Before Librarian’s letter, Felton’s invitation was more or less an honest mistake. Now it’s about ‘intellectual freedom.’… Read the rest
All entries by this author
The ‘Marketplace of Ideas’ is not Sufficient
Feb 17th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMore from Terry Glavin on Greg Felton and free speech.… Read the rest
Terry Glavin on ‘Freedom to Read Week’
Feb 17th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Vancouver Public Library seems to have confused free speech with providing a platform.… Read the rest
Triumph of the Hedgehogs
Feb 17th, 2008 | By David DabscheckWhat characteristic do neo-conservative Norman Podhoretz, hard left-wing political magazine The Nation, conservative-without-qualifiers The National Review and liberal commentator Eric Alterman all share? Despite their bald divergences in political ideologies and opinions, they are, without exception, hedgehogs, as identified by Isaiah Berlin in his 1953 essay on Tolstoy, “The Hedgehog and the Fox.” Berlin saw in the words of the Greek poet Archilochus—“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing”—the two essential perspectives from which thinkers interpret the world. Hedgehogs are those that “relate everything to a single central vision,” while foxes are wary of grand truths and embrace a diffusive, pluralistic outlook. To put it another way, Hedgehogs think centripetally around a central organizing … Read the rest
Gina Khan Interview on BBC Breakfast Sunday
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDon’t miss it.… Read the rest
David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton: Ethics Bites
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEach week they talk to a philosopher about issues like death, censorship and historical blame.… Read the rest
Fred Halliday on the Elusive Divine
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The word “tradition” should alert a person to the very modern forces it connotes, and often conceals.’… Read the rest
More Fuss About Taslima Nasreen’s Visa
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMuslim clergy and political leaders warned they would take to the streets if the state continues to shelter her.… Read the rest
Taslima Nasreen Talks to Tehelka
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonI am against all kind of fundamentalism, dogmas, bigotry and conservatism.I support free minds and free thought.… Read the rest
The ‘Culture Wars’ Are Not About to Disappear
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere are deep disagreements about the sources of moral authority, the nature of knowing, the ‘limits’ of science.… Read the rest
Ziauddin Sardar on the Archbishop and Sharia
Feb 16th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt is not just in the west that the sharia conjures up instant images of oppression and brutality.… Read the rest
The Archbishop’s Message
Feb 16th, 2008 | By Azar MajediPerhaps Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury thought his statement about Sharia Law would be received enthusiastically as well-intended and an effort to reduce racial tensions in the society. However, his proposal got him into trouble. He was attacked from right and left. Those who saw their “white Christian culture” under threat asked for his resignation. Women rights activists, secularists and such like attacked him for the negative effects of Sharia Law on human rights, particularly the disastrous effects of such a practice on women in so-called Muslim communities. In response to harsh criticism he tried to qualify his proposal by stating that he did not mean the whole Sharia Law, but only in family matters. He has just missed … Read the rest
It is not just in the west
Feb 16th, 2008 11:31 am | By Ophelia BensonZiauddin Sardar sets the archbishop straight.
… Read the restIt is not just in the west, as the archbishop suggests, that the sharia is misunderstood, or where it conjures up instant images of oppression and brutality. It is also misunderstood by most Muslims in countries other than Britain, countries where it is seen as a total system of divine origin, and where it sometimes leads to oppression and brutality…The sharia needs to be reformed totally before it can be implemented anywhere – among the Muslim minorities in liberal democracies or in the Muslim-majority states. Giving the sharia as it stands legal sanction in Britain, even in limited areas, will replicate all the problems of gender inequality that it has produced in Muslim
How’s that again?
Feb 16th, 2008 11:27 am | By Ophelia BensonI don’t understand this. I must (as so often) be missing something. Roger Scruton says we we owe to ‘the Christian legacy’ the idea that law is and ought to be a secular institution, then he says we owe it to Roman law, but he goes on saying it’s a Christian legacy.
… Read the rest[O]ne of the things that we owe to [the Christian] legacy is the idea that law is and ought to be a secular institution, whose authority is founded in human decisions and is independent of, and in an important respect takes precedence over, divine commands…The privatisation of religious law was clearly a part of Jesus’s mission…His striking pronouncement in the story of the tribute money, that we should
CNN on Tasneem Khalil
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘I’m going to tell my story again and again and again,’ Khalil told CNN. ‘It’s not only my story.’… Read the rest
HRW Says Torture is Rampant in Bangladesh
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMany of the people arrested under the emergency rules have been tortured to extract confessions. … Read the rest
The Guardian on Tasneem Khalil
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHRW accuses international community of ignoring Bangladesh’s clandestine detention and torture system.… Read the rest
Cross-dressers in Sharia Court in Nigeria
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Under Sharia law a man must dress like a man and woman must dress like a woman.’… Read the rest
Dane Starts ‘Sorry, Mo’ Group on Facebook
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘That is why I apologise for being a Dane coming from Denmark,’ Anders explains. … Read the rest
Protection Needed for Targets of Death Threats
Feb 15th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAyaan Hirsi Ali has appealed to the EU to create a fund to help protect people under threat.… Read the rest