Religious links
About Paul’s use of ‘unnatural’ (para physin) in Romans. (Only plausible if you have not read Philo of Alexandria.)
A deceased Bangladeshi man with a Muslim and a Hindu wife will have his religion determined by his friends.
Examining the problems of legal stability and justice in (pdf) incorporating religious norms directly in law.
Paper on the connections between religious identification and racism (pdf).
Review of a book which finds traditional Christianity declining the UK, but religious sentiment still strong:
When it comes to religion, the connection between believing and belonging is a tangled one.
The UK police have recognised the rights of their pagan members.
Being all outraged because a long-time gay activist called God a “sinful homophobic bigot”. Christian street preacher arrested for saying loudly in public that homosexuality is a sin.
A Perth Anglican minister finds his services as an exorcist are in demand. The Vatican’s chief exorcist reminiscences about his work.
Net household income by religious affiliation in the UK.
Arguing that banning the burqa is a blow for women’s freedom. A burqa-ban bill has been introduced in NSW Parliament.
Debating Islam: Daniel Pipes argues for Islam as having a capacity to evolve, Wafa Sultan argues its essential nature is consistent and enduring.
Explaining Maj. Hassan’s infamous PowerPoint™ presentation. About the meanings of ‘jihad’. About what the ‘Remember Khaybar” chant means.
One of the Danish cartoonists is attacked at Uppsala University: no one should make excuses for this sort of hysterical religious narcissism. Alas, through the concept of fitna, it is rather built into the basic framework of Islam.
Statement of the aims (in Arabic then English translation) of the aims of (pdf) the Muslim Student’s Association of the US. Investigative document on the (pdf) MSA.
A young Muslim student declares herself in favour of Jews congregating in Israel so they do not have to be hunted down globally (transcript here), in line with Nasrallah’s statement to that effect (also here). (One of her teachers leaps to claim the student must have been confused.)
A fatwa issued saying women should breastfeed male colleagues at work so to make things religiously fine. The concept of a reductio ad absurdem does not seem to be alive and well in Sharia decisions.
Rebutting the Muslim Demographic video, further details.
Post with links on the persecution of Christians in Afghanistan.
On a dinner party for Ayaan Hirshi Ali (it is a NYT piece, so drips US liberal condescension):
“Some people find my views controversial,” Ms. Hirsi Ali said during a speech at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in February. “They argue that I should be silenced.” She spoke about how growing up under Islam and immigrating had incited her to activism. “I get e-mails from Muslim individuals who say there are so many things I agree with you on, and I want to come out and say these things, but I can’t because I don’t want to live like you. I don’t want to be threatened, I don’t want to run the risk of being killed.”
A view from Kurdistan on taking Islamism seriously and the nature of Western intellectual responses to it:
How a great many Western intellectuals, having lost faith in their culture’s values of secularism and human rights, have decided that Enlightenment is no better than Islamism, and that therefore the likes of Qaradawi and Ramadan deserve to be taken as seriously as say Voltaire-not only that but that they need to be supported and their enemies, especially Muslim dissidents, attacked as misguided self-hating individuals that mistakenly believe Western culture to be superior to Islamist culture.
This is an important point for the people of Kurdistan to be aware of, important because the Western enablers of Islamism refuse to distinguish between Islamism and the faith; what’s more, they portray Islamism as mainstream rather than as the fringe it has always been and they portray all opposition to Islamism as an attack on Islam. As a consequence, today there is more willingness to criticize Islamism in Kurdistan and in Arab and Muslim countries than in the West. These days, if you happen to be a Muslim dissident living in the West, chances are you will be viewed by the mainstream media and the intellectual establishment as a traitor: traitor to your religion, traitor to your culture, and traitor to your past. And if you speak your mind freely and bravely, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali frequently does, you will be called a bomb thrower, a fanatic, a Muslim hater. …
Projects like regime change in Iraq and the struggle of the Kurds for cultural and political rights get largely defined these days by Islamists and their Western intellectual backers; these have much easier access to the media and public spaces than anyone from Kurdistan or liberated Iraq. …
when an Islamist like Tariq Ramadan, a man with no ties whatsoever to Iraq, declares in London and New York that the removal of tyranny in Baghdad was illegal, he gets rousing applause, as if the geopolitical makeup of the world has been simply a legalistic affair rather than the product of conquest, political machinations, luck, among various other things. By contrast, those who have legitimate ties to Iraq and Kurdistan but do not subscribe to this lazy piece of nonsense and have a counter story to tell, find themselves ignored. The implication of Berman’s book for Kurdistan is that its story in the West cannot be told because the intellectual market these days favors Islamism over secularism, the dogma of multiculturalism over honest discussion.
About Muslim resistance to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
In 1981 - two years after the Iranian revolution - the new government's position was clearly stated at the 36th UN General Assembly session, when its representative affirmed that the UDHR represented a secular interpretation of the Judeo-Christian tradition which could not be implemented by Muslims; if a choice had to be made between its stipulations and "the divine law of the country," Iran would always choose Islamic law. …
In his 7 December 1984 statement to the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, the Iranian representative, Mr. Rajaie-Khorassani, again put on record his country's position on the UDHR:
In his delegation's view, the concept of human rights was not limited to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Man was of divine origin and human dignity could not be reduced to a series of secular norms [...] certain concepts contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights needed to be revised. [Iran] recognized no authority or power but that of Almighty God and no legal tradition apart from Islamic law. As his delegation had already stated at the thirty-sixth session of the General Assembly, conventions, declarations and resolutions or decisions of international organizations, which were contrary to Islam had no validity in the Islamic Republic of Iran.[...] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which represented a secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition, could not be implemented by Muslims and did not accord with the system of values recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran; his country would therefore not hesitate to violate its provisions, since it had to choose between violating the divine law of the country and violating secular conventions.
More generally:
The Member States of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Reaffirming the civilizing and historic role of the Islamic Ummah which God made the best nation that has given mankind a universal and well-balanced civilization in which harmony is established between this life and the hereafter and knowledge is combined with faith; [and] ... Believing that fundamental rights and universal freedoms in Islam are an integral part of the Islamic religion [...] as they are binding divine commandments, which are contained in the Revealed Books of God and were sent through the last of His Prophets to complete the preceding divine messages thereby making their observance an act of worship and their neglect or violation an abominable sin, and accordingly every person is individually responsible - and the Ummah collectively responsible - for their safeguard.
The Muslim push against the Universal Declaration continues.
A deceased Bangladeshi man with a Muslim and a Hindu wife will have his religion determined by his friends.
Examining the problems of legal stability and justice in (pdf) incorporating religious norms directly in law.
Paper on the connections between religious identification and racism (pdf).
Review of a book which finds traditional Christianity declining the UK, but religious sentiment still strong:
When it comes to religion, the connection between believing and belonging is a tangled one.
The UK police have recognised the rights of their pagan members.
Being all outraged because a long-time gay activist called God a “sinful homophobic bigot”. Christian street preacher arrested for saying loudly in public that homosexuality is a sin.
A Perth Anglican minister finds his services as an exorcist are in demand. The Vatican’s chief exorcist reminiscences about his work.
Net household income by religious affiliation in the UK.
Arguing that banning the burqa is a blow for women’s freedom. A burqa-ban bill has been introduced in NSW Parliament.
Debating Islam: Daniel Pipes argues for Islam as having a capacity to evolve, Wafa Sultan argues its essential nature is consistent and enduring.
Explaining Maj. Hassan’s infamous PowerPoint™ presentation. About the meanings of ‘jihad’. About what the ‘Remember Khaybar” chant means.
One of the Danish cartoonists is attacked at Uppsala University: no one should make excuses for this sort of hysterical religious narcissism. Alas, through the concept of fitna, it is rather built into the basic framework of Islam.
Statement of the aims (in Arabic then English translation) of the aims of (pdf) the Muslim Student’s Association of the US. Investigative document on the (pdf) MSA.
A young Muslim student declares herself in favour of Jews congregating in Israel so they do not have to be hunted down globally (transcript here), in line with Nasrallah’s statement to that effect (also here). (One of her teachers leaps to claim the student must have been confused.)
A fatwa issued saying women should breastfeed male colleagues at work so to make things religiously fine. The concept of a reductio ad absurdem does not seem to be alive and well in Sharia decisions.
Rebutting the Muslim Demographic video, further details.
Post with links on the persecution of Christians in Afghanistan.
On a dinner party for Ayaan Hirshi Ali (it is a NYT piece, so drips US liberal condescension):
“Some people find my views controversial,” Ms. Hirsi Ali said during a speech at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in February. “They argue that I should be silenced.” She spoke about how growing up under Islam and immigrating had incited her to activism. “I get e-mails from Muslim individuals who say there are so many things I agree with you on, and I want to come out and say these things, but I can’t because I don’t want to live like you. I don’t want to be threatened, I don’t want to run the risk of being killed.”
A view from Kurdistan on taking Islamism seriously and the nature of Western intellectual responses to it:
How a great many Western intellectuals, having lost faith in their culture’s values of secularism and human rights, have decided that Enlightenment is no better than Islamism, and that therefore the likes of Qaradawi and Ramadan deserve to be taken as seriously as say Voltaire-not only that but that they need to be supported and their enemies, especially Muslim dissidents, attacked as misguided self-hating individuals that mistakenly believe Western culture to be superior to Islamist culture.
This is an important point for the people of Kurdistan to be aware of, important because the Western enablers of Islamism refuse to distinguish between Islamism and the faith; what’s more, they portray Islamism as mainstream rather than as the fringe it has always been and they portray all opposition to Islamism as an attack on Islam. As a consequence, today there is more willingness to criticize Islamism in Kurdistan and in Arab and Muslim countries than in the West. These days, if you happen to be a Muslim dissident living in the West, chances are you will be viewed by the mainstream media and the intellectual establishment as a traitor: traitor to your religion, traitor to your culture, and traitor to your past. And if you speak your mind freely and bravely, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali frequently does, you will be called a bomb thrower, a fanatic, a Muslim hater. …
Projects like regime change in Iraq and the struggle of the Kurds for cultural and political rights get largely defined these days by Islamists and their Western intellectual backers; these have much easier access to the media and public spaces than anyone from Kurdistan or liberated Iraq. …
when an Islamist like Tariq Ramadan, a man with no ties whatsoever to Iraq, declares in London and New York that the removal of tyranny in Baghdad was illegal, he gets rousing applause, as if the geopolitical makeup of the world has been simply a legalistic affair rather than the product of conquest, political machinations, luck, among various other things. By contrast, those who have legitimate ties to Iraq and Kurdistan but do not subscribe to this lazy piece of nonsense and have a counter story to tell, find themselves ignored. The implication of Berman’s book for Kurdistan is that its story in the West cannot be told because the intellectual market these days favors Islamism over secularism, the dogma of multiculturalism over honest discussion.
About Muslim resistance to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
In 1981 - two years after the Iranian revolution - the new government's position was clearly stated at the 36th UN General Assembly session, when its representative affirmed that the UDHR represented a secular interpretation of the Judeo-Christian tradition which could not be implemented by Muslims; if a choice had to be made between its stipulations and "the divine law of the country," Iran would always choose Islamic law. …
In his 7 December 1984 statement to the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, the Iranian representative, Mr. Rajaie-Khorassani, again put on record his country's position on the UDHR:
In his delegation's view, the concept of human rights was not limited to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Man was of divine origin and human dignity could not be reduced to a series of secular norms [...] certain concepts contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights needed to be revised. [Iran] recognized no authority or power but that of Almighty God and no legal tradition apart from Islamic law. As his delegation had already stated at the thirty-sixth session of the General Assembly, conventions, declarations and resolutions or decisions of international organizations, which were contrary to Islam had no validity in the Islamic Republic of Iran.[...] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which represented a secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition, could not be implemented by Muslims and did not accord with the system of values recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran; his country would therefore not hesitate to violate its provisions, since it had to choose between violating the divine law of the country and violating secular conventions.
More generally:
The Member States of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Reaffirming the civilizing and historic role of the Islamic Ummah which God made the best nation that has given mankind a universal and well-balanced civilization in which harmony is established between this life and the hereafter and knowledge is combined with faith; [and] ... Believing that fundamental rights and universal freedoms in Islam are an integral part of the Islamic religion [...] as they are binding divine commandments, which are contained in the Revealed Books of God and were sent through the last of His Prophets to complete the preceding divine messages thereby making their observance an act of worship and their neglect or violation an abominable sin, and accordingly every person is individually responsible - and the Ummah collectively responsible - for their safeguard.
The Muslim push against the Universal Declaration continues.