Category Archives: Secular

‘What me, an Islamophobe?’ Stephen Fry replies to critics

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Under the headline “Stephen Fry hits back at accusations of Islamophobia”, the Independent on Sunday reported yesterday on the controversy over Stephen Fry’s endorsement of Nick Cohen’s “superb” defence of their fellow atheist Richard Dawkins and his position on Islam.

In a Twitter exchange on 22 August, responding to the criticism that Dawkins has described the Islamic faith as the greatest force for evil in the world and “clearly targets Islam in particular”, Fry sneered: “Wonder why. Oh, have a look around the world and see them slaughtering each other, let alone others. So charming to women too…”

You’ll note how, in Fry’s formulation, Islam the faith becomes “them”, the Muslims. And Muslims are then equated with murder and misogyny. A clearer expression of mindless bigotry would be difficult to find.

When his critic persisted in arguing that Dawkins was “entitled to call a small religious minority evil but branding an entire religion as ‘evil’ is beyond ignorant”, Fry didn’t have an answer. Eventually he just dismissed his opponents as “dickheads” and told them to “fuck off”.

Continue reading →

Islamic conference cancelled by Montreal convention centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Entre Ciel et Terre conferenceA Muslim youth conference in Montreal, which drew criticism from the Parti Québécois government, has been cancelled by the convention centre where it was supposed to be held.

The Palais des congrès, the city’s largest convention centre, announced Saturday it won’t hold next weekend’s event due to security reasons. The decision was made after a “security review,” the Palais des congrès said in a statement.

Continue reading →

Should the ‘veil’ be banned in higher education?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

It seems that the French never tire of debating the role of religion in public life. Or perhaps the concept of laïcité, a uniquely French model of secularism, just keeps tangling them up in political knots.

The most recent dispute over the wearing of the Islamic veil by French university students has once again laid bare the problems and paradoxes of a nation struggling to apply a revered historical principle to a rapidly changing social environment. It also reveals how the discourse and practice of laïcité have become caught in a time warp.

Rosemary Salomone writes in University World News, 1 September 2013

Cambridge Liberal Democrats reject accusations against leading Muslim member

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salah Al BanderA leading Liberal Democrat whose writings about a former Muslim are the subject of an online campaign has said he “totally refutes” the allegations against him.

Hundreds of people have signed an online petition condemning Salah Al Bander, who represented Trumpington on Cambridge City Council until 2011, following several posts on the Sudanese Online website about Nahla Mahmoud.

Ms Mahmoud, who like Dr Al Bander is of Sudanese heritage, is an atheist who criticised her upbringing under sharia law and became a leading figure in a group called the British Council of Ex-Muslims. She said she faced intimidation after she was criticised in posts by Dr Al Bander, which were picked up in media and mosques in Sudan. Afterwards, her brother was allegedly attacked.

But Dr Al Bander said he had been “utterly misrepresented”.

Continue reading →

Muslim groups say Quebec unfairly targeting conference speakers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim organizations in Quebec are criticizing Agnès Maltais, the provincial minister responsible for the Status of Women, for asking the Canadian government to bar some invited guests from entering the country as speakers at a Muslim youth conference. Maltais wrote a letter to her federal counterpart, Kellie Leitch, calling the speakers “radical Islamists” who don’t respect equality between men and women.

On its website, the conference organizers – a group calling itself Collectif 1ndépendance – says that it will invite international speakers to “share knowledge on religious affairs with young Quebec Muslims.” The event is set to take place at Montreal’s Palais des congrès Sept. 7-8.

President of the Muslim Council of Montreal, Salam Elmenyawi, says Maltais should have contacted conference organizers before going to the federal government. “They jumped to conclusions before listening to both sides,” said Elmenyawi. “I think [Maltais] should have tried to have a meeting with them, and try to get an explanation to what she has read, and the concerns that she has about the treatment of women and the fact about education of women.”

Continue reading →

Owen Jones replies to Nick Cohen

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Owen Jones responds to Nick Cohen’s Spectator article defending Richard Dawkins, in which Cohen accuses Dawkins’ critics of cowardice for refusing to join him in attacking Islam.

Jones concludes: “Nick Cohen concludes that one day there will be a reckoning. Yes, there certainly will be. In past eras, other communities faced pandemic bigotry in Britain: like Irish people and Jewish people. History has judged kindly those who challenged such prejudice. It has not been so kind to those who failed to do so. Those few of us with a public voice who defend Muslims from bigoted generalisations are currently fighting an unpopular battle. But it the right thing to do, and history will absolve us.”

Independent, 23 August 2013

UMP vice-president wants to ban vegetarian meals in school canteens

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Laurent Wauquiez UMPAs part of a proposed programme for his party’s candidates in next year’s municipal elections, mayor of Puy-en-Velay and UMP vice-president Laurent Wauquiez has put forward a “pacte de laïcité“, which he claims would further the fight against “communalism”. It would include a commitment to ban the provision of different meals in school canteens.

This goes beyond a refusal to provide halal or kosher meals for Muslim or Jewish students. As the Collectif contre l’Islamophobie points out, most parents don’t ask for the substitution of specific school meals adapted to their religious requirements, but simply ask that non-halal or non-kosher meat should not be served to their children.

Continue reading →

Quebec’s proposed ban of religious symbols in public buildings provokes defiant reaction

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Quebec government could have a difficult time trying to impose its proposed ban on religious symbols in provincially funded facilities, angry citizens tell QMI Agency.

At a daycare centre near Montreal, close to half of the centre’s 15 workers wear a hijab. They said they will defy any future hijab ban. “When I came to Quebec, 10 years ago, I thought I was settling in a free country,” Zakia Maali said. “I feel like the government is telling to stop everything I am doing and return home.”

QMI Agency learned on Monday that the Parti Quebecois is crafting legislation that would take away the right of citizens to wear religious signs and symbols such as visible crosses, yarmulkes and hijabs in public institutions such as hospitals, schools and daycares.

Continue reading →