Hemant Mehta is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, and podcast co-host. He is a former National Board Certified math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He has appeared on CNN and FOX News and served on the board of directors for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance. He has written multiple books, including I Sold My Soul on eBay and The Young Atheist's Survival Guide. He also edited the book Queer Disbelief.
Who gets to define what a “True” Christian is? It’s a silly question, really, because fundamentalist and progressive Christians fall under the same religious label, and both sides could easily point to various verses in the same holy book to justify their interpretation of it. It just depends who you ask. There are Christians who perform abortions and Christians who kill abortion doctors. There’s Barack Obama and Ted Cruz. Turns out Christianity, like every major religion, is just a big umbrella. But when it comes to declaring who’s a “True Muslim,” conservative commentator Matt Barber (below) knows exactly who fits the mold: It’s the people who kill in the name of Islam who are the real followers of the faith. Everyone else is just ignoring their holy book: Read more
Last week, activist Maryam Namazie gave a speech at Goldsmiths, University of London, during which she was heckled by students from the school’s Islamic Society (who were, in turn, supported by the school’s Feminist Society and LGBTQ+ Society). They couldn’t handle her criticism of their bad ideas. You can see just how awful it all was in the video below, specifically at the 14:40 and 35:20 marks. Read more
For the past two years, the “Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life” has been putting together a report on the proper role of religious in society. The 19-member committee, which included Andrew Copson of the British Humanist Association, was to make policy recommendations as well. They issued their final report today, and it’s causing massive headaches for those who thrive on Christian privilege. The report (which wasn’t available in full at the time I wrote this) makes clear that Britain is no longer a Christian country in any meaningful sense and should be systematically de-Christianized: Read more