Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is the kind of Muslim woman who maddens reactionary Muslim men and their asinine female followers. … Read the rest
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The glorious transfigured future
May 4th, 2009 11:44 am | By Ophelia BensonLet’s see Fish and Eagleton – or should I adopt the latter’s sophisticated witticism and call them Eaglefish? – sneer at progress, liberalism and enlightenment in the context of Delara Derabi’s last minutes, and her parents’ experience of her last minutes. First some Eaglefish sneering –
… Read the restProgress, liberalism and enlightenment — these are the watchwords of those, like Hitchens, who believe that in a modern world, religion has nothing to offer us…[W]e are where we always were, confronted with a choice between a flawed but aspiring religious faith or a spectacularly hubristic faith in the power of unaided reason and a progress that has no content but, like the capitalism it reflects and extends, just makes its valueless way
Morris Zapp has gone downhill
May 4th, 2009 9:55 am | By Ophelia BensonStanley Fish is moved to let us know that he is just as woolly and assertive and bad-mannered and rhetorical as Terry Eagleton and Mark Vernon and Madeleine Bunting and the rest of the ‘new atheists are bad‘ crowd.
[T]he British critic Terry Eagleton asks, “Why are the most unlikely people, including myself, suddenly talking about God?” His answer, elaborated in prose that is alternately witty, scabrous and angry, is that the other candidates for guidance — science, reason, liberalism, capitalism — just don’t deliver what is ultimately needed.
Eh? ‘Other candidates’ than what? Other than Eagleton? Those are our choices – Eagleton on the one hand and science, reason, liberalism, capitalism on the other? Why? How? Who says?… Read the rest
Another singer eliminated
May 3rd, 2009 12:31 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnother woman is reminded that she is not allowed to do anything, and so are all the other women in her part of the world.
… Read the restThe murder of Ayman Udas, who was in her early thirties and newly married, has shocked the city’s artistic community because it symbolises a backlash against women and cultural freedom in an area that is increasingly dominated by Islamic fundamentalists. As a singer and song writer in her native Pashto, the language of the tribal areas and the NorthWest Frontier province, Udas frequently performed on PTV, the state-run channel. She won considerable acclaim for her songs but had become a musician in the face of bitter opposition from her family, who believed it was
The Madrasa Problem in Pakistan
May 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe state has forgotten children and the mullahs have not.… Read the rest
Interrogation Debate Split Bush White House
May 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe CIA got very nervous; some Bush officials got nervous; lots of people got nervous.… Read the rest
UAE Torture-tape Prince Accused of More Attacks
May 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNew tapes may show police taking part in Issa’s attacks; some victims believed to be Sudanese immigrants.… Read the rest
Tariq Ramadan Accused of Homophobia Again
May 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd sexism – tells women to keep their eyes fixed always on the ground.… Read the rest
Afghan Men Surprised by Protest at Marriage Law
May 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘It was unexpected because already 99 per cent of Afghan women only leave the house with their husband’s permission.’… Read the rest
Theo Hobson Wants to Be a Christian, But
May 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBut he doesn’t want all the pesky baggage.… Read the rest
Peshawar: Woman Murdered for Singing
May 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAyman Udas’s family believed it was sinful for a woman to perform on television. … Read the rest
During that time we didn’t hear a single protest
May 3rd, 2009 11:06 am | By Ophelia BensonA senior Shia cleric in Kabul stands up for democracy.
Supporters of the Afghan law which critics claim legalises marital rape and restricts the rights of women say they will oppose amending the legislation significantly. “A change in this law will be illegal and against democracy,” said Sayed Abdul Latif Sajadi, a senior Shia cleric in Kabul who played a leading role in drawing up the legislation and pushing it through parliament. “Any change will be against the wishes of four million people.”
Men. Against the wishes of four million men. He means any change will be against the wishes of four million men – women of course were not asked and not given any way to voice an … Read the rest
Shades of gray
May 2nd, 2009 4:49 pm | By Ophelia BensonSimon Blackburn has fun teasing John Gray. John Gray strikes me as a great dogmatic repetitive bore, so I enjoy seeing people teasing him.
The habit of abstraction enables Gray to position himself as a lone voice against a world of fantastical optimists: “All prevailing philosophies embody the fiction that human life can be changed at will,” he tells us sweepingly, naming no names. What? I suppose many philosophers do think that if you need to have a drink, you can change your life, a little, by doing so. Other things can be harder to do. But I challenge Gray to name a single philosopher who thinks we can change everything about our lives at will.
Oh, naming people … Read the rest
No innocent conduct will be captured
May 2nd, 2009 4:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonDepartment of Strange Ideas.
[W]hile the Constitution requires an offence of blasphemy it also, like the position in many other countries, expressly protects freedom of expression. …No innocent conduct will be captured. The revised provision in regard to blasphemy requires at least three elements to be present: that the material be grossly abusive or insulting in matters held sacred by a religion; that it must actually cause outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion; and, crucially, that there be an intent to cause such outrage.
Okay, that does clear things up: it will be a crime to produce ‘material’ that is grossly abusive or insulting in matters held sacred by a religion, if it causes outrage … Read the rest
No One Can Escape Religion, No One At All
May 2nd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘While science, logic and reason are on the side of the nonreligious, the cold, hard facts are just so cold and hard.’… Read the rest
EU Condemns Execution of Darabi
May 2nd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonInternational agreements prohibit death sentences being carried out on minors. … Read the rest
Amnesty International Outraged at Execution
May 2nd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDarabi was executed despite having been given a two-month stay of execution by the Head of the Judiciary on 19 April. … Read the rest
Iran Has Executed Delara Derabi
May 2nd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEarly Friday morning Darabi made a desperate phone call to her parents, saying she could see the hangman’s noose. … Read the rest
How Pleasant to Know Mr Ham
May 2nd, 2009 | By Ed TurnerWhen I saw Bill Maher’s highly entertaining and hard-hitting documentary on world religion, Religulous,
I was interested that one of his interviewees was Ken Ham, the head of Answers In Genesis
(AIG) (not to be confused with the now-infamous insurance company), which is responsible for the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky, USA.
Ham was given only a brief slot in the film, but I was fortunate (if that’s the right word) to have a much longer encounter with him just over one year ago at Liverpool University. I went to see give a talk called “Origins and Culture”. At the time I posted a bile-laden write-up on Liverpool Humanist Group’s website. After seeing Maher’s film, I thought the … Read the rest
Rosary-chanters Shut Down Euthanasia Debate
May 1st, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProtesters shouted that euthanasia was state-sponsored murder; Gardai were called, did not intervene.… Read the rest