Category: Notes
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Fundamentalism and White Nationalism: the same, just wearing different clothes
Below is the English version of an interview with Marieke Hoogwout published in Dutch in Vrij Links on 20 March 2019. The interview was conducted before the Christchurch and Utrecht terrorist attacks this month. You can read the Dutch interview here. In January, Iranian-British human rights activist Maryam Namazie gave the 24th Freedom Lecture at…
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Secularism is my right; freedom is my culture سكولاريسم حق من؛ آزادى فرهنگ من
Secularism is my right; freedom is my culture سكولاريسم حق من؛ آزادى فرهنگ من Maryam Namazie’s Freedom Lecture at De Balie, Amsterdam سخنرانى مريم نمازى در ده بالى آمستردام
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Why is Inclusive Mosque so Afraid of Secularism?
The Inclusive Mosque Initiative is organising “Beyond the Promise of Secularism” in response to our 25 November International Conference on Sharia, Segregation and Secularism. Their event will apparently explore what they say are “western preoccupations with ‘Sharia Law’, Hijabs, and segregation” and “look at the ways Islam is pitted against ‘secularism’ in the name of…
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Ex-Muslims: A community in protest
Published in sister-hood on 2 July 2018. When the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) started 11 years ago, in June 2007, we were hard pressed to find 25 people who would come out publicly to break the apostasy taboo. Today, we are witnessing an international ex-Muslim ‘community’ – a tsunami of atheism. But for me, this has…
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Pret-A-Patriarchy – on “modest” fashion
The below was published in The New European on 31 May 2018 “Modest” fashion is a fast growing industry with companies like Dolce & Gabbana, H&M, Marks and Spencer, DKNY, Zara and others all rushing to cash in. But while more choice is undoubtedly good, I have a problem with the labelling. Positioning some types…
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Demand for atheism rises in countries under Islamic rule
My latest column in The Freethinker. The scientist and author Richard Dawkins is giving away translations of The God Delusion in countries under Islamic rule like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan. The reason behind the decision is the thirst for atheism in such countries. Whilst 3.3 million copies of the bestseller have been sold since 2006, the unofficial…
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God: A Human History – a rescue attempt by Reza Aslan
My new piece in The Freethinker. “Religion scholar” Reza Aslan’s new book, God: A Human History (Bantam Press, £18.99), traces the human relationship with God-types from the Palaeolithic, Greek, and Egyptian eras to the rise of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Aslan’s history highlights the ongoing compulsion to attribute human characteristics onto Gods over millennia and…
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Gender segregation is humiliating and damaging
Segregation was humiliating. Just the reality of signs that said you couldn’t use front doors or you couldn’t use this water fountain implied that you were subhuman … Every time I complied with a sign, I felt like I was acquiescing to my own inhumanity. I felt outraged and hated it. – Diane Nash, a leader of…
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Fighting against Islam and Islamism
Here is my speech at the 40th Freedom from Religion Foundation Convention in Madison, WI during 15-17 September whilst receiving the Henry H. Zumach Freedom From Religious Fundamentalism award:
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Pride parade in Vancouver rejects Iranian over veil float
The below piece was first published in The Freethinker. Iranian Shawn Shirazi and his group Cirque de So Gay were denied entry to the Pride Parade in Vancouver, Canada this year because their float criticising the veil was deemed to be ‘culturally [in]sensitive’. In the application for Cirque de So Gay, he wrote: Our entry in the…
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Pride has the chance to do the right thing
28 July 2017 Michael Salter-Church Alison Camps Co-Chairs – Pride in London Dear Michael Salter-Church and Alison Camps Thank you for your letter dated 21 July addressed to CEMB (available below). The crux of the issue, which you have failed to recognise, is this: Pride in London has taken complaints against the Council of Ex-Muslims…
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Your beliefs are not more important than mine
I’m getting lots of these Facebook messages in messenger (in addition to all the other charming ones from sensitive souls who are so hurt by women’s bodies and criticism of Islam that they have no more sensitivity left in them for murder and mayhem.) Let me respond here en masse: I find your religion offensive,…