251. Christians and Atheists to Debate Existence of God in First-Ever 'NIGHTLINE FACE OFF'

Comment #37292 by Flagellant on May 4, 2007 at 2:43 am

Some posters have suggested that Martin Bashir may not be an objective chairman (Yorker, justme) but more work is needed here. Bashir used to work for the BBC... but on "Songs of Praise"; you can't do that without being a god-botherer. Further, his editing of the Michael Jackson interview earned few plaudits for balance. So watch out kiddies - you may have three opponents if you discount all the various deities ranged against you.

252. How multiculturalism is betraying women

Comment #37276 by Flagellant on May 4, 2007 at 12:41 am

MeIM says

I think I'd even allow plural marriages because that would not violate anyone's rights.

Provided that "plural marriages" means allowing women to have several husbands, as well as men to have several wives, I might go along with that: polygamy means polyandry, too.

Of course, if you argue this with a Muslim, the irredeemable sexism of Islam quickly becomes apparent.

253. How multiculturalism is betraying women

Comment #37025 by Flagellant on May 3, 2007 at 7:17 am

Here is a quote from a long, rambling, anti-Islam polemic by Martin Amis in The Observer earlier this year:

[Quote from Koran Sura 4.34. See 22. Comment #36903 by Linda.] Can we imagine seeing men on the march in defence of their right to beat their wives? And if we do see it, then what? Would that win hearts and minds? The martyrs of this revolution would be sustained by two obvious truths: the binding authority of scripture, all over the world, is very seriously questioned; and women, by definition, are not a minority. They would know, too, that their struggle is a heroic assault on the weight of the past - the alpweight of 14 centuries…

All religions are violent; and all ideologies are violent…

Perhaps Amis is right and this is the way in which Islam can be undermined here. The ridiculous banner seen at a UK demonstration saying words to the effect of "Behead those who insult Islam" won no friends. Come on girls and women: get struggling.

Here's the link to Amis's article: http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,1868840,00.html

254. The God Delusion

Comment #36390 by Flagellant on May 1, 2007 at 3:07 am

A very succinct, and generally favourable review. The comment "the predominantly secular, relativist, postmodernist left shields Islam from criticism" raises an important point, though. The secular world needs to take a more critical line with Mohammedanism, particularly in the UK. In his excellent Guardian article immediately after the WTC demolition in 2001, Richard Dawkins

www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,552388,00.html

started along the right road. With one or two exceptions, Martin Amis for example, the torch appears to have been dropped.

Earlier, we saw the same failure to grasp the nettle here after the Rushdie fatwah, whereas in the US prominent writers held public readings of The Satanic Verses.

Do we currently still see outright criticism of this nasty religion as counter-productive, is it funk or, as the reviewer suggests, is it simply a facet of relativism?

255. Believe in God Spray

Comment #36342 by Flagellant on May 1, 2007 at 12:59 am

It is easy to ridicule most religions without fear of some sort of retaliation; all religions are silly while one or two are nasty. Luthien and his avatar manage to ridicule an aspect of Mohammedanism nicely ("Thank you for not provoking my uncontrollable lust"). One of the Danish cartoons also did the job very well, too: heavenly character saying to dead suicide bombers "Stop! We've run out of virgins."

Personally, I like "God is grot" ("Grot" - from the UK English slang "grotty" = 1. unpleasant, nasty, or unattractive; 2. of poor quality or in bad condition, unsatisfactory or useless).

Have we been treading too softly in dealing with one particular example of l'infame?