Banning Prayer Advertisements in UK Cinemas

There appears to have been a bit of a fuss about the Church of England wanting to deploy an advertisement involving prayer, they claim it was banned and cite free-speech concerns. As reported by the BBC … The Church of England has said it is “disappointed and bewildered” by the refusal of leading UK cinemas … Read more

Warwick University ban overturned

The public pressure has been sufficiently large enough to embarrass Warwick into doing the right thing. It was only yesterday that I was blogging about it all and now today comes good news … Maryam Namazie had been banned by the university’s students’ union over fears she may offend Muslim students after 48 hours of … Read more

Claim: Islam backs free speech and secular government

There is an article up on Salon written by Qasim Rashid that claims  … As a practicing Muslim, I don’t believe Islam is above criticism. I do believe that Islam backs free speech. I also believe that Islam champions secular governance. But what’s significant about my beliefs is why I believe them — which is because they are precisely … Read more

“Fear is the most powerful weapon they have,”

As I’m sure you are aware, PEN America has granted an award to Charlie Hebdo for courage of freedom of expression for the magazine. That award was controversial, 200 leading writers refused to attend, but those that did granted Gerard Biard, the Charlie Hebdo editor, a standing ovation. Mr Biard also gave a fabulous speech … “Fear … Read more

Daft Claim: Criticism of belief is bigotry and is like racism or homophobia

Kashif N Chaudhry, an  Muslim, writes that he carried out a social media experiment yesterday to see if new atheists’ onslaught on Yale Humanist Community was based on principle or prejudice. He concludes that verdict is out, and details it in his latest Huffington Post article. There he writes … Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an extreme anti-Islam critic, well known for her bigoted views … Read more

Moderate Islamic Leader in UK declares himself to be a narrow minded bigot

As you might, or perhaps might not, be aware, the BBC runs a program called “Free Speech” in which current affairs are discussed such an unemployment, immigration, gay rights etc… The format is one that involves going out to different venues within different cities around the UK and directly engaging with the public. In a … Read more