“We were concerned that offence could have been taken and this may have impacted negatively on arts funding.”… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Padraig Ready on Ireland’s head-in-sand censorship 
Nov 2nd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A photographer has withdrawn a project from exhibition after local officials objected to the text accompanying the pictures.… Read the rest
Will “new atheism” make room for women?
Nov 2nd, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“No women are currently recognized as leaders or even mentioned as a force within the movement.” Debatable.… Read the rest
The Islamic regime of Iran plans to execute Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani immediately
Nov 1st, 2010 | By International Committee against Stoning
According to news received by the International Committee against Stoning and International Commitee against Execution on 1 November 2010, the authorities in Tehran have given the go ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday 3 November.
We had previously reported that the casefile regarding the murder case of Ms Ashtiani’s husband had been seized from her lawyer’s office, Houtan Kian, and found missing from the prosecutor’s Oskoo branch office so as to stitch Ms Ashtiani up with trumped up murder charges. Ms Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, have warned of the regime’s plan to do so on… Read the rest
Policing belief
Nov 1st, 2010 12:14 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Freedom House report on blasphemy laws underlines the distinction between blasphemy and incitement.
It’s easy to understand why the two get blended together, because hatred of a set of ideas can lead to hatred of people who espouse them. This is obvious to me with regard to people like Glen Beck; to the pope’s ravings about atheism; to sexist rants about feminism. In that sense,… Read the restThere is an important distinction in international law between blasphemy—meaning critical, insulting, or offensive expression against religious doctrines, figures, and deities—and incitement—meaning expression that explicitly encourages and calls for hostility and violence. Of the two, only the latter appears to fit the limited circumstances in which restrictions on freedom of expression are considered acceptable.
Lauryn Oates on negotiating with the Taliban
Nov 1st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Taliban have been quite consistent in their beliefs that girls should not be educated and women who work outside the home deserve to die.… Read the rest
Nicholas Kristof tells Afghan women to get over it
Nov 1st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Teachers and principals should not have to negotiate with deranged, violent lunatic militants for children to go to school.… Read the rest
How internet discussions of sexism go
Nov 1st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“Sorry ladies, nothing is sexist until I say it is, plus I heart women, so lick my balls.”… Read the rest
Appiah on honour at Five Books
Oct 31st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
His first choice is In the Name of Honor by Mukhtar Mai.… Read the rest
Fatwa train
Oct 31st, 2010 4:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhy is it the Telegraph that mentions such things? Where are the papers to the left of the Telegraph?
Nick Cohen is on the case.
Jon Stewart’s Rally for Sanity yesterday featured Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens singing “Peace Train”. Islam/Stevens previously showed his commitment to peace and sanity by saying that death was the appropriate punishment for Salman Rushdie’s “blasphemy”.
I’m hoping that Rushdie will drop a word to Stewart and Colbert and that they will say something – like perhaps that they didn’t realize that about Islam/Stevens and have no desire whatsoever to endorse fatwas on heretics or blasphemers or apostates.… Read the rest
Salman Rushdie on Yusuf Islam
Oct 31st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What he said to the New York Times in 1989.… Read the rest
What was Yusuf Islam doing at the Sanity rally?
Oct 31st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He previously showed his commitment to peace and sanity by saying that death was the appropriate punishment for Salman Rushdie’s “blasphemy.”… Read the rest
BJP protesters besiege Arundhati Roy
Oct 31st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Around 150 BJP members surrounded her house chanting slogans. Roy supports independence for Kashmir, which the BJP opposes.… Read the rest
PSI research: What do these numbers really mean?
Oct 31st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The problem is not the results but how they are being interpreted.… Read the rest
New evidence for precognition?
Oct 31st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“Rehearsing a set of words makes them easier to recall in the future, but what if the rehearsal occurs after the recall?”… Read the rest
Blasphemy law in Italy
Oct 31st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What kind of all-powerful Deity needs secular law enforcement to protect it from the jests of a few comedians and other riffraff?… Read the rest
How Berlusconi disagrees with a female politician
Oct 31st, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
By telling her she’s old and ugly. Italian women “protest against this cretinisation of women, of democracy, of politics itself.”… Read the rest
What climate change needs is a New Narrative
Oct 30th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
People who make a living painstakingly creating stories from ideas tend to overvalue the importance of narrative.… Read the rest
Hitchens on submitting to the needle in the arm
Oct 30th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
He thinks of the obituaries he’d like to write, listing Robert Mugabe. Joseph Ratzinger. Henry Kissinger.… Read the rest
Terrorists inspired by Fox News and Glen Beck
Oct 30th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The campaign coordinator for Rand Paul who stepped on the head of a female protester is not an isolated example.… Read the rest
