middleeasteye.net: Whenever I use the term “New Atheism”, I’m invariably asked, “What is that and what is old atheism?” So allow me to clarify. Wikipedia defines New Atheism as a “social and political movement” that advocates the view that religion should not be tolerated. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy says […]
hrw.org: “The [French] Republic is freedom of expression,” said President Francois Hollande on January 7 in reaction to the horrific attack against the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead. But is it really? A wave of cases opened by the French judiciary over the past several days […]
Telegraph: The Oscars have been accused of “appalling” racial bias after nominating an entirely white line-up of actors for this year’s awards. It was only the second time in more than a decade that no black actor or actress has featured among the 20 nominees in the four acting categories. […]
Huff Post: In my new book The Myth of the Muslim Tide, I chronicle the widespread misunderstanding of Muslim immigration to the West. As with Jews and Catholics before, I […]
Buzzfeed: by Imaan Sheikh — Mohammad Jibran Nasir, a lawyer and social activist from Karachi, has started a campaign against terrorism and terrorist sympathisers in Pakistan in the wake of the attack on Peshawar’s schoolchildren. A lot comes with the stand Nasir has taken. “The religious organisation Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamat […]
Source: Open Salon By Muhammad Zafrullah My first reaction to seeing a caricature of a crying Prophet Muhammad, saying “I am Charlie” was an unhappy one. The unhappiness was partly brought […]
Source: The Economist STILL they march, every Monday in Dresden, as they have done since October. Numbering about 18,000, they call themselves Pegida, or “patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident”, and they are against too many asylum-seekers and migrants. They worry most about Islam, surprisingly for Saxony, where […]
Source: huffingtonpost.co.uk Hackers announced the beginning of World War Three – via the Twitter accounts of a major tabloid and news agency they had managed to take over. In a series of eerily-realistic tweets, The New York Post and United Press International (UPI) said an American aircraft carrier had been […]
Source: theguardian.com Rachida Dati, the first Muslim woman to hold a key ministerial post in France, calls for a new stance on religion In the immediate aftermath of the terrible attacks that have shaken our country, the French came together last week in a rarely equalled demonstration of national unity. […]
Source: theguardian.com The large numbers of children in mainly Muslim areas of France who refused to observe a minute’s silence for the victims of the Paris terror attacks shows that the country has “serious work to do to avoid a catastrophe”, warns Laurent Cantet, director of an award-winning film set […]
Source: independent.co.uk Mosques in London have been sent death threats, hate mail and drawings of the Prophet Mohamed in the wake of the Paris attacks. Tell Mama, which records Islamophobic hate crime in Britain, said it had received reports of incidents at the East London Mosque, in Tower Hamlets, and Finsbury […]
By Shahid Khan The latest front cover Prophet Muhammad cartoon on the satire magazine “Charlie Hebdo” has sparked new eruptions of violence throughout the Islamic world. The cartoon depicted the Prophet Mohammed holding a “Je suis Charlie” sign as a reference to the solidarity slogan which went viral on social media after the […]
Epigraph: O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female; and We have made you into tribes and sub-tribes that you may recognize one another. Indeed, the […]
Source: NY Times: For the second time in three terms, the Supreme Court has agreed to consider the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. The last time around, the justices declined to take up the broad question. This time, there is every reason for them to follow the logic of their own […]
Source: ET The new Rajkumar Hirani-directed Bollywood movie PK starring Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma has divided opinions in India. ‘#BanPK’ trended on Twitter, there were protests all over India and religious groups burnt posters of the movie at processions but the movie is in course to be the highest grossing Indian […]
Source ET I was born in Saudi Arabia and am very closely accustomed to the grossly odd laws that exist within the nation, namely, and perhaps most famously, that women are not allowed to drive, that women have to don the black abaya when in public and that there is […]
Source: ET NIAMEY: A violent mob torched at least seven churches in Niger’s capital Niamey Saturday during fresh protests against Charlie Hebdo magazine, as France’s president stressed his commitment to “freedom of expression.” With France still reeling from last week’s deadly attacks that killed 17 people, jittery European countries stepped up […]
NIAMEY (Reuters) – Demonstrators in Niger attacked the French cultural centre, set fire to churches and raided Christian shops on Friday, as protests erupted against Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons in several Muslim West African countries. Staff of the satirical French weekly, which had angered Muslims by publishing images of the Prophet […]
Source: thetimes. A blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes has had his punishment suspended after a direct intervention by the Saudi royal family as the country appeared to bow to international uproar over the case. Raif Badawi, 31, whose installment of 50 lashes due yesterday was postponed on medical grounds, will […]
Source: rt.com Europe is in a state of high alert after anti-terror raids netted over two dozen arrests. UK police have raised threat level to ‘severe’ fearing attacks similar to the one narrowly averted in Belgium, while Brussels has deployed troops to guard key sites. The security beef-up in Britain […]