How does Garton Ash know what seeds Hirsi Ali is planting in the minds of Muslim women?… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Turkish Publisher Faces Jail for Atheist Book
Dec 1st, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDawkins’s publishers threatened with legal action by prosecutors who accuse TGD of ‘insulting believers.’… Read the rest
Book or no book?
Dec 1st, 2007 1:02 am | By Ophelia BensonEd Husain takes Ayaan Hirsi Ali to task.
Just as Wahhabites and Islamists bypass scholarship, context, and history in the name of “returning to the book”, Hirsi Ali and others such as Robert Spencer and Ibn Warraq commit exactly the same error…Let’s take the question of apostasy. At an Evening Standard debate the other night, Rod Liddle had no qualms in declaring Islam, with a barrage of other baseless abuse, “a fascistic ideology”. Why? Because the Qur’an commands the killing of those who abandon it…[T]here is no verse in the Qur’an that calls for the killing of apostates…There is no stronger argument against religious fanatics than to illustrate the scriptural weaknesses of their case.
Well, maybe so, when you’re … Read the rest
Like bread
Dec 1st, 2007 12:54 am | By Ophelia BensonJust a little more.
First of all, I mostly agree with Norm here.
One thing we are saying is that the human worth of those prisoners in the camps was being denied. Making them stand naked and vulnerable in the circumstances I have described was a way of announcing that anything – anything at all – could be done to them…To put the same thing differently, the respect or status we normally hold to be due to people simply in virtue of their humanity has here been removed.
But then that is putting it differently, and that’s what I’m saying. I don’t really literally think ‘dignity’ is meaningless – but I do think it means too many things and that … Read the rest
Taboo
Dec 1st, 2007 12:47 am | By Ophelia BensonAnd just a little more. I’m like a dog with a bone, you know. There’s a rather Kassian argument in comments on an older post (combined with some vituperation to make it go down more smoothly). It’s interesting.
… Read the restOne doesn’t need to be a Christian, or even a theist, to be extremely alarmed at some of the directions that secular ethical thinking seems naturally inclined to go in – especially in its common utilitarian and more generally consequentialist forms…The concept of human dignity is central to any attempt to articulate the strong feeling shared by many (including many atheists) that something has gone badly wrong with this sort of ethical thinking….It’s difficult to say what’s wrong with necrophilia (if anything
In the image of
Dec 1st, 2007 12:36 am | By Ophelia BensonDignity. We got an interesting discussion in the comments, and I suddenly realized (belatedly) that I could think of contexts in which the word ‘dignity’ wouldn’t repel me: contexts and situations in which people have managed to hang onto their dignity despite the assaults of other people or of nature. I probably still wouldn’t use it myself, but I would see the point of it.
But where this started was with Leon Kass; that’s why potentilla asked the question that prompted my series of them. I left Kass out of the dignity post, because I wanted to talk about the idea more generally and also (partly) more loosely. I wanted to free associate, partly. But now let’s look at … Read the rest
Taslima Nasreen Will Censor Her Own Book
Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Some people are upset with what I have said, I have decided to drop the controversial portions.’… Read the rest
Mo is on a Pedestal
Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonYou have to say a little prayer every time you say his name. But pictures?! Never!… Read the rest
Pope Attacks ‘Cruel and Unjust’ Atheism
Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAll wrong; only God can do everything; God doesn’t happen to feel like it, that’s all.… Read the rest
Freud Not Taught in Psychology Departments
Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy? Lack of evidence. Fine for gender studies, post-colonial studies, Queer theory though.… Read the rest
Biometrics Will Fix Everything
Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOr perhaps not. Ben Goldacre fools the machine.… Read the rest
Foreign Office Seeks Gibbons’s Release
Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe FO was in contact with Sudan’s government overnight and will repeat demands for her release. … Read the rest
Sudanese Ambassador Called Back to Explain
Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOfficials at the Foreign Office say the mood has changed as a result of the verdict. … Read the rest
Demo in Khartoum to Demand Tougher Sentence
Nov 30th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSome of the protesters chanted “No tolerance – execution” and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad”. … Read the rest
Tell them we’re overflowing with respect
Nov 29th, 2007 12:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonJoan Smith nails the problem.
… Read the restIn the past, Catholics and Protestants took turns to slaughter each other as Sunni and Shia are doing now, but Christianity has to a large extent been secularised…At the heart of this process is an alteration in the status of religious texts…The idea that a single book written centuries ago has unique authority – in effect, a veto over all other ideas – makes no sense in societies where intellectual curiosity is valued and encouraged. Yesterday Inayat Bunglawala, assistant general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, criticised the arrest of Ms Gibbons in Sudan and described it as a “quite horrible misunderstanding”. But during a public debate in London two weeks ago, he
Normblog on Human Dignity
Nov 29th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Degrade’ carries on its face that there is a standard in light of which some person is being reduced.… Read the rest
Indian Government Will Shelter Nasreen – If
Nov 29th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonExpected that the guests will refrain from activities and expressions that may hurt the sentiments of our people.… Read the rest
Tom Clark on The Specter of Scientism
Nov 29th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTikkun also worries about the supposed dangers of scientism and the need for a spiritual way of knowing.… Read the rest
Turkish Prosecutor Ponders The God Delusion
Nov 29th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPublisher could go on trial if the prosecutor concludes the book incites religious hatred and insults religious values.… Read the rest
‘What can’t be named Muhammad?’
Nov 29th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘What are the rules on using the name?’ Step one: wring hands. Step two: call the MCB.… Read the rest