Posts Tagged ‘ Religious bullying ’

It’s only a ruddy parking ticket

Jan 22nd, 2012 11:27 am | By

Remember the Monty Python court room bit?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLplQWB2S_8

Behold Michael Sean Winters yesterday in the National Catholic Reporter, doing a very similar bit.

President Barack Obama lost my vote yesterday when he declined to expand the exceedingly narrow conscience exemptions proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services. The issue of conscience protections is so foundational, I do not see how I ever could, in good conscience, vote for this man again.

I do not come at this issue as a Catholic special pleader, who wants only to protect my own, although it was a little bracing to realize that the president’s decision yesterday essentially told us, as Catholics, that there is no room in this great country

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



The organisers have refused to hand over the tapes

Jan 21st, 2012 3:33 pm | By

The police are still policing the writers who read from The Satanic Verses at the Jaipur festival yesterday.

A day after author Salman Rushdie made it clear that he would not be coming to India, alleging that he was told that underworld hitmen were out to get him, the raging debate at the Jaipur Literature Festival is still on. The police have now asked for the tape recordings of author Amitava Kumar reading out excerpts from Mr Rushdie’s controversial book – Satanic Verses – which is illegal in India. The organisers of the event, however, have refused to hand over the tapes.

Authors Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar, as a mark of protest, used their session at the festival

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Mr Rushdie regrets

Jan 20th, 2012 1:41 pm | By

More on Rushdie not in Jaipur.

Times of India:

Two prominent authors on Friday read out portions from Salman Rushdie’s banned book “Satanic Verses” at the Jaipur Literature Festival as a mark of protest after the India-born author had to pull out of the event over security concerns.

As the literary community expressed outrage over Rushdie not being able to make the trip, Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar used their session at the festival to read from “Satanic Verses”. The controversial book was banned in the country shortly after it was published in 1988, for allegedly hurting the sentiments of Muslims.

Love those guys.

The organizers later asked Kumar not to go ahead with his reading. Kumar initially agreed

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No longer a “safe space”

Jan 20th, 2012 11:52 am | By

Alex Gabriel reports another front in the battle against “Islamophobia” (meaning, in the battle against any and all criticism or mockery of Islam). This time it’s LSE’s Student Union hassling LSE’s student atheist society. It has to do with the atheist society’s Facebook page not being a “safe space” for Muslim students.

What?

Well don’t look at me, it’s not my idea. It’s what they were told:

Here’s part of the e-mail I got today from the society, who’ve just met with their union to discuss the issues:

Essentially, a large of group of Muslim students felt offended that there were pictures of Mohammed on the facebook group. As a result, they felt that our facebook group was no

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Muscle v truth and humour

Jan 20th, 2012 8:42 am | By

Salman Rushdie stayed away from the Jaipur Literary Festival because of threats. So, defying the organizers of the festival, Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar read from The Satanic Verses, then Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi joined them.

And then what happened? According to Stephanie Nolen, South Asia correspondent for the Globe and Mail, who is at the festival and tweeting from and about it, the four writers are being investigated by the police. Since she tweeted that from the festival, it must mean that the cops were “investigating” the writers up close and personal, right then and there.

I get all this via the invaluable Salil Tripathi (#FF!), who said at Facebook about an hour ago:

Stephanie Nolen

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Are you now or have you ever been an Islamophobe

Jan 19th, 2012 4:15 pm | By

The UCL Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society put out a statement today. They’re tired of the whole thing and don’t want to talk about it any more.

What makes a student society is the ability to be open, foster community and – most importantly – encourage critical debate. The principal objective of our Society is to maintain a sceptical view on everything, be it astrology, numerology or theism. I am personally a strong believer of freedom of speech and I believe that it is a vitally important freedom to maintain. Freedom of speech guarantees the space for intellectual discourse, and in that space, people should be able to say what they want, without being afraid of censorship on the grounds

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



More from the bully boyz

Jan 19th, 2012 11:51 am | By

And then we drop in on the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association UK – which is actually not a “youth association” at all because it addresses members as “Brothers,” so clearly it’s only for male youth. Anyway we drop in on it and find its views on how to get more deference and obedience from people who don’t share its religious commitments.

You should all now be aware that we have been running a campaign over the past week in response to the decision take by Atheist Society of UCL to post a cartoon depicting the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) and the Holy Prophet Jesus (as) having a beer (God forbid) at a pub frequented by some of the UCL

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



History has told us that these things cause offence

Jan 19th, 2012 9:56 am | By

The president of UCL’s Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society, Robbie Yellon, has stepped down to be replaced by former vice president Michael Thor. Yellon quit because of all this mishegas about the Jesus and Mo image.

“Robbie stepped aside because he signed up as president to organise events and run a student society,” said Michael Paynter, secretary for the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies.

“He did not appreciate the stress he would be under when dealing with a controversy like this, so he wanted to make way for someone else.”

A small but no doubt pleasant victory for the shit-stirrers. The BBC goes on to make the shit-stirrer case.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association is continuing

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Who gave these kuffar the right to speak?

Jan 18th, 2012 1:10 pm | By

And then there’s this “Urgent – Calling all muslims” at Islamicawakening on Monday -

Brothers, the Queen Mary Athiest Society, sister of the shaytaani UCL Athiest Society (which published pictures of Rasoolullah(saw)) are holding an event today at Queen Mary University of London at 7:00 pm on ‘ Is Shariah in violation of human rights’.. We need your presence. Who gave these kuffar the right to speak?

The kuffar have no right to speak, at a university in London. That’s an interesting thought. Also the comment addresses “Brothers” – so apparently “all muslims” actually means only half of all muslims – and then the “kuffar” who was speaking at Queen Mary that evening is a woman, so her right to … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Threat threat threat threat

Jan 18th, 2012 12:53 pm | By

On Rhys Morgan’s (currently very busy) Facebook page – a guy called Safwan Ahmed, a graduate of Rhys’s school, posted to say

take that blog down before i fly kick you!

Rhys said no, Ahmed replied

inappropriate and offensive! take it down before you lose the remaining half of your penis.

Someone tried to tell Ahmed that threats are a serious matter and can be reported to the authorities. Ahmed replied

nah no argument cbf wasting time with u. sorry if you were looking for a rebuttal, i will deal with this matter personally.

More back and forth, culminating in Ahmed’s

hahahahha scott you amuse me in the sense that your a fucking sad prick! look at my avatar? id

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Jesus and Mo promote peace, tolerance and respect

Jan 18th, 2012 11:39 am | By

A new Jesus and Mo.

With an apt dedication:

Today’s comic is dedicated to Rhys Morgan, Jessica Ahlquist, One Law for All, and Salman Rushdie. Heroes, all.

Of course, author himself belongs in that company.… Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



That kind of ruckus

Oct 13th, 2011 11:42 am | By

Separation of church and state? That’s terrorism!

The mayor of Whiteville, Tennessee said his community is  under attack from a national atheist organization that is threatening to sue  unless they remove a cross atop the town’s water tower.

“They are terrorists as far as I’m concerned,” said  Mayor James Bellar about the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “They are alleging that some Whiteville resident feels very, very intimidated by this  cross.”

And that makes them terrorists. Saying a minority feels intimidated by a majoritarian religious display is terrorism, which is why the United States has never had any truck with pestilential terrorist ideas about the protection of minority rights. Thank god for loyal patriotic majoritarian anti-terrorism public officials like the mayor … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



“Protecting faith and freedom”

Apr 4th, 2011 12:15 pm | By

Oh no you don’t.

I’ve already said I think Rev Jones is a bad man. He’s no ally or comrade of mine. In his world I would be a lifelong domestic servant with no vote no voice no views no rights, so even without his dramatic performances, he would be no comrade of mine.

But that’s my reasoned choice; it’s not the law of the land. “Interfaith Alliance” please note.

Washington, DC – Interfaith alliance President Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy issues the following statement in response to the killings of UN Workers in Afghanistan.

…this violence is a response, unacceptable as it may be, to the burning of a Qur’an in Florida last month by a local pastor. The

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Why are atheists so angry?

Mar 11th, 2011 11:28 am | By

Rabbi David Wolpe pretends to be mystified that atheists find theism irritating.

How harmless is it to post an article about why people should read the bible on a site devoted to religion? I did on this very page, and it evoked more than 2,000 responses, most of them angry…

It is curious that a religion site draws responses mostly from atheists, and that the atheists are very unhappy…Only the untutored assume that religious people predominate on websites (Huffington Post Religion page, On Faith in the Washington Post, Beliefnet.com) devoted to religion.

He thinks a section of a website is itself a website, or he pretends to think that so that he can claim that the religion section of … Read the rest



Another mystery for Karen Armstrong

Jun 19th, 2010 1:17 pm | By

Theocracy in Israel.

Parents of European, or Ashkenazi, origin do not want their daughters to be educated in the same classroom as schoolgirls of Middle Eastern and North African descent, or Sephardim, claiming that they are not as religious…

Batting off accusations of racism, the parents, who live in the West Bank settler community of Immanuel, have argued that their wish to separate their children is motivated only by religious and cultural differences between the different Jewish communities.

“The Sephardic Jews are less observant, they dress differently,” said Carter Schwartz, a 31-year-old protester with an American accent. “It’s like sending kids of a totally different learning level to Harvard, and the government forces [Harvard] to take them in.”

And … Read the rest



A tinkling cymbal

May 30th, 2010 8:28 am | By

Is your stomach strong enough for more vulgar malice and abuse from that impressive Anglican priest George Pitcher?

He starts with mere stupidity, attributing every good thing in the world apart from coffee and the internet to theology. Yes really: theology. Theology did democracy, the abolition of slavery, education, the family, marriage, our judicial system – everything. Then he goes on to rail at Terry Sanderson, but, quickly bored with that, he returns to his real voodoo doll: Evan Harris.

The NSS (in which, never let it be forgotten, ousted Lib Dem MP Evan Harris is a leading light) likes to go on about opposing religious privilege, freedom for non-believers (as if they haven’t got it) and tolerance. But note

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The elites who run the Empire State Building

May 15th, 2010 5:05 pm | By

Bill Donohue is in a huge giant rage again, this time because he ordered the people who manage the Empire State Building to illuminate it with blue and white lights one day in order to celebrate the birthday of “Mother Teresa” and it didn’t obey.

Well – there are only 365 days in the year and the people who run the ESB can’t obey every single time someone orders them to illuminate the building in order to celebrate X, so why is Donohue all tied in knots? Because “Mother Teresa” is obviously one of the 365 most important and wonderful people of all time and therefore should get one of the 365 days there are in the year? Please. … Read the rest



For the record

Apr 27th, 2010 9:15 am | By

It gets more and more tedious, but it can’t be helped – or it can be helped but it shouldn’t be. The relentless brainless dishonest denigration of “New” atheists has to be shown up for what it is every damn time it happens. It may be futile to say “That’s a lie, and that is, and that is, and that’s another”; it may just entrench the lies even deeper (depressingly, there is research that indicates this is what happens); but it has to be done, if only for the record. (What record? Oh shut up.)

Michael McGhee, Comment is Free (sugar and tea, rainbows at sea, la de da dee).

I am not a believer. I incline towards a secular

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Believers don’t believe in God *

Apr 27th, 2010 | Filed by

Oh and by the way new atheists are bad and wrong.… Read the rest



It’s even more of an outrage than I thought

Apr 25th, 2010 11:47 am | By

Manic street preacher reports that

Mr Taylor seemed like a perfectly rational, intelligent and calm man who wanted to put his point across and was certainly not the “crackpot” that several bloggers, including myself to an extent, had presumed him to be. He was clearly still deeply affected by his horrendous childhood experiences of a strict Catholic upbringing by the Christian Brotherhood and was so distressed by the prospect of receiving a custodial sentence that he had to leave the courtroom midway through the hearing after nearly fainting.

He also quotes the Telegraph with more and even nastier details:

Judge James told him: “Not only have you shown no remorse for what you did but even now you continue to

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