Things get bad-tempered over Bosnia and Srebrenica.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Norm Geras on the Reductions of the Left 
Nov 3rd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Category of ‘imperialism’ so exhausts the thinking of part of the left as to lock it into regrettable positions.… Read the rest
Iran Fires Diplomats in Purge of Liberals
Nov 3rd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ambassadors to London, Paris, Berlin and UN mediated between Iran and Europe over nuclear programme. … Read the rest
Muslim Domestic Violence Cases are Different
Nov 3rd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Or so police are told in Victoria, Australia. Muslim women not pleased.… Read the rest
Football Fatwa
Nov 2nd, 2005 8:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere must be a mole at the Guardian. Prince Charles would frown wonderingly in the manner of Ned Welch if he read this article – HRH would be most unamused. But that’s his problem.
As part of a government drive to eliminate frivolous fatwas, the Saudi newspaper Al Watan recently published a stone-cold sober one on football. If you can read it without collapsing in helpless laughter – I have bad news for you: you seem to be deceased.
… Read the restInternational terminology that heretics use, such as “foul,” “penalty”, “corner,” “goal”, “out” and others, should be abandoned and not said…Do not follow the heretics, the Jews, the Christians and especially evil America regarding the number of players. Do not play
Furtive Political Campaigns are the Wrong Kind
Nov 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A retreat into the mire of a furtive, grubby campaign of individual acts of anti-Semitic discrimination.… Read the rest
Van Gogh Commemoration Calls for Unity
Nov 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“We must not abandon each other,” Dutch PM Jan Peter Balkenende told a gathering in Amsterdam.… Read the rest
Doug Ireland on Michel Onfray
Nov 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The brightest star among the younger French philosophers.… Read the rest
Anniversary of Murder of Theo van Gogh
Nov 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Killer said he murdered out of religious conviction, would kill again in the name of Islam if given a chance. … Read the rest
South Asian Earthquake Toll Jumps to 73,000
Nov 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Relief commissioner Farooq Ahmed Khan said more than 69,000 were injured; expects casualty toll to rise. … Read the rest
Times Gets Early Start on Xmas Moaning
Nov 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
South Lambeth taking the Christ out of Xmas.… Read the rest
Super-charged Placebo Effect
Nov 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
However traditional treatment is not invalid, it’s just that the nonsense helps.… Read the rest
Football Fatwa
Nov 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Do not play in two halves. Play in one half or three halves to differentiate yourselves from the heretics.… Read the rest
Watered-down ‘Issues-led’ Science Curriculum
Nov 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If you are taught about issues without facts, you’ll learn uninformed prejudices of the day.… Read the rest
P. Charles Wants Yanks to Appreciate Islam
Nov 2nd, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Wants to be defender of ‘faiths’ not ‘faith’.… Read the rest
Vicar of Drivelly
Nov 1st, 2005 8:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Vicar of Putney is sounding off again.
But what resources of self-criticism has atheism developed? Little, it seems. Rarely is a critical lens directed inwards. Once the campaigning atheist has seen the light, they remain on-message, keen to convert all unbelievers. Last week, as Maryam Namazie picked up her award for Secularist of the Year, she proposed “an uncompromising and shamelessly aggressive demand for secularism. Today, more than ever, we are in need of the complete de-religionisation of society.”
What’s his point? What does he mean? What does he think he means? He doesn’t say, he just gives another example of what he takes to be self-evident atheist non-self-criticism. Well, that’s stupid. The fact that a given atheist is … Read the rest
Cultural Sensitivity About Forced Marriage
Nov 1st, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘I wish I had been able to say to my parents at 14, “You can’t do this to me because it is illegal.”‘… Read the rest
Hate the Belief but not the Believer?
Nov 1st, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Nah, that would rule out hating the Pope.… Read the rest
Irshad Manji on the Universality of Human Rights
Nov 1st, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
When we sanctify those constructs called cultures, we make them static, we end up with group-think.… Read the rest
Joan Bakewell, Others on Religious Hatred Bill
Nov 1st, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘The bill creates a climate where self- censorship will be almost unavoidable.’… Read the rest
