Women in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Israel.
Author: Ophelia Benson
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Muslim ‘Protesters’ Attack Taslima Nasreen
About 100 protesters burst in, shouting that the author was ‘anti-Islam’.
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Muslim Lawmakers Attack Nasreen
She backed into a corner as men threw heavy objects at her head and threatened her with a chair.
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Gay Nigerians Face Death Penalty
Eighteen men have been remanded in prison after arrest for alleged sodomy in northern Nigeria.
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Dawkins Right on Alt Med, Wrong on Religion
Religion is about ethics, does not compete with science. Oh really?
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Great Bullies of History
Don’t forget, there is no compulsion in religion.
Lawmakers and members of a political party assaulted the exiled feminist author as she presented a translation of one of her novels in Hyderabad…Many Muslims have accused Ms Nasreen of ridiculing Islam…About 100 protesters, including three lawmakers, from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party burst in, shouting that the author was “anti-Islam”. Ms Nasreen backed into a corner as objects rained down and she was threatened with a chair, witnesses said.
There is no compulsion in religion, but if an author is ‘anti-Islam,’ then men will throw things at her and offer to beat her with a chair, on the grounds that there is no compulsion in religion.
It’s quite understandable, of course, because people get incensed when someone is ‘anti-Islam.’
Muslim protesters assaulted the exiled Bangladeshi author and feminist Taslima Nasreen at a book launch in Hyderabad on Thursday, incensed by her repeated criticism of Islam and religion in general. Some radical Muslims hate Nasreen for saying Islam and other religions oppress women…On Thursday, lawmakers and members of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party attacked her at the press club in Hyderabad…An uneasy-looking Nasreen backed into a corner as several middle-aged men threw a leather case, bunches of flowers and other objects at her head and threatened her with a chair…Some of the mob shouted for her death.
That’s a pleasant mental picture, isn’t it? An ‘uneasy-looking’ woman (very brave of her to look merely uneasy – I would have been squalling in terror) backed into a corner by a lot of middle-aged men throwing heavy objects at her head and threatening her with a chair. And these are ‘lawmakers’! Lawmakers reminiscent of the great Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina who approached Senator Charles Sumner while he was pinned at a desk and unable to escape and beat him over the head with a walking stick. That kind of ‘lawmaker’ – and that kind of brave man. Brave, pious, devout, holy, ‘good’ men ganging up and assaulting one woman because they dislike what she has written, and her desire for women’s rights. Women don’t matter, principles about not ganging up on people and not assaulting people don’t matter, principles about law and equal rights and peaceful discussion and justice don’t matter, all that matters is ‘Islam’ and taboos against disagreeing with what some pack of bullies think it is.
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Libel Suits Silence Authors
Deborah Lipstadt on an appalling extension of UK libel law.
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Eric Alterman on Inequality in the US
Only in the US are the rich so powerful that their interests become ‘principles’ in political discourse.
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Raul Hilberg 1926-2007
Author of the great history ‘The Destruction of the European Jews.’
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Roy Hattersley Says Mill is Vieux Chapeau
Mill is, like the Liberal Democrats, ‘comfortingly worthy but out-of-date.’
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Gustav Seibt on Raul Hilberg
He was the first to ask: how were the victims identified, driven together, transported then murdered?
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Filthy traitor
Never forget, Islam means ‘peace’ – oh and also ‘there is no compulsion in religion.’ Got that?
Ehsan Jami, a local council member for the Dutch Labour Party and a former Muslim, has been afforded extra protection since Monday this week…The local politician, who also heads a committee established to fight for the interests of former Muslims, was the target of a violent, physical attack outside a supermarket near his home in Voorburg last Saturday…Jami was knocked to the ground and kicked by a group of three men: two young Moroccans and one Somali. During the incidents, his attackers called him a ‘filthy homo’ and ‘filthy traitor’. Mr Jami’s advisor, Afshin Ellian, later pointed out that it was not the first time he had been physically attacked: “He’s also been threatened before, attacked or beaten up, and he reported this to the police too. This is the third time.” Afshin Ellian, an academic and columnist, is also being protected by the authorities.
Heading a committee to fight for the interests of former Muslims – well naturally he’s been attacked three times. Former Muslims aren’t even supposed to exist, so if gangs knock them down and kick them and call them filthy, well they’re getting off easy, that’s what.
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Threatened Journalist Faces Deportation
Mansoor Hassan wrote an article exposing the ‘honour’ killing of a young woman by her own father.
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Increased Reporting of ‘Honour’ Crime in R’dam
Authorities say they have received more than 70 reports since January, compared to 30 for all of 2006.
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Violence Against Women Increasing in Kurdistan
Kurdish government has overturned lax Iraqi laws; defendants can be charged with ‘deliberate murder.’
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Anthony Grayling on Atheism
Grayling explains why he believes atheism to be a well-grounded and ultimately life-affirming position.
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Peace Process Fails to Address Sexual Violence
HRW reports women and girls continue to be subjected to acts of sexual violence in Côte d’Ivoire.
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Dutch Ex-Muslim Beaten Up in Voorburg
Ehsan Jami was assaulted by three men who called him a ‘filthy homo’ and ‘filthy traitor’.
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Another irregular verb
Contradict yourself much? Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail –
The big mistake is to see religion and reason as polar opposites. They are not. In fact, reason is intrinsic to the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Bible provides a picture of a rational Creator and an orderly universe – which, accordingly, provided the template for the exercise of reason and the development of science. Dawkins pours particular scorn on the Biblical miracles which don’t correspond to scientific reality. But religious believers have different ways of regarding those events, with many seeing them as either metaphors or as natural occurrences which were invested with a greater significance. The heart of the Judeo-Christian tradition is the belief in the concept of truth, which gives rise to reason. But our postreligious age has proclaimed that there is no such thing as objective truth, only what is “true for me”.
Right – so – religious believers have different ways of regarding Biblical miracles, good, but our postreligious age has proclaimed that there is no such thing as objective truth, only what is “true for me”, bad. Hmmm.
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New Death Sentence on Journalists in Iran
The Islamic Republic of Iranian’s execution wave has reached the media in Iran. On 16 July 2007, two Kurdish journalists, Mr. Adnan Hassanpour and Mr.Hiva Boutimar were sentenced to death by an Islamic tribunal in Marivan, a Kurdish city in the north-west Iran. They are supposed to be brought to the scaffold in the coming days. Judiciary spokesman, Mr. Ali Reza Jamshidi, confirmed that these two journalists have been sentenced to death, state media reported Tuesday, 31 0f July.
At a trial behind closed doors, the journalists were found guilty of “activities subverting national security, spying, and interviews for foreign news media including Voice of America”. These “accusations” were cited by the prosecution and, amazingly, confirmed by the journalists’ lawyer, Sirvan Hosmandi– who seems to be more of a public prosecutor than their lawyer!
The journalists were transferred to Sanandaj, the capital of the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, where they wait for their eventual death penalty.
The two journalists were sentenced on the charge of “mohareb,” (fighter against Islam). The term, which describes a major crime against Islam and the God’s state of the IRI, is a routine term used to justify execution of political activists.
Death sentence for “profane” writers and journalists is reminiscent of Khomeini’s death fatwa on Salman Rushdie. The first time the term “Mohareb” was used for a foreign writer was to justify Khomeini’s death fatwa on the British citizen Salman Rushdie.
Last year, another IRI senior official, Sheikh Fazel Lankarani, issued a death fatwa on an Azeri journalist, Rafig Tagi, because of his “profane“ article “humiliating Prophet Muhammad”. The two Kurdish journalists are in fact the first Iranian journalists being accused of “Mohareb”.
Despite constant repression on media and journalists, such a sentence proves a deterioration of general repression on the media.
Three other Kurdish journalists are currently in prison in Iran. Ejlal Ghavani of Payam-e Mardom-e Kurdestan, a local weekly that was suspended in 2004, was detained on 9 July of this year after being convicted by a court in Sanandaj of “inciting the population to revolt” and “activities against national security.”
Mohammad Sadegh Kabovand, Payam-e Mardom-e Kurdestan’s editor and the founder of a human rights organisation, was arrested on 1 July and transferred to Evin prison. He has not been officially charged.
Another journalist, Kaveh Javanmard, of the weekly Karfto is condemned to two years in prison. He was not allowed access to a lawyer during his trial, which took place behind closed doors.
With a total of eight journalists currently detained, Iran continues to be the Middle East’s biggest prison for the press and one of the world’s ten most repressive countries as regards freedom of expression in the media.
Execution of the twelve executed “thugs” of July 22 was the starting point of the new execution wave. On that day alone, all of them were hanged, accused of theft, rape, and violation of Islamic norms.
According to opposition sources, at least three of them were political activists. The “accused” were detained by security forces during the ongoing crackdown on “hooliganism”. Their death verdict was pronounced in the absence of any bill of indictment and power of attorney.
The chain of executions now reaches the media, a vital source of flow of news under any totalitarian regime. Reporters Without Borders writes: “We appeal to the international community to ask Iran to reverse this decision and to refrain from executing two journalists who did nothing but exercise their right to inform their fellow citizens”. The source continues, “Iran is in the process of becoming one of the world’s biggest prisons for journalists.”
The IRI favours stoning and public hangings in order to intimidate the angry people of Iran. According to the Iranian state, the IRI newly hanged, on August 1st, seven “thugs” in the city of Mashhad, north-east Iran. All seven were accused of routine charges like rape, kidnapping and robbery. The IRI routinely executes dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug smuggling.
Under such circumstances, the “civilised” world is seriously expected to prove its civilisation by intensifying its pressure on the IRI to prevent this chain of barbaric executions.