Residents told Al Jazeera that at least 200 people had died in the eastern city of Benghazi alone.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Tony Blair wants more “respect” for “faith”
Feb 19th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Does his “I am a lamp” dance for emphasis.… Read the rest
Separation
Feb 19th, 2011 2:06 pm | By Ophelia BensonI’ve been thinking about segregation, because I’ve been thinking about the Muslim Brotherhood and sexual segregation. The MB of course mandates sexual segregation where it can, and would mandate it throughout Egypt if it got the power to do so. Many non-MB Egyptians think sexual segregation is right and good.
Marwa, a nursery school teacher who did not provide her last name, stood with some 200 women of all ages who chanted for the downfall of the regime. She wore a veil covering her hair.
‘I cover my body and support gender segregation during the protests, not as an Islamist statement, but because it is not right for men and women to have physical contact,’ she said.
What I’ve … Read the rest
Pretending that evidence is difficult and complicated
Feb 19th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Things get tricky when evidence collides with what people would simply like to crack on and do anyway.… Read the rest
Coyne on Vernon on “ultra-Darwinism”
Feb 19th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
There is nothing numinous or celestial about DNA replication.… Read the rest
Mark Vernon on “ultra-Darwinism”
Feb 19th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“Ultra-Darwinism is the kind associated with the new atheism.” Eh?… Read the rest
Clamp down on those pesky women’s shelters
Feb 19th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Women have no business trying to escape violence. Who do they think they are?!… Read the rest
Bullies win another round
Feb 18th, 2011 5:04 pm | By Ophelia BensonIf you haven’t already, sign the petition to Karzai to save Afghan women’s shelters.
UN analyst Una Moore explains why.
… Read the restConservative politicians and media personalities have long railed against Afghanistan’s few women’s shelters and demanded that the facilities be closed. Two years ago, the government appointed a hard-line mullah to lead a commission to investigate shelters and recommend reforms…
Now, the shelter commission’s verdict is in. The government will seize all women’s shelters countrywide and place them under the control of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the police. Women and girls seeking protection will have to plead their cases before an admissions panel of government employees and undergo medically dubious “examinations” to prove they are not guilty of
HRW to Afghan government
Feb 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Support, rather than control, the work of shelter providers to ensure that women fleeing domestic violence are able to find safe and secure refuge.… Read the rest
Afghan government’s attack on women’s shelters
Feb 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In effect, Afghanistan’s few refuges for abused women are about to become prisons.… Read the rest
Values and the New Atheism
Feb 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What’s “missing” from the New Atheist world view is the siren call of easy assent to illegitimate authority.… Read the rest
Journalist has tiny crush on Muslim Brotherhood
Feb 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Its youth wing, that is. Sure, they want to establish Sharia, but they’re so young and energetic and passionate.… Read the rest
Egypt: “moderate” Islamist to head panel on constitution
Feb 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And a former Muslim Brotherhood MP, Sobhy Saleh, will be among the members of the panel.… Read the rest
Petition to save women’s shelters in Afghanistan
Feb 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Under a new bill, women and girls would have to appear before a panel which could decide to send them home or charge them with “adultery.”… Read the rest
Johann Hari: get bishops out of lawmaking
Feb 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Which two nations still reserve places in their parliaments for unelected religious clerics? Iran…and Britain.… Read the rest
Religious discrimination in “faith” schools
Feb 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The new Education Bill would allow a Muslim or Catholic school, for instance, to recruit entirely on religious grounds.… Read the rest
Ahmadinejad on true, Islamic feminism
Feb 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s not Zionist.… Read the rest
Free Church minister resigns over music in services
Feb 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Music is Satan’s fishing rod.… Read the rest
Blatant discrimination against a Christian
Feb 17th, 2011 6:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhen is it ok to decline to hire a particular person for a scientific job and hire someone else instead? James Hannam says not when the particular person in question is a creationist. For why? For because that is a religious belief, and it is the particular person’s right to have a religious belief and that right is trampled on when someone else is given the job as director of the student observatory at the University of Kentucky. Martin Gaskell was the best guy for the job as any fule kno and so it was no fair to give that job to someone else.
… Read the rest[T]he mere fact he was sympathetic towards creationists and kept an open mind about evolution appears
Religion is no excuse for promoting scientific ignorance
Feb 17th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Teachers of science need to understand and convey concepts that are in accord with our understanding of nature.… Read the rest
