Category: News
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Guardian’s all excited again
The Guardian is all excited about the “election” of Hassan Rowhani in Iran. They think (and there is some truth in it) that we are afflicted with (even recent) historical amnesia. They did the same song and dance for Rafsanjani and Khatami and now Rowhani. Whilst the regime has stepped up its executions in order…
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Time to say goodbye to executions
I have not been able to blog for the past ten days and have much to write about. Most urgently I must tell you about the International Committee against Execution’s call for a two week campaign against executions in Iran during 22 July – 5 August 2013. You can see Mina Ahadi’s report on the…
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My schedule for August
I will be in Edinburgh, Marseilles and Boston in August in case any of you can make the below. Here are more details: 11 August 2013 Edinburgh, Scotland 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm at: The Jam House, 5 Queen Street, EH2 1JE Maryam will be speaking at Skeptics on the Fringe Festival on “Secularism is my…
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Trolling with Logic
I was on Trolling with Logic Sunday. We discussed religion, Islam, Sharia law, Islamism, and dissent on the show. You can download programme via Itunes, Feedburner (for Non-Itunes), and can download the MP3 directly here. More information here and below.
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Hope for Saudi women
Did you hear the latest? Women in Hafar Al-Batin, Saudi Arabia have been banned from using the library. Their male guardian has to take out books for them. But not to worry – hope is on hand in the form of the findings of last year’s all-male conference on “women in society” pictured below. Or…
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No one wants them
Here’s a good report on the opposition to Asad but also the Islamists in Syria. It says: “The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria detained the media activist Mohammad Nour Matar on Tuesday evening outside its base… after he stood alongside a woman who tried to stage a sit-in,” Matar’s brother Amer told AFP. In…
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Channel 4 – Report on this!
I wrote earlier about Channel 4’s daily call to prayer for Ramadan as much of the same old same old pandering to identity politics. In my previous post I mentioned how Channel 4 should report on the many who refuse to fast and who are threatened into fasting and still refuse. Here’s a great example of…
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Plea of the families of 26 activists who have been sentenced to death!
Also below see Khaled Hardani’s family’s appeal to Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations To Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations Secretary General of the United Nations, Receive the painful letter of these families whose children have been in exile, jail, and away from family and home, have been deprived of…
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Iraqi Labour Unions Protest
Press release: by the Iraqi Labor Unions regarding the Interventions and Violations Carried out by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Violations to the freedoms of organization of unions is continuing and have been repeated in many procedures and practices of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, which inhibits the right of freedom…
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Manchester and free expression
I am off to Manchester today to speak on “Freedom of Expression, Islam and Blasphemy”. The meeting is organised by Greater Manchester Humanists from 18:30 to 19:45 at Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St., Manchester M2 5NS. For more information, click here. Hope to see some of you there!
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We need you to protest
To all caring people around the world! On the left is is a picture of a nice young couple. This is Ali Mahin Torabi and his wife, in Turkey who are looking for a safe place to move to. Ali had been sentenced to death. In 2001 when he was 15 years old he asked…