Erdoğan said the government will immediately start working on legislation against blasphemous and offensive remarks.
Category: Latest News
Welcome to our archive of news stories relevant to the project of fighting fashionable nonsense. The stories are drawn from the electronic pages of the world’s media. On this page, you’ll find links to those stories that have been featured on Butterflies and Wheels during the current year. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find links to separate archives of stories from previous years.
We’re always pleased to hear about news stories that you think should be featured on Butterflies and Wheels. Just send an email here, if you want to point one out to us.
A note about links
Inevitably links go out of date. We suggest, therefore, that you make hard-copies of the stories that particularly interest you.
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Rushdie on religious extremism v free expression
“If you look at the way in which free expression is being attacked by religious extremism, it’s blasphemy, heresy, insult, offence – it’s this medieval vocabulary.”
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Chief Rabbi says Dawkins is a Christian atheist
Jonathan Sacks claims that it’s anti-Semitic to say the Old Testament god is a murderous shit.
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Scientologists upset about “The Master”
“They feel strongly that they think it’s a religion and as such they think the subject
matter shouldn’t be explored.” -
John Forte saved Corfu from Scientology
He helped to prevent L Ron Hubbard from setting up a university on the island.
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The quest for the Islamic bicycle
Mustafa Akyol called the idea of an Islamic bicycle an “expression of the self-isolating mentality that has stagnated Muslim thought.”
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Egypt PM urges US to end ‘insults’ to Islam
Hisham Qandil said it was “unacceptable to insult our Prophet.”
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Susan Jacoby on the dearth of women in secularism
Adapted from her speech at the Women in Secularism Conference sponsored by the Center for Inquiry and held in Washington, DC, in May 2012.
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HRW tells Tunisia: fix flaws in draft constitution
Those that would abridge freedom of expression, women’s rights, the principle of non-discrimination, and freedom of thought and conscience.
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J Figdor speaks out against hate directed at women
Talk of “white knighting” and “infantilization” is a silencing tactic.
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Virginia students allowed to skip education
Virginia is the only state that allows families to avoid government intrusion once they are given permission to opt out of public school.
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Highlands Presbyterians furious at Dawkins invitation
The Wee Frees challenged him to a debate; he replied with the usual quip: ‘That would look great on your CV, not so good on mine.’
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Meeting Libya’s Ansar al-Sharia
The group made it clear they would not speak to female members of our team.
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Rioters in Libya and Egypt rage at anti-Islam movie
The US ambassador to Libya is killed in the rioting.
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Ron Lindsay on divisiveness in the secular movement
We’ve divided the movement because we’re not talking to each other; we’re just insulting each other.
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Salman Rushdie on the fatwa
He did not feel that his book was especially critical of Islam, but a religion whose leaders behaved in this way could probably use a little criticism.
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Tom Holland threatened over documentary on Islam
A Channel 4 spokeswoman said: “Having taken security advice, we have reluctantly
cancelled a planned screening of the programme.” -
Dawkins says Mormonism is silly shock-horror
He should have said it’s sensible?
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Laurie Penny on…er…Naomi Wolf’s Vagina
Vagina, as has been observed across the mainstream reviewing press this week, is a very silly book.
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India: anti-corruption cartoonist arrested
Aseem Trivedi was arrested on Saturday for a series of cartoons lampooning politicians. He is being charged with sedition.