food on the floor.… Read the rest
Megamosque Planned for East London
Mar 17th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What the BBC calls a ‘Muslim missionary group’ hopes to build a mosque big enough to hold 12,000.… Read the rest
Everybody freeze
Mar 17th, 2008 11:25 am | By Ophelia BensonYelena Shesternina in the Kuwait Times gives us all a damn good scolding.
Far from everyone in the West has learned a lesson from the first cartoon war in 2005, when Jyllands-Posten, a little-known Danish newspaper, managed to cause an uproar in the whole world with just one publication. Its cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) offended 1.5 billion people. Islamic traditions prohibit the publication of any images of people, not to mention the prophet.
What lesson was everyone in the West supposed to learn from the first ‘cartoon war,’ do you suppose? That if some people decide to over-react in a deranged, disproportionate, violent, and unpredictable manner, then all the rest of us should thenceforth be afraid to say … Read the rest
The UN’s Unscientific War on Biotechnology
Mar 16th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
FAO calls for greater allocation of resources to agriculture, then over-regulates biotechnology.… Read the rest
Iran’s Moral Enforcer Busted in Brothel
Mar 16th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Zarei said to have been with six prostitutes when he was detained by members of his own force.… Read the rest
John Gray Gets One Thing Right
Mar 16th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It is not necessary to believe in any narrative of progress to think liberal societies are worth resolutely defending. … Read the rest
That Oxford Mosque
Mar 16th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘The call to prayer will be part of Britain and Europe in the future,’ said Inayat Bunglawala.… Read the rest
Women in Iran Manage to Find Some Freedom
Mar 16th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
But not much.… Read the rest
Iran: Morality Police Try to Roll Back Reform
Mar 15th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Reformist newspapers have been shut. The rest do what they are told. … Read the rest
Forced Marriage and ‘Cultural Sensitivity’
Mar 15th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘You are groomed into understanding that your life is mapped out for you.’… Read the rest
Aparajeyo’s Program for Victims of Sex Abuse
Mar 15th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In South Asia commercial sexual exploitation of children is widespread and worsened by gender discrimination.… Read the rest
Aparjeyo-Bangladesh
Mar 15th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A child rights organization founded to reduce the poverty, distress and vulnerability of slum life.… Read the rest
