She confronted the mob mentality that erupted into an actual physical mob, as they stripped, taunted and harassed a young girl because she had fallen in love.… Read the rest
Report on the Templeton Foundation [pdf] 
Mar 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The stated aims of the Foundation have evolved over the years, although there is evidence that its actual aims have not.… Read the rest
Friends are afraid for Sherry Rehman
Mar 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Of the three brave Pakistani politicians who stood up for Aasia Bibi, just one is still alive: Sherry Rehman.… Read the rest
Paper says Bhatti’s assassination was fault of US
Mar 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A widely read newspaper, Jang, said it was a “heinous conspiracy against Pakistan” and a result of American pressure on Pakistan to combat terrorism.… Read the rest
Goddy physicist takes on militant atheists
Mar 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Here’s what you do: you say it’s all scientism.… Read the rest
Shahbaz Bhatti and the Death of Reason
Mar 2nd, 2011 | By R. Joseph HoffmannMy time in Pakistan was glorious. I taught bright, beautiful and hopeful students who saw the world not as a series of entitlements but rather as a steep staircase to be climbed, littered with challenges set up by a crooked government that lunged from disaster to catastrophe. It is easy in such circumstances to forget that Pakistan was founded on a crest of hope that soon dissipated into old rivalries, pissing contests between elites, indifference to the mountain men of the Pashto borderlands, suspicion (much of it justified) of eastern and western geopolitics, and an infrastructure that in every decade after 1950 fell further and further behind its more progressive western neighbor and rival–India.
But that is history. Pakistan treated … Read the rest
Fetuses to “testify” to Ohio House committee
Mar 2nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Via ultrasound. Srsly.… Read the rest
There’ll be music everywhere
Mar 2nd, 2011 10:52 am | By Ophelia BensonPBS showed a Tribute to Motown at the White House last night. I thought I would watch just a minute of it, but I got pulled right in.
I’d kind of forgotten Dancing in the Streets. That was stupid. Martha and the Vandellas. Yeah.… Read the rest
Taliban lash girl for refusing a forced marriage
Mar 2nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Two Taliban men held her down while a third man whipped her.… Read the rest
Bhatti had been receiving death threats
Mar 2nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He had said fatwas had been issued calling for him to be beheaded, by extremist clerics who were allowed to spread messages of violence with impunity.… Read the rest
Salman Rushdie on the secular revolution
Mar 2nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
At its most optimistic – this could be the moment when the Islamic world moves beyond Islamism.… Read the rest
Pakistan: minorities minister murdered
Mar 2nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Shahbaz Bhatti, an advocate of reform of the country’s blasphemy laws and a Christian, was killed by gunmen in Islamabad.… Read the rest
Norway is going to hell
Mar 2nd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s that wicked high literacy rate.… Read the rest
Meta x 11
Mar 1st, 2011 2:41 pm | By Ophelia BensonA couple of thoughts on the hunting of the snark.
One thought is that I always wonder why the focus is so exclusively on the evil gnu atheists. To put it another way, I always wonder why the standard is so double. I wonder why the filter has only gnu atheist-shaped holes.
I wonder why the sustained activities of “Tom Johnson” are ignored in favor of shining a spotlight on something someone said five years ago. Gnu atheists are sometimes irritable, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes rude. “Tom Johnson” is a malicious misogynist liar who put great energy into attempting to smear several chosen gnu atheists. Why so much heavy breathing about the former and nothing at all about the latter? It’s … Read the rest
LSE investigates Saif Gaddafi plagiarism claims
Mar 1st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Allegations have emerged that he used a ghost writer, and copied sections of his thesis.… Read the rest
John Esposito says “mainstream Islamists” are fine
Mar 1st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
They just want normal mainstream humdrum theocracy, not the bad scary extreme kind.… Read the rest
Child brides in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
Mar 1st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
One bad effect of early marriage is the exclusion of women from education in favour of domestic work and child rearing.… Read the rest
Telegraph pitches a fit about secular law
Mar 1st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
How dare judges not enforce theocracy?!… Read the rest
Woman with measles spent time at 3 airports
Mar 1st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Too bad she hadn’t been vaccinated.… Read the rest
