At least 77,000 women and girls in the UK have been mutilated; around 24,000 girls are at risk.… Read the rest
Political Theory and the “Group Rights” Debate
Feb 17th, 2010 | By Joshua F. LeachIt took a Bertrand Russell to first notice that political ideologies tend to evolve over time into their polar opposites; and it took a George Orwell to point out that words which today nearly all people embrace, such as freedom and democracy, can mean very different things to different people. Today, however, most people are jaded enough to accept and even expect these sorts of insincerities. To point them out at all has become banal.
But every once in a while it is incumbent upon honest people to go back to the drawing board and remind themselves what ideologies represent and what words really mean. Nowhere is this more necessary than in the debates surrounding group rights and multiculturalism.
There … Read the rest
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild
Feb 17th, 2010 11:47 am | By Ophelia BensonWe hear so much about ‘militant’ atheists and yet it is theists who like to bully people. A science teacher in North Carolina has been suspended for saying caustic’ things about her students at Facebook. The students have been bullying her.
… Read the restParents said the situation escalated after a student put a postcard of Jesus on Hussain’s desk that the teacher threw in the trash. Parents also said Hussain sent to the office students who, during a lesson about evolution, asked about the role of God in creation. On her Facebook page, Hussain wrote about students spreading rumors that she was a Jesus hater. She complained about her students wearing Jesus T-shirts and singing “Jesus Loves Me.” She objected to
The Celtic doormat
Feb 17th, 2010 10:57 am | By Ophelia BensonMeanwhile, in Scotland…
A study of schoolchildren has found that most of those questioned thought violence towards women was acceptable if there was a reason behind it. The majority of the pupils said it was justified if the woman had an affair, or if she was late in making the tea.
Or anything in between, no doubt.… Read the rest
If commanded, we will obey
Feb 17th, 2010 10:51 am | By Ophelia BensonThe Catholic church in Ireland is all heart – like Mr Collins, it graciously consents to do what it is obliged to do.
The Primate of All-Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady said this afternoon that were the remit of the Murphy Commission to be extended to other Catholic dioceses in Ireland, the Catholic Church “will co-operate fully with that inquiry.”
Is that not kind? Is that not generous? Is it not affable and condescending and truly gracious? The Catholic church will co-operate fully with an inquiry into its long habit of letting its priests molest children while it keeps the whole thing secret. I’m totally impressed.
… Read the restThe pontiff also noted “the more general crisis of faith affecting the Church,” the
A name to conjure with
Feb 16th, 2010 5:04 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Templeton Foundation is having more and more success at getting its message under the radar. The Times Higher for instance tells us about an upcoming lecture which will include some things we have grown familiar with in recent months.
… Read the restIt is often assumed that religion and science have always been locked in a life-and-death struggle…Such views would have startled the scholars, including some of the greatest names in British science, who founded what became the Royal Society 350 years ago. In a Faraday Institute public lecture, to be delivered in Cambridge this week, Peter Harrison, Andreas Idreos professor of science and religion at the University of Oxford, will challenge such arguments about the impossibility of being both scientific and
The glowing future
Feb 16th, 2010 4:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonA guy called Joseph Mayton at Comment is Free tells us about the ‘reform-minded younger generation’ in the Muslim Brotherhood.
In many ways, these young people have created a new identity and image of the Brotherhood, both in Egypt and abroad. No longer do knowledgeable people view its members as the stereotypical bearded Islamists. Instead, they see members who talk of their desire for democracy and greater freedoms, not to mention their love for American films. The first time I met a group of the MB’s young bloggers a few years ago, they talked for 10 minutes on the upcoming Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise films.
Aw, gee, really? Isn’t that sweet? Some ‘MB’ bloggers are interested in movies … Read the rest
‘Faith’ and Science Used to Be Cuddly
Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSays an Oxford professor of science and religion in a lecture at the Templeton Foundation’s ‘Faraday Institute.’… Read the rest
Women Against Fundamentalism on Sahgal
Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWe know from global experience that women’s rights are the first to be traded in political settlements. … Read the rest
Algerian Survivors of Islamist Violence on Sahgal
Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWe, Algerains, thank Gita Sahgal for keeping up with the ideal and mission of human rights.… Read the rest
Vatican Continues to Blame Irish Bishops
Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhile ignoring its own role.… Read the rest
Exciting Plans for Hijab Sculpture in Brick Lane
Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLet’s celebrate the subordination of women!… Read the rest
Vicar Insists That Women Are Subordinate
Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt is ‘an eternal principle that women are physically weaker than men’ so men are the boss.… Read the rest
‘The Muslim Brotherhood is Young at Heart’
Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonComment is Free sends another love letter to darling Islamism.… Read the rest
Kevin Rudd Rebukes Women Who Don’t Breed
Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAll young women say they can’t, they’re getting a PhD. No really, he said that.… Read the rest
Iran Needs a United Democratic and Secular Opposition
Feb 16th, 2010 | By Jahanshah RashidianThe lack of a strong and united democratic and secular movement in Iran has left the way clear for the Islamic regime for the further destruction, plunder, and bloodshed of our country. Although the panic-stricken bullets of Islamic mercenaries would suffocate any voice of protest, people are brave enough to resolutely claim their freedom despite any risk of torture, rape, and execution as “Mohareb” (heretic).
Unfortunately, the worst-ever conditions of our people have not enough stimulated responsible reactions among all democratic and secular activists to form a united movement to free the country from the plague of the Islamic regime.
Sadly, yet the people of Iran must wait; such a liberation movement has long been deemed illusory. It is however … Read the rest
Might makes right in Sevenoaks
Feb 16th, 2010 10:33 am | By Ophelia BensonThat curate in Kent is standing by what he said – he’s not backing down just because a lot of boring politically correct rightsy types are pissed off. He’s got principle. He really thinks women should be submissive to men.
Two weeks ago the curate delivered a controversial sermon at St Nicholas’s Church in Sevenoaks in which he triggered outrage by partly blaming the high divorce rate on women no longer submitting to their husbands…During yesterday’s sermon Mr Oden said he wished to make it clear that he did not believe women were “weaker intellectually” but that it was “an eternal principle that women are physically weaker than men”.
Well, it’s not the case that all women are physically weaker … Read the rest
I am shocked, shocked, that there is child-rape going on in this establishment
Feb 15th, 2010 5:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo the pope is doing the ostentatious hand-washing thing – though of course it would be impolite to murmur anything about Pontius Pilate.
Pope Benedict XVI will today complete his interrogation of Ireland’s 24 bishops before pontificating on one of the most shocking clerical scandals of recent times: the extensive sexual abuse of children by Irish priests and the pervasive campaign to conceal it…The Pope has said he is “disturbed and distressed” by the abuse in Ireland and shares the “outrage, betrayal and shame” felt by the Irish people…Observers note that widespread abuse of children by priests is not unique to Ireland.
To put it mildly. But what fewer observers seem to be noting is the absurdity of the pope’s … Read the rest
Crucial distinctions
Feb 15th, 2010 4:48 pm | By Ophelia BensonGary Rosen, the chief external affairs officer of the Templeton Foundation, reviews Timothy Ferris’s The Science of Liberty in The New York Times.
… Read the restNor is it clear, as Ferris would have it, that science furnishes the ideal template for liberal democracy. Science, he notes, is antiauthoritarian, self-correcting, meritocratic and collaborative…But crucial distinctions are lost in these comparisons. The scientific community may be open to everyone, in principle, but it has steep and familiar barriers to entry…[M]odern science is, in the most admirable sense, an aristocracy — a selection and sorting of the best minds as they interact within institutions designed to achieve certain rarefied ends. Experiment, equality and freedom of expression are essential to this work, but it is
Pope Scolds Irish Bishops Over Child Abuse
Feb 15th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo mention of Ratzinger’s 2001 letter to all Catholic bishops telling them abuse was Church business.… Read the rest