If there is anything in contradiction with Shariah, he will take action in close consultation with clerics.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Review of reviews
Apr 5th, 2009 11:34 am | By Ophelia BensonAnd then there’s Karzai – he says he’ll ‘review’ the new law that says women can’t leave the house without a damn good reason. But his idea of ‘reviewing’ is not quite that of, say, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Western media have either mistranslated or taken incorrect information and then published it. If there is anything in contradiction with our Constitution or Shariah, or freedoms granted by the Constitution, we will take action in close consultation with the clerics of the country.”
Ah. So the law will stay as it is then. There won’t be anything ‘in contradiction with’ Shariah, and close consultation with the clerics of the country will of course issue in warm approval of … Read the rest
The abyss of hatred
Apr 5th, 2009 11:17 am | By Ophelia BensonTarek Fatah pointed out (at Facebook) a speech by a Kuwaiti professor daydreaming about an anthrax attack in the US that would kill 300,000 people in a few minutes. I did some googling, and found a MEMRI follow-up item quoting ‘a number of prominent liberals: Kuwait University professor Ahmad Al-Baghdadi and columnist Ahmad Al-Sarraf, both of whom are Kuwaiti, and the Jordanian-American author Shaker Al-Nabulsi.’ They all think Professor Anthrax’s views are disgusting.
The guy is actually Dr. ‘Abdallah Al-Nafisi, a prominent Islamist. Depressingly, his doctorate is from Cambridge. Salman Rushdie is another alumnus of Cambridge. They seem to have taken away different things.
Kuwait University professor Ahmad Al-Baghdadi had this to say:
… Read the restFrankly, I am very happy with Dr.
Intelligently designed to close minds
Apr 4th, 2009 5:13 pm | By Ophelia BensonThought for the day, from Niall Shanks in God, the Devil, and Darwin: a Critique of Intelligent Design Theory.
[T]he dark side of the wedge strategy, lurking at the fat end of the wedge, lies in the way that it is intelligently designed to close minds to critical, rational scrutiny of the world we live in. The wedge strategy describes very well the very process whereby, beginning with mild intellectual sedatives, religion becomes the true opiate of the masses. As [Philip] Johnson makes clear, once the wedge is driven home, even the rules of reasoning and logic will have to be adjusted to sit on theological foundations. In this way, critical thinking and opposition will not just be hard … Read the rest
Knowing theocracy when you see it
Apr 4th, 2009 1:04 pm | By Ophelia BensonShiraz Maher gets it – much better than Robert Lambert does. This could be because (or notwithstanding or both) he was once in Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The British state has traditionally predicated its policy on the premise that ostensibly nonviolent Islamists can be part of the solution to al Qaeda violence…The practical effect of this has been to engage and empower nonviolent exponents of Islamism who, while expressing opposition to the terrorism of Osama bin Laden and his cohorts, hold values and views that are antithetical to mainstream British society. This has often meant turning a blind eye to preachers who advocate the killing of homosexuals, the oppression of women and the subjugation of nonbelievers.
Precisely; I’ve been carping at … Read the rest
Shiraz Maher on UK’s ‘New’ Counterterror Policy
Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIs it right that liberal societies should endorse those whose values we would otherwise find abhorrent?… Read the rest
Jeremy Paxman Confronted Daud Abdullah
Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOr rather, he didn’t.… Read the rest
MCB’s Daud Abdullah Sues Hazel Blears
Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey disagree over certain clauses of the Istanbul Declaration.… Read the rest
Robert Lambert is Wrong
Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIslamists love to employ the idioms of ‘social justice’ and ‘moral obligation’ when confronting their enemies.… Read the rest
A Crappy Week for Women’s Rights
Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonErased in Israel, flogged in Pakistan, ground into the dirt in Afghanistan.… Read the rest
Chaudhry Calls For Probe of Girl’s Flogging
Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonChief Justice Chaudhry called the action a cruel violation of fundamental rights; Gilani calls it shameful.… Read the rest
Ultra-Orthodox Papers Edit Women Out
Apr 4th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTwo ultra-Orthodox newspapers altered photo of Israel’s cabinet; one replaced the two women with men.… Read the rest
Women should be neither seen nor heard
Apr 3rd, 2009 4:51 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd then there are the reactionary Orthodox newspapers in Israel which can’t stand to show any of those harlot women in positions of power, so they just erase them and replace them with men.
Limor Livnat and Sofa Landver were grouped with the rest of the 30-member cabinet for their inaugural photo. But Yated Neeman newspaper digitally changed the picture by replacing them with two men. The Shaa Tova newspaper blacked the women out.
Couldn’t they just have put little digital bags over their heads? Wouldn’t that do the job?… Read the rest
Welcome to Swat
Apr 3rd, 2009 4:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo here’s how it went down in Swat.
… Read the restThe burka-clad [girl] is heard crying throughout the two-minute flogging and at one point swears on her father that she will not do it again. Relatives of the man involved in the incident told the BBC he had gone to the house of the girl in the village of Kala Kalay to do repairs as an electrician, but militants accused him of having a relationship with her. They dragged him from the house and flogged him before punishing the girl, his relatives said. The Taleban made the girl’s brother hold her down during the flogging, they said. After the incident, the Taleban forced the couple to marry and instructed the man
Voices Against Shariah Apologists
Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonResist the Taliban, Shariah Courts and violence against women in Pakistan.… Read the rest
Iowa Supreme Court Unconvinced by ‘Experts’
Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCFI legal department filed amicus brief defending lower court’s exclusion of ‘expert’ opinions by conservative religionists.… Read the rest
Iowa Court Voids Gay Marriage Ban
Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled a 1998 law limiting marriage to a woman and a man unconstitutional. … Read the rest
Guardian Stands Up for ‘Mainstream Islamists’
Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘British Islamists find themselves under constant scrutiny in Britain from Islamophobes.’… Read the rest
The Finest Tradition of Anglican Humbug
Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCompromise depends on people’s willingness not to push their own convictions too far.… Read the rest
No Actually Let’s Not Do God
Apr 3rd, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere is something crass and nasty as well as vulgar in Blair’s quantitative triumphalism.… Read the rest