Tags: Islam
The rise of political Islam in Turkey: how the West got it wrong
Posted: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 by Safak Pavey
Political Islamism has undermined the Turkish Republic's secular social order, education and legal systems and Western pundits manifestly failed to see this coming, argues Turkish opposition MP, Safak Pavey.
The end of the Cold War did not free the world of... Read More »
Secularism and religious intolerance - an Ex-Muslim perspective on Karen Armstrong's essay
Posted: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 by Al-Razi
In an essay written to coincide with the publication of her new book, Karen Armstrong diagnoses the secular impulse as a cause of religious intolerance and extremism. Ex-Muslim al-Razi argues that the secular movement is in-fact responsible for the good things... Read More »
It’s not only Islamists who have Trojan Horses
Posted: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 by Terry Sanderson
Those with a vested interest in the continuation of 'faith schools' have started their fight back against the growing number of critics, says Terry Sanderson.
After the furore of the Birmingham Trojan Horse affair, a lot of commentators reached the conclusion... Read More »
We are all at the mercy of the activists who are driving these veil confrontations
Posted: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 by Terry Sanderson
There were calls this week for "a debate on the face veil" after a court and a college were confronted by women who wanted to wear them — even though it was against the rules.
The college backed down within hours of the challenge, cowed by suggestions... Read More »
On homophobia and racism
Posted: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 by Terry Sanderson
Two weeks ago the Archbishop of Canterbury was in Monterrey, Mexico where he delivered a sermon to the effect that Anglicanism is standing on a precipice and risks falling into a "ravine of intolerance".
Mr Welby said the Church had to steer a course between,... Read More »
Islamic apostasy laws — a big disgrace in the 21st Century
Posted: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 by Nahla Mahmoud
It is absolutely ridiculous in the twenty-first century to have laws where one could be criminalised and punished for thinking differently or expressing an opinion. Just this year, Kuwait jailed Abdel Aziz Mohamed Albaz for criticizing Islam, Tunisian artist... Read More »
Egyptians are in urgent need of the protection secularism can offer
Posted: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 by Stephen Evans
Earlier this week a ten year old child was shot dead as she walked home through the streets of Cairo on her way home from Bible study.
Jessi Boulus was the latest target of Islamist extremists who have targeted Egypt's Christian minority, holding them partly... Read More »
Public perceptions and reality - have we got it wrong?
Posted: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 by Terry Sanderson
An Ipsos-Mori poll for the Royal Statistical Society tried to measure what people's perception of issues were as opposed to the reality (according to the official figures).
On religion, the survey found that people vastly overestimated the number of Muslims... Read More »
Channel 4’s call to prayer during Ramadan is more of the same old, same old
Posted: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 by Maryam Namazie
Channel 4 is airing the Muslim call to prayer during Ramadan every morning and also broadcasting a series of programmes about Ramadan. It says it is doing so as a deliberate act of "provocation" to challenge viewers who associate Islam with terrorism and extremism.... Read More »
Three cheers for Channel 4 for trying to move Muslims into the mainstream
Posted: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 by Terry Sanderson
Channel 4 has set the cat among the pigeons — as I suspect it intended to do — with its announcement that it will broadcast the Muslim call to prayer every day during the month of Ramadan.
If what the chief of Channel 4 says about the network's... Read More »
Multiculturalism and Cultural Relativism
Posted: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 by Maryam Namazie
The Pro-Islamist Left relies on multiculturalism (not as a positive lived experience but as a social policy and political point of view) to deny the existence of dissent by pigeonholing innumerable individuals with innumerable characteristics into one imagined... Read More »
We need answers to the doubts and distrust raised by the call for sharia law
Posted: Fri, 10 May 2013 by Kris Hopkins MP
We have the privilege of living in a free society, in which the rights of the individual are not determined by their gender.
We live in an open, tolerant country, which rightly welcomes people's different faiths and religious beliefs and is diverse and benefits... Read More »
Sharia councils: unjust, unequal and consequence of failed integration policies
Posted: Wed, 01 May 2013 by Nahla Mahmoud
By Nahla Mahmoud
Personally, I wasn't surprised watching the Panorama on 'Secrets of Sharia Councils in the UK' broadcast on the BBC last week. I am aware of these dangerous practices by similar courts adopting the same Islamic constitution elsewhere outside... Read More »
How the clash between Islamism and Zionism not only affects the Middle East but also the west
Posted: Tue, 30 Apr 2013 by Rumy Hasan
By Rumy Hasan
Samuel Huntington's book The Clash of Civilizations aroused a storm of interest when it was published in 1996. Its basic thesis was that in the aftermath of the Cold War, the fundamental antagonism among nations would be on the basis of 'civilisation'... Read More »
The tensions between Muslim identity and Western citizenship
Posted: Wed, 27 Mar 2013 by Rumy Hasan
'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
'I don't much care where--' said Alice.
'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
I wish to make the claim that... Read More »
Feeding the fires of fundamentalism
Posted: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 by Terry Sanderson
By Terry Sanderson
Professor Lawrence Krauss, the world-renowned theoretical physicist, is the NSS's newest honorary associate.
He made a significant splash last week by threatening to walk out of a debate at University College London because the Islamist organisers... Read More »
Here is why Sharia Law has no place in Britain or elsewhere
Posted: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 by Nahla Mahmoud
By Nahla Mahmoud
There are many reasons why this needs to be said, starting with a personal trigger. I was recently interviewed by Channel 4's 4thought.tv programme which was broadcast two weeks ago about my opinions on 'What does Sharia Law have to offer Britain'.... Read More »
Here is why Sharia Law has no place in Britain or elsewhere
Posted: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 by Nahla Mahmoud
By Nahla Mahmoud
There are many reasons why this needs to be said, starting with a personal trigger. I was recently interviewed by Channel 4's 4thought.tv programme which was broadcast two weeks ago about my opinions on 'What does Sharia Law have to offer Britain'.... Read More »
These imbecilic riots must serve to reinforce our commitment to freedom
Posted: Mon, 17 Sep 2012 by Terry Sanderson
It is estimated that throughout the Muslim world something like ten to twenty thousand people have taken part in the rampages that have dominated the headlines for a week.
That is 20,000 people out of a world Muslim population of a billion.
On the basis of the... Read More »
Leave Citizen Khan alone! Po-faced, humourless Muslim protestors are their own worst enemy
Posted: Wed, 29 Aug 2012 by Terry Sanderson
The new BBC sitcom Citizen Khan has, apparently, created something of a stir among Muslims. The BBC is reporting having received more than 200 complaints about its portrayal of the "Muslim Community", claiming it is disrespectful of Islam and full of stereotypes.... Read More »
Springtime for defamation of religion
Posted: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 by Robert C. Blitt
By Robert C. Blitt
The US Department of State and numerous human rights organizations have prematurely heralded the end of attempts to entrench an international norm prohibiting blasphemy at the UN. In 2011, Human Rights Watch (HRW) celebrated what it labelled... Read More »
Springtime for defamation of religion
Posted: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 by Robert C. Blitt
The US Department of State and numerous human rights organizations have prematurely heralded the end of attempts to entrench an international norm prohibiting blasphemy at the UN. In 2011, Human Rights Watch (HRW) celebrated what it labelled the implicit rejection... Read More »
Not a “slip of the tongue”: only one religion is recognised as the basis of the Turkish state
Posted: Wed, 30 May 2012 by Halil M. Karaveli
By Halil M. Karaveli
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently expressed allegiance to "one nation, one flag, one religion, one state." Indeed, the Turkish republic recognizes only "one religion", Sunni Islam, as the basis of the nation. Erdoğan is nonetheless... Read More »
Public protest against Saudi sexism in London
Posted: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 by Faiza Ahmad
The Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford have organised public protest against Saudi sexism in London following official confirmation by Saudi Arabia that it will be sending an exclusively male team to the London Olympics.
Here is the announcement from the Muslim... Read More »
The Rise of Sharia in the West
Posted: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 by Raheel Raza
The following speech was given by Raheel Razaat a meeting on "Religion, Law, Democracy and Human Rights" jointly hosted by the National Secular Society and the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) on 14 March 2012 in conjunction with the 19th session... Read More »
