I have been quite outspoken in recent times about what I believe to be a necessary and inescapable connection between Islam, as properly understood (yes, that notion is wrought with issue) and violence (and intolerance). I have even debated this publicly and given a public talk on the topic (at the University of Exeter).
Tag religious extremism
Two of the most interesting pieces concerning what has happened with regard to ISIS have come from The Atlantic and The Nation. I advise reading both, especially as The Nation’s piece is an attempt to rebut the first article.
The Paris mass shootings and bombings have been terrible. It’s a right minefield of religion, politics and sadness. One idea which has routinely popped up on social media has been that Christians should pray for Paris.
I am reposting this in response to the terror attacks in France last night, resulting in the deaths of over one hundred people. As ever, the internet is awash with right-wing shouts to “kill all Muslims” and refugees, to the left-wing shouts that it is the Imperial West to blame and not Islam or Muslims. Neither of these positions are correct. It is obviously thoroughly complex, indeed involving international politics. However, to deny the Qu’ran, Muhammad and the Hadith causal responsibility in these atrocities is to deny the self-determination of those very terrorists who claim that they are doing these actions in the name of Islam and their god.
My goodness. Bangladesh, sort it out. SORT IT OUT! I am a secular publisher and author and blogger. On account…
This is a really good excerpt from the political discourse programme “This Week” on the BBC:
The archaeologist who looked after ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria for 40 years is reported to have been killed by Islamic State (IS) militants.
Khaled al-Asaad had been held for about a month by the group, which seized the Unesco World Heritage site in May.
I have had many discussions concerning Islam and my views pertaining to it. I would like to flesh out here some of the criticisms I have had and answer them properly, also offering this as a post that I can point people to when this undoubtedly pops up again.
Attackers in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka have hacked to death a US-Bangladeshi blogger whose writings on religion angered Islamist hardliners.
Avijit Roy, an atheist who advocated secularism, was attacked as he walked back from a book fair with his wife, who was also hurt in the attack.
I actually felt sick watching this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RMPJPjtlNg Motherfuckers. Video description: Mosul, the biggest city in the Islamic State group’s self-declared…
This awesome video comes from a couple of years ago in Melbourne. Genius:
I am engaged in many conversations and debates across multiple platforms on the internet. At the moment, and in general recently, I have been wrapped up in many debates with my fellow liberals. The subject has been Islam and as to whether it is in some culpable proportion responsible for the violent extremism which is taking place across the globe. From the Middle East and ISIS (incorporating a number of different countries) to France and the Charlie Hedbo events; from Nigeria and Boko Haram to Kenya and Somalia with al Shabaab, things are not looking good.
This is well worth a watch with some great panellists on both sides of the debate line. I will be…
This is a really interesting BBC article looking at violent extremism and its sudden apparent arrival on the scene: Boko…
Pertinent: Government’s obsession with faith and free schools ‘breeds social and racial segregation’
With another massacre, this time in Parisian France, and the issues with religious extremism, this is as pertinent as ever.…
I have reported a few of these recently. One might think I am picking on Islam. But there is no other worldview or religion which is inspiring such mass killings. From 8 people being shot in the head in Kenya for not being able to recite the Qu’ran, to ISIS going nuts in the Middle East. I know a lot f liberal apologist (and as I say, I am generally as liberal as they come) point to other causal factors and try to blame the West and geo-political scenarios. But this is simply death for infidels in parts of Africa over which the West has little power, or at least not in the way that would inspire this kind of activit
The post-Trojan horse shenanigans rumble on. The BHA are riding the secular wave – good on ’em. The BBC reports:…
Watch the above video. (Then watch it again.) And then read the (unedited and uncorrected) description of this footage written by the organizers of this Muslim “peace conference”:
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.
H/T High Wycombe Skeptics in the Pub. From the Freethinker: First they began gunning for The Gays, now religious…