HRW documented 204 incidents of attacks on teachers, students and schools since January 2005. … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Aaronovitch on ‘Mission Creep’ in Afghanistan 
Jul 12th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
You go in to get rid of the Taleban and you end up risking lives just to educate women.… Read the rest
France Observes Dreyfus Centenary
Jul 12th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘The fight against the dark forces of intolerance and hate is never definitively won.’… Read the rest
Indian Newspapers React to Mumbai Bombings
Jul 12th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘We almost never apprehend those who kill in the name of politics and faith…’… Read the rest
Logic
Jul 11th, 2006 8:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is an interesting bit of reasoning.
The letter pinned overnight to the wall of the mosque in Kandahar was succinct. “Girls going to school need to be careful for their safety. If we put acid on their faces or they are murdered then the blame will be on their parents.”
That’s good, isn’t it? If we put acid on their faces, the blame will be on their parents. Well of course it will – if it hadn’t been for their parents, the girls wouldn’t be there to have faces that Talibanists can put acid on. Furthermore, if the parents hadn’t fed them all those years, again the girls wouldn’t be there to have faces. If the parents hadn’t … Read the rest
World This Weekend [audio]
Jul 11th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Muslims who don’t want to join the MCB have a hard time getting a hearing.… Read the rest
Francis Wheen on the Poet of Dialectics
Jul 11th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Das Kapital a literary masterpiece: Gothic novel, Victorian melodrama, Greek tragedy, Swiftian satire.… Read the rest
Bombs Kill At Least 130 on Mumbai Trains
Jul 11th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
7 near-simultaneous blasts went off during rush hour in the suburbs.… Read the rest
The Taliban War on Knowledge
Jul 11th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Girls going to school need to be careful.’ If Taliban put acid on their faces, blame their parents.… Read the rest
Hindus Unhappy at Being Called Asians
Jul 11th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Identity, race, community, faith, community groups, faith communities, blrrghhhakkk.… Read the rest
Kenan Malik on a Bad Bargain in the Mosque
Jul 11th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Self-appointed community leaders with no democratic mandate gain power.… Read the rest
An Open Letter to Oriana Fallaci
Jul 11th, 2006 | By Azar MajediDear Oriana Fallaci
As a veteran activist of women’s rights, for liberty and equality, as a first hand victim of political Islam, and a veteran fighter against it, as an atheist who is a staunch believer in a secular state and secular education system, as a woman who has fought against the hejab in any form and shape, as a secularist who has defended the latest French secular law to ban the wearing of any conspicuous religious symbols in public schools, as a campaigner for banning the veil for underage girls and banning religious schools, as a campaigner against honour killings, Sharia courts in Canada, Islamism and Islamic terrorism, as a staunch defender of unconditional freedom of expression and criticism … Read the rest
Karen Armstrong: Islam’s Hagiographer
Jul 11th, 2006 | By David ThompsonKaren Armstrong has been described as “one of the world’s most provocative and inclusive thinkers on the role of religion in the modern world”. Armstrong’s efforts to be “inclusive” are certainly “provocative”, though generally for reasons that are less than edifying. In 1999, the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Los Angeles gave Armstrong an award for media “fairness”. What follows might cast light on how warranted that recognition is, and indeed on how the MPAC chooses to define fairness.
In one of her baffling Guardian columns, Armstrong argues that, “It is important to know who our enemies are… By making the disciplined effort to name our enemies correctly, we will learn more about them, and come one step nearer, … Read the rest
Bob and Kenan Say It
Jul 11th, 2006 1:34 am | By Ophelia BensonBob from Brockley tells us of a good item on Radio 4’s The World This Weekend. I haven’t listened yet but I’m going to, as well as to Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Start the Week, which Nick S mentioned. (Time! I have no time!)
… Read the resta very interesting segment on Radio 4’s World This Weekend about who represents British Muslisms…A number of British Muslims forcefully argued that the Muslim Council of Britain completely fails to represent the perdominantly Sufi Sunni British Muslims, who do not have a Muslim Brotherhood worldview, but rather have a much more theologically open perspective…A new organisation is needed to better represent them…Particularly daming was the testimony with Haras Rafiq from the Sufi Muslim Council on
The Seen Unseen
Jul 11th, 2006 1:05 am | By Ophelia BensonBill Moyers also talked to Mary Gordon in that installment of his ‘faith and reason’ series. Gordon said a lot of interesting things, as she generally does; I like her, she’s shrewd, self-mocking, funny, and a believer in the non-triumphalist and non-accusatory (why don’t you believe too?) way that seems so out of fashion in the US. But I wanted to take exception to one thing she said because I think it relies on equivocation (though not necessarily deliberately), and it’s an equivocation that does a lot of work for believers of the triumphalist and accusatory variety.
… Read the restWithout faith we would be paralyzed. We believe that all men are created equal. That our mothers, or at least our dogs, love
Jeff Weintraub on Stickling for International Law
Jul 10th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Including the Genocide Convention.… Read the rest
The Economics of Immigration
Jul 10th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Do unskilled immigrants drive wages down? Evidence has been hard to find.… Read the rest
Define ‘Islamophobia’
Jul 10th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Rational fear of certain Islamic ideas is different from hatred of, or incitement against, Muslims.… Read the rest
Spanish PM a No-show for Papal Nag
Jul 10th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Pope gave a homily praising traditional family, marriage between a man and a woman – geddit?… Read the rest
Asians in Media on Channel 4 Documentary
Jul 10th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Martin Bright tells AIM the government fails to represent diversity of opinion among British Muslims.… Read the rest
