Submitted on
By Sean Matgamna
“They take each other by the hand today, but they will take each other by the throat, tomorrow,” we said not long ago, commenting on the United Front of Christian, Muslim and Sikh zealots to repress “disrespectful” comments on their respective religions.
Submitted on
By Ernie Haberkern
The exploding scandal of collaboration on the part of individual members of the Polish clergy with the secret service during the Stalinist era threatens to bury a far more important question. That is the official and open collaboration between the Polish church and the regime going back to Wladislaw Gomulka’s second administration. Once a sufficient number of individuals are disgraced, Polish and international public opinion is all too likely to turn away in disgust and the matter will be dropped.
Submitted on
By Sean Matgamna
Members of a militant conservative Catholic youth movement called “Youth 2000” marched through Glastonbury on 2 November to commemorate the 467th anniversary of the beheading of the last Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Richard Whiting, and other Catholics martyred by the Protestant English state.
Submitted on
The imam of Australia’s biggest mosque, in Lakemba, Sydney, recently caused an outrage after being reported as having “told a service at the mosque that women who do not wear the hijab, or headdress, are like uncovered meat.” In an apparent reference to the (actually 55 year) sentence given in a notorious gang rape case Sheik Hilaly was reported as saying:
Submitted on
I watched the Dispatches programme on Channel 4 last night, "Women only Jihad", about Muslim Women and MPAC campaigning for the right of women to pray in Mosques, with interest. For some time I have thought that young Muslim women were likely to be the most likely modernising force within Muslim communities, and watching the trailers for the programme I was interested to see how much this was coming about. Having watched the programme I'm not sure.
Submitted on
I was gathering my thoughts about Jack Straw's comments about Muslim women and the veil and had a look at Respect's response.
Submitted on
There was a discussion at Workers' Liberty's 'Ideas for Freedom' discussion weekend about 'The Left and Cultural Relativism'. The two speakers were Janine Booth and Peter Tatchell. These are the notes from Janine's contribution.
Submitted on
By Dan Katz
Following a small — 60-strong — march in Brick Lane, East London, the companies involved in making a film of Monica Ali’s novel, Brick Lane have unfortunately caved in to the protestors’ demand that they stop filming in the area.
Submitted on
Hat tip to John Angliss's blog for this snippet ...
Apparently, the House of Lords, while discussing bird flu, was most concerned that men of the cloth should get the medicine first. Why? Because they are 'key workers' of course!
Submitted on
An exhibition of paintings by the internationally renowned Indian painter M F Husain was recently closed for “security reasons”. The announcement by the exhibition hosts, Asia House, the was a reaction to a protest by the so-called “Hindu Human Rights Group”.
