Because there are totally rules about it.
Author: Ophelia Benson
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I’m suddenly a fan of Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga has canceled a concert in Indonesia after religious bullies (Islamist chapter) threatened violence against her.
Attaboiz – you do that – get together in a big bunch and threaten a woman for performing, and express a wish that she be tortured for eternity. Sucks to be you.
Police in Indonesia had refused to issue a permit for the US pop star after Islamic groups objected to her show, claiming it was too vulgar.
The hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) had threatened to try to stop Lady Gaga getting off the plane.
Islamists 1, secularism 0.
The Islamist FPI had threatened violence if the concert went ahead, calling Lady Gaga a “devil’s messenger” who wears only a “bra and [underpants]“.
Habib Salim Alatas, the group’s FPI Jakarta chairman, said the cancellation was “good news” for Indonesia’s Muslims.
“FPI is grateful that she has decided not to come. Indonesians will be protected from sin brought about by this Mother Monster, the destroyer of morals,” he told AFP news agency.
He added: “Lady Gaga fans, stop complaining. Repent and stop worshipping the devil. Do you want your lives taken away by God as infidels?”
Because he knows that’s going to happen. Habib Salim Alatas, stop complaining. Repent and stop worshipping a bigoted puritanical misogynist shit. Do you want your life taken away by god as a bullying asshole?
Indonesia’s conservative Religious Affairs Minister, Suryadharma Ali, also welcomed the cancellation.
“I strongly believe this cancellation will benefit the country,” he said.
“Indonesians need entertainment and art which have moral values.”
This is not the first time that Lady Gaga has faced objections during her Asian tour.
Her concert in South Korea in April was made an adults-only event following protests from Christian groups.
Protests also took place in the Philippines, with Christian groups accusing her of being blasphemous.
Comrades!
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Lady Gaga concert canceled after Islamist protests
The Islamist FPI had threatened violence if the concert went ahead, calling Lady Gaga a “devil’s messenger”.
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“Take Back the Flour” banned from Rothamsted site
St Albans District Council’s executive leader said it had taken action to stop a demonstration on Rothamsted Research’s land that might “put historic crop trials at risk”.
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‘Cause baby look at you now
Justin gets trash-talk too; he gets a Christian guy calling his infant daughter “ugly.”
Isn’t that nice? Isn’t that just how people ought to be to each other?
Fortunately she could pose for a dictionary definition of “adorable,” but the ugliness of saying things like that remains unchanged.
I don’t get this at all. I’m probably sheltered, or clueless, or something, but I don’t. I say very harsh things about the pope, and various atheist-bashers, and theocrats – but even then I don’t taunt them for being ugly or fat or old or bald or short or any other physical thing. I don’t. And I don’t understand the mentality of people who do – apart from psychopaths, that is. I don’t understand non-psychopathic people who (by definition) have some conscience and some empathy and still talk that kind of shit about people.
Ah well. You’re a beautiful baby, Zoe Griffith.
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Note for anyone thinking of going to Rothamsted tomorrow
Guest post via Bernard Hurley
I have just received the following email from London Skeptics in the Pub. It might be of interest to anyone thinking of going to Rothamsted tomorrow:
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Dear Bernard Hurley
Just a quick note for folks who are thinking of, or are attending the counter protest against the needless vandalism of publicly funded research being conducted at Rothamsted Park tomorrow in Harpenden.
Mark Henderson has put his chapter on GM in The Geek Manifesto online, if you’d like some further reading: http://geekmanifesto.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/the-geek-manifesto-on-gm-crops/
It looks like it’ll be a nice sunny day for a protest, or failing that, a picnic.
Please remember that this is a PEACEFUL protest, and Rothamsted would prefer no protests – for or against ( http://www.senseaboutscience.org/pages/rothamsted-letter-to-signatories.html ) – taking place tomorrow.
Jules, from Geek in the Gambia has written a blogpost on directions and guidlines for the counter-protest and directions to the site here: http://geekinthegambia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/guidelines-for-protest-in-rothamsted.html
Transport: National Rail from Bedford to Brighton (there are some engineering works from certain stations on Sunday, so please check before travelling). For those of you in London, trains depart from London St Pancras. Trains are every half-hour and take about 30mins to get there. Return ticket will cost £12.70 Timetable: http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/London/HPD/tomorrow/0930/dep/tomorrow/1130/dep
If you’re wondering who to look out/gravitate towards, The Pod Delusion will be there; So look out for James O’Malley and Liz Lutgendorff. Dr Evan Harris will be there, along with a band of trusty scientists.
As always, take some sensible shoes, a hat, some sunblock, drink plenty of liquids and remember to dispose of your litter sensibly. We’re no ruffians.
Best,
Sid P.S. I’ll be at Conway Hall for CaSE Director Imran Khan’s lecture, but hope to join you all after we’re done. Details of future meetings can be found on http://london.skepticsinthepub.org
You can also find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/London-United-Kingdom/London-Skeptics-in-the-Pub/13256221934
And follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SITP
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Banned as it contradicted the Quran and Hadith
More squalid airless stupidity from Malaysia: banning Irshad Manji’s book and confiscating copies from bookstores.
The Home Ministry has banned the controversial book by liberal Muslim activist Irshad Manji as it could cause confusion among Muslims.
In a statement yesterday, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Abu Seman Yusop said the book Allah, Liberty and Love and its translated version Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta was banned as it contradicted the Quran and Hadith.
The fact that a book “could cause confusion” is an imbecilic reason to ban it. The fact that it could cause confusion among a particular brand of theists is even more so. The fact that it contradicts the Quran and Hadith is an appalling reason to ban it. It represents obedience to arbitrary rules and demands written down many centuries ago in the guise of Roolz from Godd; not being allowed to contradict something so absurd at this late date is pathetic, tragic, horrible.
He said the decision was made following a report by the Islamic Religious Development Department (Jakim).
“Based on the report, it says that the book promotes mixed marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims. This could lead to pluralism.
“It also contains insulting elements towards the prophet, which were described in such a way that could pollute the sanctity of Islam.”
The deputy minister also said that the book defended secularism by confusing the Islamic faith.
Worse and worse and worse. Religious xenophobia and anti-pluralism; brainless worship of a long dead man; brainless worries about pollution and sanctity (cue Jonathan Haidt explaining why it’s not brainless at all, only different); anti-secularism and dogma preferred to putative “confusion” (which clearly means just dissent).
“The book also says the five fardhu prayers can be done in various movements and languages more than five times a day. This statement may confuse the public.”
He said the ban was made according to Section 7(1) of the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984 as its content could cause disturbance to the public.
In a related development, Jawi enforcement division senior principal assistant director Wan Jaafar Wan Ahmad said they would monitor book stores to prevent them from distributing the books.
I’m embarrassed to be a human being.
And then there are the foul comments underneath the article…
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Malaysia bans potential confusion
The Home Ministry has banned the controversial book by liberal Muslim activist Irshad Manji as it could cause confusion among Muslims.
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Malaysia bans and confiscates Irshad Manji book
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Abu Seman Yusop condemned the book for being blasphemous to Islam and Prophet Muhammad in a statement released yesterday.
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Alternative therapy for farm animals
This is not from the Onion. Repeat, this is not from the Onion.
With an agriculture degree from the Royal Agriculture College, Cirencester, and a qualification in homeopathy, it was only natural that Christine Lees of Homeopathy at Wellie Level should turn her attention to alternative therapy for farm animals.
To…what?
Alternative therapy for farm animals?
Um…why?
Well, because of the delusion that it’s better, I suppose, but why – oh never mind, no doubt it’s all explained if we just read the article.
“I had already done part of a homeopathy course before I went to Cirencester,” she says. “And I liked cows. So I put the two together for my dissertation: The role of homeopathy in the treatment of farm animals.”
During that time she says she talked with farmers and vets who were using homeopathy but not really knowing what they were doing. “There was very little support to go with it.”
Oh the farmers and vets were using homeopathy but they didn’t really know what they were doing! Whereas experts on the other hand do know what they’re doing.
Really? How? What is there to know? What is there to not know? What do the farmers and vets do wrong as a result of not knowing what they’re doing? What’s the difference between homeopathy done right and homeopathy done wrong?
“We agreed every course needed to be taught by a vet who was a qualified homeopath along with a second homeopath. I ran the syllabus,” she confirms.
“We felt three days was the maximum we could expect farmers to take off and the minimum we could give to the farmer given the size of this huge subject.”
It’s a huge subject, but in a pinch it can be taught in three days.
The courses are carefully planned. Day one is based around an introduction to homeopathy including key sessions on “the eight principles of homeopathy and the “big six” remedies,” plus on-farm practical animal observation.
Day two looks at treating acute cases with day three building on the first two days, and focusing on chronic illness.
Ooh, that is careful. I’m impressed. One day for acute illness, one day for chronic illness. Zip, all done!
Hitherto, Mrs Lees has run the course as a non-for-profit business. “I only run courses when I have enough people to pay for the teachers. We do some advertising and when I have profit it’s ploughed back into advertising. Our rationale is not to make a huge amount of money but to help people use homeopathy properly.”
Support for her initiative has come from various sources including the Prince of Wales who donated £5000 at the start. “That went towards the marketing,” she says.
Fabulous. The prince of Wales is giving them money to persuade more people to learn magic ways of treating animal illness. Abs’ly brilliant.
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“Alternative therapy” for farm animals
Christine Lees says she talked with farmers and vets who were using homeopathy but not really knowing what they were doing.
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Eroding Feminism
When Adele Wilde-Blavatsky’s article ‘To be Anti-Racist is to be Feminist: The Hoodie and the Hijab are not Equals’ on the Feminist Wire garnered a storm of opposers angrily accusing her of everything from attacking the identity of Muslim women, to exercising white privilege, to perpetuating racism and Islamophobia, it led to the Feminist Wire censoring both Wilde-Blavatsky and its own subsequent response.
The “Collective Response” removed from The Feminist Wire, but published later on Jaddaliya.com, is signed by “a group of feminist writers, activists, and academics” from “diverse racial, religious, economic, and political backgrounds.”
But are the signatories really as diverse as they claim to be? It’s worth taking a closer look at the characteristics that can be garnered from the signatures.
First, they overwhelmingly represent universities of the so-called Imperialist part of the world, the part that they claim is the harbinger of western privilege seeking to subdue and persecute the poor, non-white and Muslim of the world. Of the 86 signatories as of May 18, 2012, all but six specifically identity themselves with institutions, mostly universities, in the United States or Canada, and one in the United Kingdom. One is at the American University in Cairo, the closest to thing to anyone signing from a Muslim-majority country. The other five signatories don’t identify their locations.
Who is represented among the signatories is also demonstrated not so much in who signed, but in who didn’t. The complete absence of signatories from universities (or otherwise) in parts of the world that form the epicenter of the debate’s topic, might cause an anti-imperialist to argue that ‘privileged’ women at western universities are speaking for the silenced women of the Muslim world, therefore perpetuating hegemonic discourse.
I actually don’t really care where people live or work, or where they were born, when they opt to protest something. But it’s not lost on me that those who have attempted to vilify Adele Wilde-Blavatsky were quick to focus on her “whiteness” as a characteristic that automatically makes her a paternalistic western feminist. Hence, the above is simply an exercise in the game that Wilde-Blavatsky’s detractors are playing. If you’re white, you dare not speak about issues that don’t concern you. It’s a refrain I’ve confronted often enough myself, and at the risk of belabouring this controversy further, it’s worth examining more closely given that the Feminist Wire censorship incident is hardly unique as a case of those labeling themselves “feminist” misusing the race card, and in the process, trumping real struggles over rights and freedoms that face women.
But first, allow me to point out one other feature of the signatories. The bulk of them represent Women’s Studies Departments, at western universities. This is telling, and sad.
Where are all of these voices when horrific incidents of violence occur against women in Afghanistan? When dissenters are censored in Saudi Arabia? When women’s rights defenders are raped inside Iranian prisons? When 12-year-old Yemeni girls have their insides torn open when they are raped in their marriages to adult men?
In the world of urgent action for women who are under siege in a plethora of deadly situations, in the realm of courageous and outspoken responses to the misogyny that festers under the purview of male rulers that deem women akin to cattle—whether the rulers of governments or the rulers of families—Women’s Studies departments in western universities have simply been non-players.
They are too busy, it would seem, investigating intersectionality, avoiding being seen as patronizing westerners, deconstructing dominant discourses, challenging hegemonic “narratives”, labeling all action for women abroad as Orientalist, and fighting the murky imperialism that lurks everywhere, threatening to colonize and subdue exotic cultures at any moment.
But out there, in the real world, the most pressing issues facing women are all too often ignored by those studying questions of gender from the confines of Women’s Studies departments. Research agendas seem more determined by deep-rooted biases favouring relativisms and a post-modernist view of the world, than by the empirical evidence that everywhere around us, women are getting mutilated, maimed, raped, beaten, prostituted, set on fire, drenched in acid, and murdered because they are women, and a disproportionate amount of this takes place in Muslim societies.
The destruction of women’s bodies is the most violent manifestation of systematized male control over women, and this systematized control uses culture and religion as its primary vehicle. And no matter how hard you try, you just can’t pin it all on American foreign policy in the Middle East, on neoliberal economic policy, or on colonial legacies. The justifications vehemently given for the subjugation of women in so much of the Muslim world come from within those cultures, and typically, from the men. Referring to local “tradition”, religion or culture, such men don’t even blame their treatment of women on the outside world or on American policies, so why would foreign scholars do so?
As a Caucasian woman fighting for the rights of women in Afghanistan, I’ve had many experiences where my race was brought up as “problematic” as it relates to the legitimacy of my right to speak out against the atrocities I’ve witnessed against women here over the past 15 years. It’s been implied that as an outsider from a western country, I could only be some kind of zealous missionary bearing “my” message of rights, or the specter of a neo-colonialist simply extending imperialism by other means over a resistant people. I’ve been called a racist more than once, and only ever by individuals who reside comfortably in the West and consider themselves to be of the political left, that is, to be “progressive”.
The casual misuse of a term that has a very precise meaning and is among the gravest accusations one can make towards another person is an indicator that those conflating the advocacy of women’s rights in the Muslim world with racism simply have no idea what they’re talking about or what they are fighting for anymore. They’ve drifted so far off a genuine social justice agenda, that they’ve found themselves shipwrecked on the shores of the fascist, patriarchal and hate-filled political ideologies that work to keep the female sex securely in submission. They invoke the racism card to shut down dialogue, pushing out of the conversation anyone they can associate with whiteness, making the ridiculous assertion that just by existing, just by speaking, any white person perpetuates inequalities. As Adele Wilde-Blavatsky asks, “Are you seriously suggesting that we can only debate an issue if we have first-hand experience of it? Do I have to be a porn star to critique pornography?” As she experienced,
To claim, as one woman did, that I used the ‘ties’ of ‘non-white bodies’ to ‘obfsucate my whiteness’ not only reduces me and my family to the level of our skin colour but also categorically ignores our intimate connections and unique personal experiences and cultural and religious backgrounds. Most importantly, it denies us the experience we share as human beings in terms of genuine love, care and compassion. The very thing you accuse me of doing in relation to Muslim women.
And like the boy who cried wolf, when accusations of racism are blatantly and routinely misused, it’s easy to then miss or ignore real instances of racism.
Where inequalities are truly being perpetuated is by those who have co-opted the language of feminism, but really work to preserve the status quo of misogyny by giving credence to cultural relativism, and by letting an indelible paranoia of imperialist identity override the need to speak out against the real perpetrators of abuses against women. Similarly, Wilde-Blavatsky referred to a “fear of Islamaphobia so intense” that it risks shutting out dissenting Muslim voices calling for more freedoms, such as the freedom of choosing how to dress.
Too much of the western academic world has consistently ignored the homegrown voices courageously demanding the kinds of rights and freedoms we have come to take for granted. I still have faith in feminism, because I’m fortunate enough to interact with real feminists every day—women in Afghanistan who aren’t willing to compromise on their demand for rights in the name of culture or identity—and who risk their lives every day to express their belief in the idea that human rights are universal.
In the west, we have forgotten that the rights we enjoy today were not granted, they were taken. Now it’s the turn of others to take theirs.
I may be Caucasian, and I may be non-Muslim. It would hardly even matter if I were also a man. I’m calling a wrong when I see it, and if you want to box me into a corner based on the superficialities of 21st century identity politics as defined by post-modernist Women’s Studies Departments far removed from the real battlefields for women’s rights, so be it. But I will speak out whatever the skin colour and whatever the religion of the victims of misogyny. If those who profess to be scholars confuse that with racism, by god, scholarship is in trouble. Civilization, indeed, is in trouble.
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Egypt: leading presidential candidate promises sharia
The Muslim Brotherhood candidate who came first in the opening round of the Egyptian presidential election is “promising” to implement sharia.
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Keep the harlots occupied
Oh good god – what a clusterfuck it is when reactionaries co-opt the jargon of liberation to decorate the chains.
A new Islamic tv station is launching in the Middle East, an all woman station. Progressive, huh?
Its pilot broadcasts will start towards the end of this month, where all the staff including the broadcasters will be veiled women. No men or non-veiled women will be employed says Sheikha Safaa , the manager of the channel.
Oh. Not so progressive then. Kind of brazenly discriminatory, actually.
[Safaa] has made it quite clear that the objectives of launching this channel is to offer veiled women the chance to appear on the screens and to empower other veiled women by activating their roles. She claims veiled women suffer marginalization.
They will empower other veiled women! Kind of like the way Michelle Duggar empowers other Quiverfull women, and those four women married to the one guy empower other Fundamentalist LDS women. Solidarity, sistas! Good luck with activating their roles – whatever that means. Reminding them that only whores don’t wear hijabs, probably. You go, girl!
“The affairs of the channel will be handled by the sisters who will be running the television channel, since women are more qualified to address and talk about their own needs”. She added Sheikh Abu Islam Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah, the owner of the “Al Ummah” channel and the new “Maria” Channel, said in a statement that “God willing, the channel will employ Muslim women graduates of various departments of media collages and institutions. This project aims at protecting women from temptations by finding them suitable work opportunities .”
Oh that’s kind. Women are such feeble-minded sluts, you know, that it’s pretty much impossible for them to resist temptations. They keep flinging themselves down in the street and spreading their legs in a hopeful kind of way, because they just can’t help it. It’s super-nice of Sheikh Abu Islam Ahmed Mohammed Abdullah to make up some pretend jobs for a few of them so that they’ll be too busy to fall down and spread their legs. It’s hugely empowering, too, that reason for giving people jobs. “Here, honey, this will keep you busy so that you don’t run around grabbing every penis you can reach.”
Abu Islam confirmed that the pilot will start with a broadcast of 6 hours through ‘Al Ummah’ channel, until the time of actual broadcast. He also made it clear that this channel will not host guests who are men or unveiled women, but telephone interventions from both will be permitted.
Makes sense. Spread your legs all you want, but it won’t do you any good over the telephone, so interviews with men (with penises!!) and unveiled women (who wear their vaginas on their heads!!) will be safe.
Allah is wise, merciful.
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The expansion of Steiner schools in the UK
It’s much harder to make up lost ground in physics or maths than it is in the humanities.
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It’s not all about you
Department of Bad Ideas: the idea that vaccination is “a personal decision.” Vaccination is a personal decision the way texting while driving is a personal decision. That is, it’s not.
And it’s exponentially less so when the non-vaxxer is somewhat famous, and has published a book that includes her views on non-vaxxing, and talks about non-vaxxing on NPR’s Science Friday.
In certain circles, especially in the [Attachment Parenting] community, there’s huge pressure to reject or at least delay vaccines. (While a delay is better than not doing it at all, it’s still dangerous.) You then show by your personal meddling with the schedule that you care, that you’ve paid attention and done research. Hey, we haven’t all gotten degrees in epidemiology and studied the schedule, but we can all scowl at it skeptically, right? Following the recommendations of the scientists who research this stuff for a living is for sheep. They must all somehow be in the thrall of large pharmaceutical corporations. Or so the thinking goes.
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It’s time for a little social pressure of our own. It’s time for us to tell Mayim to take this one back. Stop being responsible for the measles or pertussis revivals. Once you blog about it and talk about it on interviews, like the one you did recently for Science Friday, you’re no longer just influencing your friends. It’s no longer a private, personal decision. You’re influencing everyone within earshot. Stop being a disease vector. Stop pretending like the only person affected by your decisions is you. Start acting like the role model you aspire to be.
But Mayim Bialik – Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory, which is why I know who she is – is firm that it is indeed personal. I find that kind of imperturbable selfishness deeply irritating.
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Jesus and Mo ponder the moon
They are not impressed.
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Charles Freeman on the shroud of Turin
What Ian Wilson has done is to follow in the steps of medieval chroniclers and create a legendary account of the origins of a relic cult.
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Suspicious fire at Georgia clinic
Investigators are still trying to determine what caused a fire at an obstetrics and gynecology clinic — the second suspicious fire at a Georgia reproductive clinic this week.
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Mayim Bialik PhD should know better
Than to evangelize for anti-vaxxing.