All entries by this author

British Women Going to India to Abort Girls *

Dec 3rd, 2007 | Filed by

‘It is really not a nice feeling when you are really proud of her and they dismiss her as just another mistake.’… Read the rest



Sudan’s Image Damaged *

Dec 3rd, 2007 | Filed by

First Darfur, now Gibbons – but no matter, China’s still a fan.… Read the rest



Apologetic Gillian Gibbons Released *

Dec 3rd, 2007 | Filed by

Ibrahim Mogra from the MCB said the whole saga had been very damaging for the image of the Muslim faith. … Read the rest



Center for Inquiry Experts Comment on Texas Science Education Standards

Dec 3rd, 2007 | By Nathan Bupp

Amherst, N.Y.-Experts at the Center for Inquiry (CFI), America’s largest think tank defending reason, science, and freedom of inquiry, were dismayed to learn that Texas has forced a distinguished educator out of her job because she spoke favorably of evolution and forwarded messages about lectures on evolution. Christine Castillo Comer, with more than three decades of experience as an educator, was forced out of her position recently after she forwarded an e-mail message about a talk to be given at CFI-Austin by Dr. Barbara Forrest, a critic of intelligent design. Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University, is a fellow at the Center for Inquiry. A copy of the forwarded e-mail that cost Comer her position is available upon … Read the rest



Pope Eager to Chat With Muslim ‘Leaders’ *

Dec 2nd, 2007 | Filed by

Excited about command to love God – yes let’s make everyone do that.… Read the rest



Dawkins Site’s Favorite 100 Articles *

Dec 2nd, 2007 | Filed by

Notice numero uno…… Read the rest



International Appeal to Reinstate Malalai Joya *

Dec 2nd, 2007 | Filed by

Joya has been an outspoken critic of the heavy presence of warlords in the Afghan parliament.… Read the rest



Meet the Sudanese Thinker *

Dec 2nd, 2007 | Filed by

‘We’ll make a mosh pit, head bang together and proclaim “down with the infidel teacher”. Yaaay!’… Read the rest



Sudanese Views Over Mobear Not All the Same *

Dec 2nd, 2007 | Filed by

Some ‘hotheads’ demand the sword, many people are ashamed and angry.… Read the rest



‘1.5 Million Muslims Know Who I Am’

Dec 2nd, 2007 | By Max Dunbar

Greg Palast is a radical campaigning journalist and author. He broke the British ‘Lobbygate’ scandal of 1999, which revealed that the Labour government was twisting policy to fit the needs of its financial backers. He revealed how George Bush stole the presidency in 2000 and continues to make the case that Bush stole the presidency in 2004. He is one of the most vocal opponents of the Iraq war.

He encountered British MP George Galloway in 2003 and initially defended him:

I sought additional material from Galloway and other sources to bolster that defense and to my surprise, found more that damned him than supported him. As a journalist, I could not bury the findings.

Throughout his career, Galloway has … Read the rest



A new charade by the Islamists

Dec 2nd, 2007 | By Azar Majedi

Islamists have become good at their own kind of PR. Every once in a while they find something to raise hell over and threaten the world. The charade over cartoons of Mohammad is still lingering on in the Media, and now they have started another bizarre show of offended feelings and indignant masses over a teddy bear called Mohammad in a class room of 7-8 year old kids in Sudan. The timing of this teddy bear show puzzles me greatly. Is the concurrent teddy bear saga and Annapolis conference merely a coincidence or does the timing tell us something?

It is irrelevant whether the English teacher has done this deliberately or it is just “an innocent mistake.” Whatever the reason, … Read the rest



The silent women whose voices we never hear

Dec 2nd, 2007 11:39 am | By

I heard Robin Fox explaining that democracy is not ‘natural’ on NPR this morning. He said we think that what we’re used to is human nature, but it’s not, it’s just what we’re used to. Most people in the world are used to tribalism, he went on, and that’s what they want. They don’t care about nation or categories like ‘Arab,’ they care about family and tribe and what brings honour to them.

It’s interesting, and persuasive up to a point, but only up to a point. For one thing, there are objective benefits that tend to go with democracy and don’t tend to go with tribalism. And for a perhaps more significant and more far-reaching thing, what does Fox … Read the rest



Confusion has its uses

Dec 1st, 2007 4:15 pm | By

Are you shy? Introverted? Reserved? Hostile? Easily bored? Hypercritical? Tightly wound? Quarrelsome? High maintenance? Have you considered medication? It could be that KlineGlasgowSmith has just the pill for you. Do you have restless legs? A limp dick? Flat hair? Do you get hungry several times a day? Do you scratch a lot? You could have a treatable syndrome: please turn on your tv, and the right ad for your condition will appear sooner than you expect.

Frederick Crews looks at the wonderful interplay between Big Pharma and middle-class hypochondria.

Most of us naively regard mental disturbances, like physical ones, as timeless realities that our doctors address according to up-to-date research, employing medicines whose appropriateness and safety have been tested

Read the rest


Bunglawala tells us where he stands

Dec 1st, 2007 12:39 pm | By

A couple of days ago I asked what if there had been (quoting Bunglawala) ‘apparent intention to offend Islamic sensibilities or defame the honour and name of the Prophet Muhammad’ – would that make the arrest of Gibbons okay?

Should ‘defaming the honour and name of the Prophet Muhammad’ or ‘offending Islamic sensibilities’ be a criminal offense under the law? It’s good that Bunglawala said Gibbons shouldn’t have been arrested, but his reason for saying so is not so good, and the fact that the BBC is still automatically phoning the MCB for the obligatory comment is also not good. The BBC still needs to expand its Rolodex.

Bunglawala obliged us by answering the question*, and what do you … Read the rest



Deborah Lipstadt on Irving at Oxford Union *

Dec 1st, 2007 | Filed by

‘How does [Tyrl] propose “debating” someone such as David Irving who is a proven falsifier of history?’… Read the rest



UK Peers to Visit Gibbons *

Dec 1st, 2007 | Filed by

FO ‘pleased that they have been able to convey the views of British Muslims to the Sudanese authorities.’… Read the rest



Bunglawala: Gibbons Case a ‘Silly Affair’ *

Dec 1st, 2007 | Filed by

Ridiculous case – Sudan already has a poor image – silly affair – Sun readers barbarous too.… Read the rest



Garton Ash on How to Get Along *

Dec 1st, 2007 | Filed by

When a Muslim says the Koran favours free speech, why argue?… Read the rest



Nick Cohen on Liberal Condescension *

Dec 1st, 2007 | Filed by

How does Garton Ash know what seeds Hirsi Ali is planting in the minds of Muslim women?… Read the rest



Turkish Publisher Faces Jail for Atheist Book *

Dec 1st, 2007 | Filed by

Dawkins’s publishers threatened with legal action by prosecutors who accuse TGD of ‘insulting believers.’… Read the rest