Media report the open corruption of the Iowa caucuses with an astonishingly deadpan and neutral tone.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Eutopia
Jan 3rd, 2008 1:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Vatican seems to have a strange lack of acquaintance with reality – at least its Council for the Family does. It has a statement on the family and human rights which floats weirdly free of the difficulties that humans tend to encounter.
The father and the mother, as a couple, with the characteristics proper to them, procreate and raise the child. The child thus has the right to be welcomed, loved and recognized in a family.
That’s a pretty idea, but the trouble is, it’s the Vatican itself that does more than any other human institution to make that right impossible to implement. It’s the Vatican that forbids birth control, thus removing (in intention at least, which is what’s … Read the rest
What seems to be the problem?
Jan 3rd, 2008 12:47 pm | By Ophelia BensonA lot of women in Saudi Arabia attempt suicide. Now there’s a surprise.
Within family circles, boys always get preferential treatment. What is more, there is very little or no communication between girls and their parents. The report highlights many factors that can lead women to consider killing themselves, one of them being forced marriages.
Others probably being things like no freedom of movement, no ability to walk around in public looking at the sky and the flowers and anything else that comes along, no sense of having equal rights and duties. That must get a trifle dispiriting.
Disregarding a woman’s free will and her right to choose her life can simply lead her to desperation.
Well yes. It … Read the rest
Why Saudi Women Attempt Suicide 
Jan 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Disregarding a woman’s free will and her right to choose her life can simply lead her to desperation.… Read the rest
Chicago Man Accused of Killing Pregnant Daughter
Jan 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And her husband and child. The husband ‘belonged to a lower caste.’… Read the rest
Jeff Weintraub on the Hijab and Social Pressure
Jan 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Many Turkish secularists foresee a situation in which social pressure will force women to wear hijab.… Read the rest
133 Women Killed in Basra Last Year
Jan 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for violating Islamic teachings.… Read the rest
Cover Your Hair or We’ll Kill You
Jan 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Next time I want to see you wearing a hijab or I swear to God the three of you will be killed immediately.’… Read the rest
Hijab: Freedom or Coercion?
Jan 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If everyone is free to wear the hijab, is anyone free not to wear it?… Read the rest
Two Women Attacked by Mob in Mumbai
Jan 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The women were teased and harassed by a crowd of men outside a hotel.… Read the rest
‘Give Ken a Third Term’
Jan 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Because the undersigned say it is ‘in the best interest of the Muslim communities of London.’ … Read the rest
Assassinated Because She Was a Woman
Jan 2nd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The fear of women, of women’s freedom, runs through Islamism. It is a large part of Islamist hatred of the West.… Read the rest
Persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan
Jan 2nd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Militants’ have stamped thousands of rupee notes imploring believers to ‘put them to death.’… Read the rest
Startling, Fresh, New Insight on ‘New’ Atheism
Jan 2nd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s god-bashing, shrill, screechy, intolerant, hectoring. Wo! Haven’t heard that before.… Read the rest
Seeing People Killed Is as Bad as it Gets
Jan 2nd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Several hundred Kikuyu people sheltered in the church; 30 were burned to death.… Read the rest
Horrible Echoes of Rwanda
Jan 2nd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Odinga’s supporters accused of ethnic cleansing; Kibaki’s camp accused of genocide.… Read the rest
Kenyans Want an End to Violence
Jan 2nd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘All we want is a return to peace. But all we have seen here in Eldoret is terrible violence.’… Read the rest
Simon Jenkins Rebukes Colonialist Tutting
Jan 2nd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tut tut at Musharraf; tut tut at Kenya; who do we think we are?… Read the rest
Who Are We to Lecture Them?
Jan 2nd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sainthood should not be a criterion for speaking up for human rights.… Read the rest
Matchless Prose?
Jan 2nd, 2008 | By Adrian Reddy1. Introduction
Muslims claim that the text of the Quran is of such a quality that no human can match it, and that this property provides proof that the author was the Biblical God (see e.g. [1]). This essay reviews this claim and the evidence cited to support it. If it cannot be supported, then Islam is founded on nothing more than the assumption that the voices and visions experienced by Muhammad were not the products of his imagination. It is a flimsy basis for such a demanding system of belief.
The Quran is referred to by committed Muslims as ‘glorious’, ‘sublime’, ‘perfect’, possessing ‘superb clarity’ and ‘perfect order’. Indeed, when one reads Islamic descriptions of the Quran, one gets … Read the rest
