Category Islam

Islam or Islamaphobia?

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”:

Moustache elicits Taliban death threats

OK, so this is the world’s greatest moustache. But this guy put his life on the line for it in the face of religious extremism. Shit, he even put his family second to the mighty facial hair. Here is Salon.com’s take on it (H/T Reasonable Doubts):

I am rationally Islamaphobic

This may be an oxymoron because a phobia is often, though not always, seen as an irrational or disproportionate fear of something, I contest that my fear of Islam is either disproportionate or irrational. I have a fear which is, I argue, perfectly rational; empirical, even.

Concerns raised about gender and religious discrimination at Derby Muslim Free School

The Derby Telegraph has reported that Al-Madinah School, a Muslim Free School that opened in Derby in September 2012, is forcing all female members of staff to wear a hijab (whether Muslim or not), and is requiring girls to sit at the back of classrooms. The Sunday Times is further reporting that reading fairy tales, singing and stringed instruments are banned due to being ‘forbidden in Islam’, and the school’s (non-Muslim) head and deputy head were bullied into resignation by the governing body due to the latter being belittled and sidelined as a result of her lack of faith – leading to both lodging official complaints of bullying with the Department for Education (DfE).

Nigerian woman wins beauty pageant billed as Islam’s answer to Miss World

Oh deary me. Not only are women deemed worthy in their appeal to men, but now they are deemed worthy on account of their most useful trait: their knowledge of the Qu’ran (whilst wearing a headscarf and high heels). Can this world get any more fucked up on account of religion?

Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola wins contest where participants are judged on their knowledge of Islam

Some views on the full face veil

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?

“They liked me, but they have to kill me some day”

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.

The threat to Turkey is SERIOUS

The shitstorm going down in Turkey deserves more attention. I mean that our governments should be coming out and decrying the Turkish conservative government’s attempts to drive out secularism in the historically secular country. I get enraged when I read about what is going on there. Here is an ostensibly Muslim country which has remained, against all odds, secular in nature. The tide is turning, though, and outrageous things are taking place. This argue makes me bristle with the injustice of the world. Over to the Guardian.

Evolution, Censorship and Adam Deen

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).

Is Turkey’s secular system in danger?

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.

Why burqas / niqabs are controversial

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.

Muslims engage in quest to understand evolution

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.

AARGHH! In case you doubted that the Islamists want to pull down the pyramids, statues and Sphinxes… I could cry.

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.