All entries by this author

Fred Halliday on the Left and the Jihad *

Sep 11th, 2006 | Filed by

History is being rewritten, the language of political argument adjusted to accommodate this new accommodation. … Read the rest



‘What Happened in Rwanda, it Will Happen Here’ *

Sep 11th, 2006 | Filed by

“If these soldiers leave,” Sheik Ali said, “we will all be slaughtered.” … Read the rest



It Seems Women Are Always in the Way *

Sep 11th, 2006 | Filed by

They have to be pushed to the side so that their presence does not irritate, annoy or distract – men.… Read the rest



Women Protest Segregation in Grand Mosque *

Sep 11th, 2006 | Filed by

‘The proposal was made by a panel of men.’ Surprise!… Read the rest



Goat Forced to Marry Man *

Sep 11th, 2006 | Filed by

Rape victim handed over to perp.… Read the rest



Rights Trump Culture and Religion

Sep 11th, 2006 | By Maryam Namazie

Cultural relativism is not only a prescription for inaction and passivity in the face of the oppression of millions of people struggling and resisting in the Middle East and here in the west but is in fact racist in and of itself

Cultural relativism and its more seemingly palatable multiculturalism have lowered standards and redefined values to such depths that not only are all cultures and beliefs deemed equally valid, they seem to have taken on personas of their own blurring the distinction between individuals and beliefs (whether theirs or imputed).

As a result, concepts such as rights, equality, respect and tolerance, which were initially raised vis-à-vis the individual, are now more and more applicable to culture and religion and … Read the rest



Terry Glavin on Michael Ignatieff *

Sep 10th, 2006 | Filed by

He understands politics as tragedy, as a matter of always having to choose the lesser evil.… Read the rest



Ignatieff: Prodigal Son or Martian Outsider? *

Sep 10th, 2006 | Filed by

‘There’s a difference between weekend jaunts and the rootless existence of an incurable cosmopolitan.’… Read the rest



Nick Cohen on Research into Forgiveness *

Sep 10th, 2006 | Filed by

Vicars practice what they preach but churchgoers were as likely to want revenge as unbelievers.… Read the rest



Priest Makes Bomb Threat to Stop Madonna *

Sep 10th, 2006 | Filed by

Compassion, mercy, charity in action.… Read the rest



Martin Amis on the Age of Horrorism *

Sep 10th, 2006 | Filed by

All men are not my brothers, because all women are my sisters.… Read the rest



Sen quotes Tagore

Sep 9th, 2006 10:38 pm | By

A thought for the day. From Rabindranath Tagore, quoted by Amartya Sen in “Tagore and his India” in The Argumentative Indian (page 99).

“We who often glorify our tendency to ignore reason, installing in its place blind faith, valuing it as spiritual, are ever paying for its cost with the obscuration of our mind and destiny.”… Read the rest



Follies of the Wise

Sep 9th, 2006 9:52 pm | By

Jerry Coyne on Frederick Crews’s Follies of the Wise.

In Follies of the Wise, Crews takes on not only Freud and psychoanalysis, but also other fields of intellectual inquiry which have caused rational people to succumb to irrational ideas: recovered-memory therapy, alien abduction, theosophy, Rorschach inkblot analysis, intelligent design creationism, and even poststructuralist literary theory. All of these, asserts Crews, violate “the ethic of respecting that which is known, acknowledging what is still unknown, and acting as if one cared about the difference”. This, then, is a collection about epistemology, and one that should be read by anyone still harbouring the delusion that Freud was an important thinker, that psychoanalysis is an important cure, that intelligent design is a

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Ben Goldacre Asks: How is This Not a Trial? *

Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by

It’s a trial in the press, but when questions are asked, it’s not.… Read the rest



Signs of Mental Activity in Patient in PVS *

Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by

Neuroscientists used fMRI to detect signs of awareness; first success with PVS patient. … Read the rest



‘Iconoclasts’ on the Philosophy of Peter Singer *

Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by

Singer, Janet Radcliffe Richards, Kenan Malik, Andrew Linzey debate. … Read the rest



Rights Trump Culture and Religion *

Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by

Maryam Namazie calls cultural relativism a prescription for inaction and passivity in the face of oppression.… Read the rest



George Alagiah Sees Tensions in Multiculturalism *

Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by

Institutionalised tolerance for diversity may have led to institutional indifference to separation.… Read the rest



ACLU Condemns Approval of H.R. 2679 *

Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by

‘Public Expression of Religion Act’ would discourage enforcement of a specific constitutional protection.… Read the rest



Why Music Matters – to Humans *

Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by

Did a taste for music evolve? Or is it just a by-product of other adaptations?… Read the rest