By PAUL SIMS - NEW HUMANIST
Added: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 06:39:35 UTC

As any musician playing London’s Hyde Park next summer will find out, Pope Benedict XVI is a tough act to follow. But in selecting the winner of the 2010 New Humanist Bad Faith Award, we think we’ve found a worthy successor to the Pontiff, who took the crown in 2009. More than 6,800 readers voted in this year’s poll, and the race became a nailbiting double-header, with just 31 votes separating the eventual top two. So, without further to-do, we present to you this year’s winner, along with a breakdown of the rest of the field. See the bottom of the page for a graph of the results.

Winner of the 2010 Bad Faith Award: Sheikh Maulana Abu Sayeed

In its first three years, the Bad Faith Award was won by well-known public figures. But sometimes an individual can make a statement so irrational, bizarre and pernicious that lack of fame is no obstacle to success. So step forward Sheikh Maulana Abu Sayeed, head of the UK Islamic Sharia Council, an unofficial body which provides arbitration for the resolution of civil disputes, such as divorces. In an interview with the Samosa blog last October, Sayeed provided readers with his enlightened views on the question of spousal rape. “Clearly there cannot be any ‘rape’ within the marriage,” the “Sheikh” opined. “Maybe ‘aggression’, maybe ‘indecent activity’.”

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2nd place: Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi

This Iranian cleric ran Sayeed close, but in the end his claim that “immodestly” dressed women can “lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes” wasn’t quite misogynistic enough.

3rd place: Ann Widdecombe

Perhaps her efforts on Strictly Come Dancing helped boost her share of the vote, but it was nonetheless well deserved after she used her Daily Express column to describe the creationist Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm near Bristol as “a moderate, education-focused organisation that challenges children’s minds and produces evidence from fossils to support it”.

4th place: Prince Charles

It’s possible that a republican cadre infiltrated our poll in order to vent their frustration at a certain forthcoming matrimonial arrangement. Either that, or saying that the major problems currently facing humanity are the result “of a deep, inner crisis of the soul” doesn’t sit well with rationalists.

... Read on

TAGGED: --, RELIGION