Animal rights campaigners threaten at least ten terror attacks a night.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Disagreements
Sep 4th, 2004 8:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonA follow-up of sorts to my colleague’s Comment on Crooked Timber. Bush’s monopoly seems to be broken for the moment; the Timberites are discussing Beslan and Islamophobia and Islamophobiaphobia. Somewhat heatedly, as a matter of fact.
There is a thread on ‘Al Qaeda in Beslan?’ for instance, and another on the horror itself which kicked up an interesting comment by Dsquared:
I think that ‘Islamism’ is a politically convenient but fictional construct drawn up by people who want to drag their own pet Middle Eastern issue into the fight against Al-Quaeda.
Ah. Fictional construct. Really. Do the people in, say, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, etc etc, who are damn well terrified of Islamists, think ‘Islamism’ is a fictional … Read the rest
Iraqi President Postpones Visit to France
Sep 4th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFrench foreign ministry cited situation of kidnapped journalists.… Read the rest
French Journalists ‘About to be Freed’?
Sep 4th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonInfluential Sunni Muslim organisation in Baghdad said Friday the two were safe.… Read the rest
Pretty Darn Stupid
Sep 3rd, 2004 8:36 pm | By Ophelia BensonAs OB suggested below, it’s been a pretty awful time lately. And it goes without saying that Russia today is just appalling.
Admittedly I should have known better, but I decided to check out what the folk (with apologies to Dubya) at Crooked Timber made of all the horror this week.
Guess what, as far as I can tell – and despite their combined IQ of 213 – they have absolutely nothing to say on these matters. Not a squeak.
So what are they talking about?
Something about ITunes – though I’m too limited to understand a word of it.
Ah, Rousseau. Cool.
Some blindingly obvious stuff about Durkheim. Oh no, … Read the rest
What About Penniless Gay Nazis from Africa?
Sep 3rd, 2004 8:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonJust a little more Harding – because the previous visits with her are on the August page, which no one will ever look at again, and because at least one reader thinks I may be giving her the straw man treatment. But in fact I’m making her sound better than she is rather than worse, because as I mentioned it simply is impossible to convey how feeble her arguments are via brief quotations. Brief quotations don’t, for instance, and can’t of their nature, make clear how absent any evidence is. They also can’t convey the cumulative effect of her writing, which is genuinely credulity-strainingly childish. Brief quotation for instance misses out how often she repeats the identical inane phrases, but … Read the rest
Another List of Ten Books
Sep 3rd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThis one by writers with a score to settle.… Read the rest
Extract From Dawkins’ New Book
Sep 3rd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEcholocation has evolved at least four times, eyes more than forty times.… Read the rest
Deeply Though Subtly Subversive
Sep 3rd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe aim was to replace unexamined religious belief with empirical knowledge and reason.… Read the rest
The Nuisance Value of an Entrenched Vocabulary
Sep 3rd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf you can ignore it, it’s not a nuisance.… Read the rest
Manifesto of Freedoms
Sep 2nd, 2004 11:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd then as soon as I posted that, I found this rather inspiring Manifesto at Jonathan Derbyshire’s blog. And the thing is…it seems to me that people in the US and the UK who side with the pro-hijab side against the ban don’t quite realize the extent to which they’re siding against people like those who wrote that Manifesto. Against people like Azam Kamguian and Maryam Namazie and Ibn Warraq. People who are not arrogant Westerners, not Eurocentric, not colonialists, not Orientalists, not hegemonists keen to trample on the Other, but people who want to get rid of the regressive, punitive, subordinating aspects of their own cultures, just as we all want to get rid of those aspects in … Read the rest
Not That Again
Sep 2nd, 2004 10:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonDamn – it’s one of those days. Horrible sectarian fights breeding violence everywhere you look. What a disgusting world. Schoolchildren and teachers held hostage by Chechen rebels, mosques burned and people injured in Nepal after a group of Nepalese workers are murdered by Islamic militants, two French journalists held hostage by more Islamic militants and threatened with death because of a French law against wearing conspicuous religious symbols in schools. It’s hard not to think that a good deal more secularism would be a helpful vitamin for a lot of people.
It pains me to say it but I don’t agree with Normblog on this issue. At least, not with the way he states it. I think it’s reasonable … Read the rest
A Manifesto by People of Muslim Culture
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFor sexual equality and secularism; against homophobia, the hijab and anti-semitism.… Read the rest
India Court Rejects Gay Petition
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHomosexuality remains illegal in India.… Read the rest
The Hijab Again
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHeureusement, they are willing to wear a beret instead.… Read the rest
A ‘Knowledge Day’ to Remember
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChechen rebels seize schoolchildren and teachers as hostages.… Read the rest
Mob Burns Mosques in Nepal
Sep 2nd, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonViolence erupted after slaughter of 12 Nepalese hostages in Iraq by Islamic militant group.… Read the rest