The Guardian has run a few articles lately on face veiling as it has hit the news again in the UK. I have detailed before my frustration with veiling (primarily on communication grounds, but also on the more complex and debatable grounds of being undergirded by sexism). Here are some interesting views of some Guardian readers:
Imagine that I am sitting outside a cafe in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, dressed in full crusader costume, my red pectoral cross prominently displayed, pouring whisky into my coffee. What message does this send to passersby?
Tag Islam
H/T Reasonably Faithless: http://youtu.be/uX-Aldx-LM0
What do you say to someone who tried to stab you to death?
The unlikely opportunity to find out presented itself to Asif Mohiuddin not long ago in a jail in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Taken into custody for a second time for allegedly posting “offensive comments about Islam and Mohammed” on his blog, the outspoken atheist blogger and anti-Islamist political activist found himself in a cell next to one of the three assailants who had been waiting outside his office building when he arrived for the night shift on the 14th of January 2013.
Adam Deen is a Muslim apologist famous in the UK for defending, publicly, the philosophy and theology of Islam often touching on scientific contexts.
Skydivephil is an awesome duo who you might remember from here who often have William Lane Craig in their sights (where in the linked video they owned him on his claims about animal suffering, first in his debate with Stephen Law).
Those who founded the Republic in 1923 might well be turning in their graves: their vision of Turkey as a strictly secularist and nationalist state – not just a separation of state and religion, but also the removal of religion from all aspects of public life – is being questioned.
In the lead-up to the 89th anniversary of the Turkish Republic on 29 October, political values have never been more openly debated, thanks to a public consultation process, initiated by Turkey’s parliament, for a new constitution.
More misery for atheists and secularists in Bangladesh (see this very moving interview I shared the other day). The country is going seriously backwards.
As AlJazeera reports:
Another fascinating Guardian article. It seems like Egypt is imploding in Islamic-led idiocy. Such a shame, with a wonderful opportunity to progress the country in starting with what could have been a blank slate. Instead, the country has largely regressed under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood:
Burqas are back on the agenda in the UK. This is because there was a recent furore within the British legal aystem. A Muslim woman was barred from serving on a jury because she refused to remove her veil. In a controversial ruling, a judge said she could not sit on an attempted murder trial because her full face covering (niqab) concealed her expressions.
More than 850 delegates flocked to a seminal conference in London on Saturday about the compatibility of modern evolutionary theory and Islamic theology – despite scaremongering and the refusal of Islamic student societies to participate. Determined organisers had overcome pressure to cancel by changing the venue from Imperial College toLogan Hall at the University of London. The event was the brainchild of the Deen Institute, which runs courses to promote critical thinking among Muslim students and kindle rational dialogue within Islam. The need for dialogue is urgent, because to date there has been little open discussion within British Muslim communities on this divisive subject. Recent debates in the US suggest that evolution is not as much of a problem theologically to Muslims as it is to Christian creationists, but there is work to be done to clarify the situation.
Among the dozens of Facebook groups spawned by the Syrian uprising, a page supporting women’s rights has suddenly received a wave of attention, because of an image posted there by one of its followers. The picture was of 21-year-old Dana Bakdounis, without the veil she had grown up wearing – and it polarised opinion.
So you may have heard that the Arab Spring has not been too kind to Egypt. You may have heard that the shit might hit the fan if the Muslim Brotherhood and hardline Islamists get their way. In case you thought it might be propaganda with an agenda, think again. This sort of stuff makes me want to cry. Check the video and transcript below. Religion sucks.