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Posted in Faith, Literature, Religion, Science on Jan 25th, 2010
Although it is nearly 24 hours since I watched the first in Channel 4’s new series, The Bible: A History, I still find myself annoyed at the mere memory of it. It ended up being more of the aspirational wishful thinking of a romantic presenter than the history deceptively portrayed in the title.
The first quarter [...]
If it is not women’s legs and bottoms (see Appropriateness), it is their breasts. Apparently some men, especially some religious men, just can’t leave them alone. It is bad enough that some women in the Sudan are being whipped for wearing trousers, now some in Somalia are being whipped for wearing bras.
According to press reports:
A HARDLINE Islamist [...]
Posted in Censorship, Human Rights, Law, Religion on May 1st, 2009
In 2007, Kareem Amer, an Egyptian blogger, was sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty on several charges including ‘sedition’ and ‘incitement to hatred of Islam’. In March of this year, Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, a young Afghan journalist, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by Kabul’s supreme court for the crime of blasphemy. Kambakhsh’s [...]
Posted in Censorship, Faith, Government, Human Rights, Law, Morality, Religion on Mar 14th, 2009
A new proposal from Islamic states was circulated amongst Geneva diplomats last week as they attended the current session of the UN Human Rights Council. It is entitled “Combating defamation of religions,” and mentions only Islam. If adopted it would define any questioning of Islamic dogma as a human rights violation, which would intimidate dissenting [...]
Posted in Censorship, Faith, Government, Human Rights, Humanity, Morality, Religion, Society, Terrorism on Feb 15th, 2009
As the debate about the British Government’s refusal to allow Dutch MP, Geert Wilders, into the UK to attend a showing of his controversial film ‘Fitna’ has raged, I have wanted to write, but found myself unable to do so. It has taken time for the dust to settle in my head. Part [...]
Posted in Education, Faith, Humanity, Religion on Jan 5th, 2009
My holiday reading was Godless: How An Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists by Dan Barker. I had travelled a similar journey (albeit in a less publicised way). Having made the change from being an evangelical leader, preacher, counsellor, and author (for over 30 years) to an unashamed, blogging atheist, I thought it [...]
Posted in Government, Human Rights, Law, Religion on Dec 17th, 2008
Because of its importance, I have copied below an item from last Friday’s National Secular Society’s Newsletter in full. There is a call for people to sign a petition at the end. Please consider doing so.
One Law for All campaign launches with call for new legislative curbs on sharia courts
New legislation may be needed to [...]
Posted in Faith, Human Rights, Morality, Religion, Terrorism on Jun 13th, 2008
Yesterday a British court convicted the wife of a failed suicide bomber for failing to tell police about his plans for an attack on the London underground system. A jury in London found 32-year-old Yeshi Girma guilty of failing to provide information before her husband Hussain Osman and others attempted to set off explosions [...]
Posted in Faith, Human Rights, Morality, Religion on Apr 28th, 2008
There was a report by Ruth Gledhill in the TimesOnline of a British citizen who was harassed when he converted to Christianity from Islam and who was then not taken seriously when he complained to the police. When locals threatened to burn his house down he was told by officers to “stop being a [...]
Posted in Human Rights, Law, Religion on Mar 4th, 2008
Less than a month after the Archbishop of Canterbury caused some consternation in the UK by suggesting that the adoption of certain aspects of sharia law was unavoidable, a US court judge made a ruling which seems to imply that in some cases accommodation with Roman Catholic canon law should be considered.
In 2004, Dennis Riccitelli, [...]
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