The queen, for the first time in her public career, put her hand on someone. A bit of the world turned upside down.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Parents Charged With Starving Children
Parents sought to raise children ‘in strict obedience to Islam’ by starving, beating, taking out of school.
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Faisal Gazi on Kenan Malik’s Fatwa to Jihad
The grievance culture of radical Islam is winning the battle against Enlightenment values.
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Harvard Islamic Chaplain Pro Death for Apostasy
‘Even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand.’
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Critics Accuse Mixa of Rewriting History
Freethinker associations were disbanded by the Nazis and avowed atheists were persecuted.
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Fuss Over ‘Faith’ Schools
Heritage, faith groups, core part, identities, limit expression, community cohesion, quack quack.
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Saudi Arabia Plans to ‘Regulate’ Child Brides
Marriage of man age 60 to girl age 8 caused a fuss. Saudi practices ‘austere’ form of Islam.
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Megachurch Sics Cops on Critical Blogger
A blogger critical of a minister wants to know why his Web site was investigated by a police detective.
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Nightmare in Afghanistan
Three Taleban mullahs brought them to the local mosque and passed a fatwa that they must be killed.
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Roxana Saberi Goes on Trial in Iran
She was charged with buying alcohol, then lacking a press card; now she’s charged with espionage.
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Michelle Goldberg on Women, Sex and Power
Religious traditionalists excoriate feminists and family planners as agents of Western cultural imperialism.
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Things Getting Worse in Pakistan
Taliban insurgents are teaming up with local militant groups to make inroads in Punjab.
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Massimo Pigliucci on Faith and Reason
Faith is one thing, trust is another, belief is another again.
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Taliban Murders a Couple for Trying to Marry
Two adults attempted to marry; the Taliban kidnapped them and shot them in front of a mosque.
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Taliban Gun Down Women’s Rights Activist
Sitara Achikzai had returned from Germany to work in Kandahar as a teacher and provincial legislator.
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Simon Blackburn on Hume and Sceptical Irony
Hume is much too subtle to describe himself as an atheist.
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A Historian Disputes Bishop Mixa
Many saw no contradiction between their belief in a Christian God and their support for the Nazi regime.
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The Murder of Sitara Achikzai
The Taliban says it will pay 200,000 Pakistani rupees to anyone who kills a member of the council.
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UNAMA Sickened by Murder of Achikzai
Sitara Achikzai was serving her people with dedication in Kandahar.