Author: Maryam Namazie
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Islam must be criticised!
It’s interesting how free speech, the right to criticise and ridicule god, prophet or religion, the separation of religion from the state and secularism as well as the non-right to threaten to kill, suicide bomb and massacre people are not applicable to Islamists and Islam! I must admit, those of us who have fled the…
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Defend Free Speech and Secularism
’ve set up a petition on petitiononline in defence of free speech and secularism. The text reads as follows: We, the undersigned, unequivocally condemn the threats of death and bombings by Islamists to limit, censor and silence any critique of Islam. Criticism of religion – any religion – including caricaturing religious figures, however offensive, are…
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Offensive, Shmoffensive
An email I received says my blog and the reprinting of the caricatures of Mohammad are insulting and offensive. Of course they can be offensive to those who feel their strongly held beliefs or their representatives are being ridiculed. But so what? Whilst we may all sometimes be offended by some things, it is religion…
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Apologise for what? On Caricatures of Mohammad
The repeated calls for an unreserved apology for publishing ‘offensive’ and ‘insulting’ caricatures of Mohammad reminds me of the apologies that should be made to me and many like me. I’d like the offended Islamists – from the Islamic Republic of Iran to Islamic Jihad to the Saudi government… – to apologise; not for their…
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On a left and progressive critique of Islam and political Islam,
International TV interview with Fariborz Pooya and Bahram Soroush Maryam Namazie: Theo van Gogh had made a film with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Dutch MP (originally from Somalia) of a racist, right-wing political party in Holland, one of whose slogans is ‘the boat is full’. Their film ‘Submission’ is very critical of Islam and its…
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ON RACIST PARTIES AND RACISM
International TV interview with Fariborz Pooya and Bahram Soroush July 19, 2004 Maryam Namazie: We’ve heard a lot in the news about the British National Party’s racism and fascistic comments and attacks on immigrants, asylum seekers and Muslims. Should a party like the BNP be banned? Fariborz Pooya: If these parties incite violence against anybody,…
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THE POLITICS BEHIND CULTURAL RELATIVISM
International TV interview with Fariborz Pooya and Bahram Soroush Maryam Namazie: We received an email from an irate ‘concerned happy Muslim Iranian’ critical of your [Bahram Soroush] statements on the incompatibility of Islam and human rights. He said, ‘it is obvious that you hate your own culture and religion and have a vendetta against anything…