The job of providing Maoist leadership with not a peasant in sight has to get kind of depressing.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Some Irreligious Questions for the Candidates 
Feb 5th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Do any of you think God speaks to you? Does God have a tax policy, a health care policy, a policy on Iraq?… Read the rest
ABC Goes Ahead With Autism-MMR Drama
Feb 5th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Producer thinks the drama ‘shows both sides of the argument.’ But there is no ‘both’!… Read the rest
Crimes in the Name of Honour
Feb 5th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Violence against women possibly not such a good idea after all.… Read the rest
Anthony Cox on Dr Katme and the MCB
Feb 5th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Surely the MCB ought to note the entirely negative public relations influence Dr Katme is creating?… Read the rest
Current Islamic Guidance on FGC: Do Not Cut Too Deeply
Feb 5th, 2008 | By Colin Brewer‘Islamophobia’ may be a very fashionable disorder these days but I’m pretty sure that I don’t suffer from it. Islamorejection and even Islamohilarity I will cheerfully admit to but only as part of a simple rationalist dismissal of all supernatural religions. Our bible-waving enemies – and Islam, in particular treats atheists as extremely dangerous heretics – are not exactly extinct but most of them have been in retreat or confusion ever since superstition and biblical literalism started to acknowledge science, however grudgingly. The main exceptions have been those religions that didn’t have much contact with science and the modern world until quite recently – like much of Islam, after its promising mediaeval start. That’s why, at one level, … Read the rest
While he was away
Feb 4th, 2008 2:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonLet me get this straight – a guy has some video evidence that his wife and her sister were in the company of some men when he wasn’t there, and so they’re going to be executed? That’s the deal? Yes, that’s the deal.
Two Iranian sisters convicted of adultery face being stoned to death after the supreme court upheld the death sentences against them, the Etemad newspaper reported. The two sisters were found guilty of adultery – a capital crime in Islamic Iran – after the husband of one of the pair presented video evidence showing them in the company of other men while he was away.
It’s not even video evidence that they were having sex with the … Read the rest
Oh what’s a few germs between friends
Feb 4th, 2008 1:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere’s just no end to the joys of fundamentalism, is there. Health, hygiene, avoidance of untreatable illness and death, adherence to established rational medical norms? As nothing in the balance compared to what is said to be ‘a basic tenet of Islam’ – no matter how stupid, trivial, pettifogging, mindless, exaggerated, plain bloody absurd the ‘basic tenet’ is. This should (again) be something out of The Onion but apparently isn’t.
… Read the restMuslim medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules brought in to stop the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion. Women training in several hospitals in England have raised objections to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves
Why David Irving and Not David Icke?
Feb 4th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
David Irving is to free speech what McDonald’s is to Cordon Bleu cuisine.… Read the rest
Medical Scrubbing is ‘Immodest’
Feb 4th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Islamic Medical Association says covering all but face and hands is a basic tenet of Islam.… Read the rest
Stone-throwing on Holocaust Day Tour
Feb 4th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A gang of youths stoned Jewish tourists on a guided tour of London’s East End.… Read the rest
AI to Iran: Stop Executions by Stoning
Feb 4th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Iran’s Penal Code dictates that the stones must be big enough to hurt and small enough to kill slowly.… Read the rest
Iran: Sisters Face Stoning for ‘Adultery’
Feb 4th, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Husband of one sister presented video showing them in the company of other men while he was away. … Read the rest
A qualitative difference
Feb 4th, 2008 1:36 am | By Ophelia BensonIrritated readers of Talking Philosophy are emailing me to scold me about the removed post on debating David Irving, so just to make things clear: I have nothing to do with TP, I can’t post there, I have no access to the equipment, I don’t make decisions; it’s nothing to do with me. I didn’t take the post down. I work for the magazine, but I have no connection with the blog.
The deniers have the post here.)
I went to the central library today (Sunday) to get Deborah Lipstadt’s Denying the Holocaust and Richard Evans’s Lying About Hitler. Lipstadt says something very apposite to Julian’s question (‘Should I debate a Holocaust denier?) on page 26.
… Read the restThere
Normblog on Reasons for not Debating
Feb 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Falsehoods about the Holocaust can be combated in both speech and writing without any need to speak face to face.… Read the rest
Study Alleges ‘Honour’ Killings Conspiracy
Feb 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Informal networks of taxi drivers, councillors, and cops track down and return women who try to escape.… Read the rest
Deafening Silence From the Government
Feb 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The brutal coercion of women has been aided and abetted by Government policy.… Read the rest
Teenager’s In-laws Invited Men to Rape Her
Feb 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Girl’s ‘marriage’ was not recognised by the Home Office but was approved by the Islamic Sharia Council.… Read the rest
Some Cops Block Crackdown on ‘Honour’ Killing
Feb 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Victims who seek help are being tracked down by a network of Asian men working in social services.… Read the rest
A Clever New Wheeze
Feb 3rd, 2008 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Explosives strapped to two women with Down’s syndrome were remotely detonated in crowded pet markets.… Read the rest
