HRW report ‘They Beat Me like a Dog’ describes killings, beatings and arbitrary arrests by ZANU-PF.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Debating Democracy Promotion in China 
Aug 11th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Daniel Bell and Michael Walzer on whether liberalization and democracy should be imported.… Read the rest
Total Politics Interviews Johann Hari
Aug 10th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
We’re all born involved in the political world, whether we like it or not. … Read the rest
Court Rejects Convert’s Renunciation of Islam
Aug 10th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Lim sought ruling that she had the right to renounce Islam under Article 11 of the Malaysian Constitution.… Read the rest
Malaysian Court Rejects Bid to Leave Islam
Aug 10th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Appellant not legally recognized because her Chinese name no longer existed after conversion to Islam… Read the rest
Threats of Violence Force Conference to Close
Aug 10th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Kuala Lumpur: ‘protesters’ say forum on conversion would undermine Islam, threaten to storm building.… Read the rest
BBC on Jewel of Medina
Aug 10th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Spellberg said she felt it was her duty to warn the press of the novel’s potential to provoke anger.… Read the rest
The Guardian lends a hand
Aug 9th, 2008 6:02 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Guardian also has a piece on the story, a subtly, covertly snotty one – snotty about Jones, not Spellberg. ‘The Jewel of the Medina, a first book by Sherry Jones, 46, was to have been released on August 12′ – what’s with that ’46’? It doesn’t say how old Spellberg is. The point seems to be that Jones is old for a first novel – which has to be just covert sneering, sneering that’s embarrassed to be overt about it. ‘She claims to have spent two years researching the novel’ – there it is again – she claims? Couldn’t that have been she said? Yes, but apparently that wouldn’t have been snide enough. For some reason, the Guardian… Read the rest
Spellberg explains
Aug 9th, 2008 5:56 pm | By Ophelia BensonDenise Spellberg clears things up. She didn’t ‘single-handedly stop the book’s publication’ – ah that’s good to know; she had help. She says.
Random House made its final decision based on the advice of other scholars, conveniently not named in the article, and based ultimately on its determination of corporate interests.
Ah yes! Quite! Those bastards – those capitalist bastards – they have corporate interests – so really it’s Random House that is the guilty party here, not a ‘scholar’ who sees fit to tell someone to ‘warn Muslims’ about a novel and to tell Random House that said novel is ”a declaration of war…a national security issue’. Well certainly Random House acted like chickenshits, but deploying the right-on … Read the rest
Dawkins Takes Issue With Libby Purves
Aug 9th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Unjust, to the point of outright mendacity.’… Read the rest
New Sharia Marriage Contract in UK
Aug 9th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘A married Muslim couple will now have equal rights.’… Read the rest
NPR Visits Camp Inquiry
Aug 9th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If skeptics are in the majority at Camp Inquiry, they’re often alone in their schools and neighborhoods.… Read the rest
‘Quite Deliberately Provocative’ Says Spellberg
Aug 9th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Spellberg told the Guardian she is receiving hate mail accusing her of acting as a censor for Muslim jihadis.… Read the rest
Denise Spellberg Explains She is an Expert
Aug 9th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘I felt it was my professional duty to warn the press of the novel’s potential to provoke anger among some Muslims.’… Read the rest
The State of the Nayshun
Aug 9th, 2008 | By R. Joseph HoffmannAs we wait for the inevitable decline in Barack Obama’s fortunes and lament the fact that the political campaign being waged in the world’s greatest democracy has become a battle between a feisty old man in a baseball cap and a young Cicero increasingly prone to leaden rather than silver tongued oration, it’s appropriate to take stock of the intellectual condition of the nation.
My friends, as the feisty old man likes to say, Things are Not Good. Nearly half a century ago the mini-genre of “Why Is America So Fucking Stupid” was born with the publication of Richard Hofstadter’s 1963 book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, though some would argue (I would) that the genre can be dated from … Read the rest
Juxtaposition
Aug 8th, 2008 4:03 pm | By Ophelia BensonFrom the Dakar Declaration of the 2008 OIC summit.
Our faith in such a strategic option for the quest for peace in that part of the world [Basra? No. Kashmir? No. Darfur? No.]…illustrates our strict adherence to the values of Islam, a religion of peace that forbids all forms of exclusivity and extremism and that warrants the following quotation “You have been made a Prophet only to restore peace in the world”, which is based on a verse from the Holy Quran.
From the report on Saudi textbooks.
… Read the restA Muslim is forbidden to love and aid the unbelieving enemies of God…They are the people of the Sabbath, whose young people God turned into apes, and whose old people God
School Bombers Say Girls Should Stay Home
Aug 8th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Bombers have destroyed over 70 state-run schools in NWFP, affecting more than 17,000 students. … Read the rest
Philip Anderson Reviews Alan Sokal
Aug 8th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
When attacked, fans of pseudoscience defend themselves by referring to postmodernist philosophers.… Read the rest
Grayling on Religion and Oppression of Women
Aug 8th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tradition and religion make shackles of iron, and the shackles are mainly worn by women.… Read the rest
Shahed Amanullah Speaks Up for Free Speech
Aug 8th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
No one has the right not to be offended, nor to live without the uncomfortable opinions of others.… Read the rest
