Psychic said a child whose name began with V was being molested; school called Victoria’s mother.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Regulation is Recognition
Jun 24th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe greatest risk to the health of the NHS is approaching: the march of the alternative health industry.… Read the rest
David Colquhoun on the Alt Med Report
Jun 24th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe report shows an execrable ability to assess evidence, and it advocates degrees in antiscience.… Read the rest
Regulating the ‘Professions’ of Alt Medicine
Jun 24th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe main body of the report produced for the Government does not contain the word ‘placebo.’… Read the rest
Jeb Bush Wants More, Worse Religious Schools
Jun 24th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBush has engineered two initiatives that would dilute language requiring a quality public school system. … Read the rest
A really big celestial choir
Jun 23rd, 2008 3:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe New York Times spots ‘tolerance’ where a more jaundiced observer might spot giggling incoherence mixed with wide-eyed gullibility.
[N]early three-quarters of [Americans] say they believe that many faiths besides their own can lead to salvation, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The report…reveals a broad trend toward tolerance and an ability among many Americans to hold beliefs that might contradict the doctrines of their professed faiths. For example, 70 percent of Americans affiliated with a religion or denomination said they agreed that “many religions can lead to eternal life.”
Yee-ha! The report reveals an ability among many Americans to hold beliefs that might contradict each other; the report reveals an ability among … Read the rest
Translation
Jun 23rd, 2008 2:24 pm | By Ophelia BensonZiauddin Sardar likes a new translation of the Koran by Tarif Khalidi.
The best way to demonstrate its newness, and how close it is to the original text, is to compare it with an old translation. The translation I have in mind is Khalidi’s predecessor in the Penguin Classics: The Koran, translated with notes by NJ Dawood…It has been a great source of discomfort for Muslims, who see in it deliberate distortions that give the Qur’an violent and sexist overtones. It is the one most non-Muslims cite when they tell me with great conviction what the Qur’an says.
Hmm. That’s interesting – because one has to wonder what Muslims Sardar has in mind. Most Muslims, certainly including most Muslims … Read the rest
Pew Survey Shows US Religious Credulity [link fixed]
Jun 23rd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBelieve ‘many religions can lead to eternal life.’ All at the same time, but in different hats.… Read the rest
Poland: Priest Blocked Rape Victim’s Abortion
Jun 23rd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPriest, anti-abortion campaigners, doctors gang up on 14-year-old who doesn’t want a baby.… Read the rest
Secularism Meets Islamism on Big Brother
Jun 23rd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“This is nothing to do with religion!” “Tell it to Allah!”… Read the rest
UK Government Should Do More to Stop FGM
Jun 23rd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnn Clwyd calls it an absolute disgrace that no one has been prosecuted under the new regulations.… Read the rest
Ziauddin Sardar on New Koran Translation
Jun 23rd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWords things in a nicer way than the Dawood translation did. Also more accurately? Or not?… Read the rest
What Darwin and Wallace Thought
Jun 23rd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson150 years ago next week, a notion, more radical even than Marx’s, was set loose on the world.… Read the rest
Theodore Dalrymple Reviews Julian Baggini
Jun 23rd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDalrymple is not sure that the intellectually sophisticated and critical are the most balanced complainants.… Read the rest
Bali Bombers Issue Encouragement from Cells
Jun 22nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUse laptops to call for violent jihad and give advice about how to avoid detection by the security services.… Read the rest
Tsvangirai Pulls Out of Election
Jun 22nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMDC says some 86 supporters have been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes by Zanu-PF militias. … Read the rest
Support for Iranian Women on Demo Anniversary
Jun 22nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonScores of women’s rights activists in Iran have been summoned, arrested and sentenced.… Read the rest
Abdi Sentenced, Safarzadeh Awaiting Trial
Jun 22nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBoth are active members of Campaign for Equality, which seeks an end to discrimination against women.… Read the rest
Iran: Hana Abdi Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison
Jun 22nd, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAbdi has been in detention since November for advocating for greater freedoms for Iran’s women.… Read the rest
Shocked, shocked
Jun 22nd, 2008 11:37 am | By Ophelia BensonThey still don’t get it. (Who? I don’t really know – I don’t really understand who these people are. The people who think Islamism is okay. Who are they [apart from Islamists of course]? I don’t know. I don’t understand what this tendency or ideology or grouping is. They baffle me. I encounter them here and there, but what they think their politics might be remains opaque. I know they get very irritable with people who have reservations about Islam [let alone Islamism], but that’s not exactly manifesto-quality thought, is it.) They find it astonishing that a clever literate person would despise Islamism. Because – what? Because they themselves would find life in Jeddah perfectly pleasant? Because they … Read the rest