Terry Firma, though born and Journalism-school-educated in Europe, has lived in the U.S. for the past 20-odd years. Stateside, his feature articles have been published in the New York Times, Reason, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Wired. Terry was the founder and Main Mischief Maker of Moral Compass, a now-dormant site that pokes fun at the delusional claim by people of faith that a belief in God equips them with superior moral standards. He was the Editor-in-Chief of two Manhattan-based magazines until he decided to give up commercial publishing for professional photography... with a lot of blogging on the side. These days, he lives in an old seaside farmhouse in Maine with his wife, three kids, and two big dogs.
This is a commentary written by members of the Council of ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB). It addresses an opinion piece by Andrew Brown in the Guardian headlined “Why I don’t believe people who say they loathe Islam but not Muslims.” … As ex-Muslims, we critique Islam because there are many aspects of Islam that need to be critiqued. In particular, we seek to oppose Islam’s apostasy codes, which are oppressive and lead to persecution. We have found it is quite difficult to get some people to listen to our stories because they fear that acknowledging these issues will contribute to a critical view towards Islam. The idea is that particularly reactionary teachings and aspects of belief that lead to critical judgements of Islam are in and of themselves prejudiced. The resulting logic of this is that Islam should have special privileges, inasmuch as basic human conscience and ethical critical judgement of people living in a secular culture should not apply, or be expressed, towards Islam. The fact that criticism exists is the offense. Effectively, this is to propose a kind of proxy blasphemy code and apostasy code, wherein the liberal secular space defers to Islamic taboos. Dissenting Muslims and ex-Muslims have to conform to these proxy codes too. Everyone else is free to critique their own religion, and other faiths and ideas too. But Islam must be protected. However, Muslims are free to critique all religions, belief systems and moralities, because evangelizing Islam, and proffering critique and judgment is not only a divine prerogative, but the closing down of ethical, critical judgment towards Islam is also a divine right. As we can see, this is an ethical and moral mess. Read more
In April, U.K. hospitals began to be required to keep records of patients who had undergone female genital mutilation (FGM). Half a year later, Shocking statistics obtained by ITV News Central reveal that more than 400 women in the Midlands have been seen in hospitals with FGM in the last six months — including four children. The Midlands have a population of some 9.5 million people. I could not find statistics on the percentage of Muslim females who live there — the group most likely to be subjected to the barbaric practice. The number reported by ITV is undoubtedly just the tip of the iceberg, considering that the vast majority of women in the at-risk group would not have visited a clinic or hospital in the past six months, and that most of those who did were not there for gynecological procedures that would have exposed the damage. In addition, The statistics from four health trusts across the Midlands reveal a snap-shot of the extent of FGM. But as many other hospitals failed to give ITV Central their statistics, health experts believe the figure is far higher. Read more
Do you know the commandment against bearing false witness? If so, that’s one advantage you have over Norway’s Catholic Church: For four years the Catholic Church in Norway has been illegally registering immigrants as Catholics in order to secure increased government funding. The Church, whose official membership has almost doubled since 2010, had been registering immigrants from Catholic-majority countries as practicing Catholics, without asking for their consent, and without any indication that the people in questions were actually practicing Catholics. Why would they do that, other than bragging rights? In Norway, religions receive a state subsidy based on their membership. Religious groups can choose to register with the state in order to receive this financial support, which is distributed proportionally to the official registered membership figures. … By increasing their membership from 66,000 in 2010, to 120,000 in 2014, the Norwegian Catholic Church has significantly increased the amount of state subsidy it receives. Read more
Good thing they have a holy book to tell them what’s moral. Imagine how these people might behave without Allah’s divine guidance. An enraged Muslim mob beat a Christian couple to death and burnt their bodies in the brick kiln where they worked on Tuesday for allegedly desecrating pages of the Holy Qur’an. … Sources privy to the details of the incident told Pakistan Today that Shahzad Masih and his wife Shama worked in a brick kiln owned by a man named Yousaf Gujjar since the last 3-4 years. “The couple were originally from Clarkabad, a Christian village a few kilometeres away from Raiwind but they had been working at Yousaf Gujjar’s brick kiln for the last 3-4 years and were living in a quarter in the premises,” a relative of the deceased couple told Pakistan Today on the condition of anonymity. Read more
Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old woman whose growing brain tumor made her death inevitable, has taken her own life, just as she announced she would. In the past few months, she became an eloquent voice for the death-with-dignity movement. Our own Rachel Ford documented Maynard’s struggle here, including the part where Christians like Matt Walsh get to strongly imply that the California woman is a coward. Maynard’s last words to the world appeared on her Facebook page: “Goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!” Here, also from Facebook, are some thoughtful reactions to Maynard’s decision. Then there are the fine folks over at Free Republic: Read more
