All entries by this author

Darwin Online Will be Launched October 19 *

Oct 18th, 2006 | Filed by

Never before has so much Darwin material been brought together in one place and made available free of charge.… Read the rest



Darwin’s Complete Works to Go Online *

Oct 18th, 2006 | Filed by

Cambridge makes the whole shooting match available for free.… Read the rest



Turkish Archaeologist Faces Trial *

Oct 18th, 2006 | Filed by

Wrote scientific article about hijab; prosecutor charged her with ‘inciting hatred based on religious differences.’… Read the rest



Interview with Stephen Law *

Oct 18th, 2006 | Filed by

We need citizens raised to think and question.… Read the rest



‘Faith’ Schools Must Cross Religious Barriers *

Oct 18th, 2006 | Filed by

By being secular schools? No, by having quotas for ‘other faiths’.… Read the rest



Nadia Jamal on Veils, Faces, and Different Rules *

Oct 18th, 2006 | Filed by

If the beach is good enough for men, it should be good enough for women too.… Read the rest



Older Students Still Required to ‘Worship’ *

Oct 18th, 2006 | Filed by

‘The Government’s refusal is an abuse of Human Rights,’ says Keith Porteous Wood.… Read the rest



Iran Bans Fast Internet Service *

Oct 18th, 2006 | Filed by

Iran filters more websites than any other country apart from China. … Read the rest



A C Grayling on Books on Friendships *

Oct 17th, 2006 | Filed by

Sages of quite different traditions extol friendship as the highest link in the social web.… Read the rest



More on Free Speech in the US *

Oct 17th, 2006 | Filed by

Launch party for Carmen Callil’s book cancelled because of comment about Israel.… Read the rest



Two Faces of Arab Intellectuals *

Oct 17th, 2006 | Filed by

Khalid al-Maaly on a carefully masked double standard.… Read the rest



Harry Kreissler Talks to Martha Nussbaum *

Oct 17th, 2006 | Filed by

‘I think it’s obvious that traditional religions have given women a second class status in pretty much every case.’… Read the rest



Hamid Dabashi Accuses Azar Nafisi *

Oct 17th, 2006 | Filed by

‘To me there is no difference between Lynndie England and Azar Nafisi,’ he told Z-net.… Read the rest



Without being co-opted

Oct 16th, 2006 11:31 pm | By

According to The Chronicle of Higher Ed, Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University, read Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker article, about the Bush admin’s plans to whack Iran, with dismay.

The article prompted him to dust off an essay that he had written a few years before and publish it in the June 1 edition of the Egyptian English-language newspaper Al-Ahram. His target? Not President Bush or the Pentagon, but Azar Nafisi, author of the best-selling memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran…His blistering essay cast Ms. Nafisi as a collaborator in the Bush administration’s plans for regime change in Iran. He drew heavily on the late scholar Edward Said’s ideas about the

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Meet the authors

Oct 16th, 2006 5:50 pm | By

See Jeremy and Julian being silly – I mean having a serious (albeit brief) discussion of aesthetics, elitism, cuisine, jazz, preferences, and alphabetization.… Read the rest



Religion and Rationality

Oct 16th, 2006 5:38 pm | By

Martin Newland tells us plaintively that ‘these days people find it hard to accept that religion and rationality can co-exist.’ Well, maybe; some people; other people clearly find it very easy. And as for ‘these days’, I would say the social pressure is running more in the other direction ‘these days’ than it did, say, twenty years ago. But maybe by ‘these days’ Newland means ‘these past three hundred years’.

At any rate, he shows us how well religion and rationality can co-exist.

I am a Roman Catholic. As such, I believe that God took the decision to be born into a poor family in Roman-occupied Palestine. I believe that His short life on earth was spent setting down the

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David Thompson on the ‘Phobia’ Ploy *

Oct 16th, 2006 | Filed by

Once beliefs become identity, disagreement becomes racism, and silence falls.… Read the rest



Islamism in Europe *

Oct 16th, 2006 | Filed by

Artists and leftists warn that the rise of radical Islam threatens European liberalism.… Read the rest



Bush Advisors Called Evangelicals ‘Nuts’ *

Oct 16th, 2006 | Filed by

And goofy; but of course those are terms of endearment.… Read the rest



Martin Newland Reports he is Catholic and Sane *

Oct 16th, 2006 | Filed by

Then provides details.… Read the rest