All entries by this author

Brian Whitaker on HRW and Honour Killings *

Jan 14th, 2008 | Filed by

Many governments that sign up to treaties such as CEDAW face resistance from conservatives at home.… Read the rest



Loudspeaker Plan for Oxford Mosque Not Popular *

Jan 14th, 2008 | Filed by

Neighbours think it might be a tad noisy and intrusive. And theological.… Read the rest



Gina Khan Interview Part 4 *

Jan 14th, 2008 | Filed by

Inayat Bunglawala is a good example of what I mean by the extreme version of Islam.… Read the rest



Gina Khan Interview Part 3 *

Jan 14th, 2008 | Filed by

Islamists would disable half the body of Islam by reversing the rights of women.… Read the rest



Steven Pinker on the Moral Instinct *

Jan 14th, 2008 | Filed by

Who is most moral: Mother Teresa, Bill Gates, or Norman Borlaug?… Read the rest



Gina Khan Interview Part 2 *

Jan 14th, 2008 | Filed by

The first time my husband slapped me after I questioned him he said ”Don’t question my authority – in our religion you are not allowed. I’m your husband.’… Read the rest



Westminster Journal Interviews Gina Khan *

Jan 14th, 2008 | Filed by

Pain figures in the lives of many Muslim women because of accepted Muslim social practices. … Read the rest



Fauziya Kassindja ran away

Jan 13th, 2008 3:50 pm | By

Kpalime, Togo, 1997: Hajia Zuwera Kassindja apologized to her late husband’s cousin, the patriarch of his family, for having helped her daughter Fauziya run away to America to escape having her genitals cut off. She had given her daughter nearly all of her money to run away.

”What the mother did pains me a lot,” the patriarch, Mouhamadou Kassindja, said in a scolding tone…”She is my brother’s wife. It is for me to take care of my brother’s child since he is no longer alive. She acted as though the child were hers. She and the child made the laws. That is why the child did not want to follow the customs.”

She acted as though the child were hers … Read the rest



The Huckster’s Artful Dodging on Evolution *

Jan 13th, 2008 | Filed by

It is unacceptable for a presidential candidate to advocate a clearly unconstitutional educational policy.… Read the rest



Defiant Levant Republishes Motoons *

Jan 13th, 2008 | Filed by

Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada filed a complaint.… Read the rest



Ezra Levant to Alberta Human Rights Commission *

Jan 13th, 2008 | Filed by

The commission is acting as a censor. That’s human rights?… Read the rest



Blasphemy Laws on the Skids *

Jan 13th, 2008 | Filed by

Archbishop of Canterbury will not oppose abolition.… Read the rest



Children Baptised for Sake of School Place *

Jan 13th, 2008 | Filed by

‘A great compliment from the community at large to the quality of the Catholic school system.’… Read the rest



Sighting hate

Jan 13th, 2008 11:40 am | By

Syed Soharwardy tells us why last year.

Syed B. Soharwardy today filed two formal complaints with the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission against the publishers of Jewish Free Press and the Western Standards for sighting hate against Muslims. After filing the complaints, he spoke with the media and said that this is a first step towards putting an end towards the hateful and non-Canadian attitude.

Yeah good idea – put an end to the hateful attitude, and do it by force; that’s always a good plan. I don’t like hateful attitudes myself, so I’m glad they’re all going to be put an end to.

Syed Soharwardy thanked the mainstream Canadian Media for protecting the freedom of the press with

Read the rest


Mohanty, Nussbaum, MacKinnon

Jan 12th, 2008 12:21 pm | By

Here’s a sampling of the wonderful and famous “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” for your delectation. I have to tell you – it’s kack. Read that and then read a page of Martha Nussbaum – for instance her essay ‘Judging Other Cultures: the Case of Female Genital Mutilation’ which I just read this morning; or read a page of Susan Moller Okin or Catharine MacKinnon or Katha Pollitt – and you will see a difference. Mohanty is all pretension and extended jargon-mongering; the others are clear (without necessarily being easy, much less dumbed down) and precise and specific. Mohanty is not really trying to argue a case (if she were, she would do it in a different … Read the rest



The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief *

Jan 12th, 2008 | Filed by

By Tom Flynn (editor), Richard Dawkins (foreword).… Read the rest



Ben Goldacre on Clinical Trials *

Jan 12th, 2008 | Filed by

You can’t change your mind about what you’re counting as your main outcome after you’ve finished and the results are in.… Read the rest



Why Ratzinger is the Pope and Jesus is Not *

Jan 12th, 2008 | Filed by

Ratzinger has such clever ideas.… Read the rest



Jesus and Mo on How Fallible Humans Know *

Jan 12th, 2008 | Filed by

A moment of infallibility does the trick.… Read the rest



Spate of Executions and Amputations in Iran *

Jan 12th, 2008 | Filed by

Judicial authorities amputated the right hands and left feet of five convicted robbers this week.… Read the rest