Daylight Atheism » Islam

The Real Meaning of Islamophobia

Ebonmuse — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:45:01 +0000

I don't usually say these sorts of things about Republicans, but good for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie:

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is defending his pick of a Muslim for a state judgeship, saying critics of a lawyer who represented suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are "ignorant" and "crazies".

..."This Shariah ... [visit site to read more]

Photo Sunday: Granada

Ebonmuse — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:53:44 +0000

To see the pictures, click on the link to continue:

... [visit site to read more]

Islamic Sexism and the Sense of Entitlement

Ebonmuse — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:49:44 +0000

Does this remind anyone of anything?

On Jan. 16, Warda was nearly raped. It happened in early afternoon, in the heart of central Cairo, in an elevator.

A man with short black hair entered, Warda recalled. "We didn't really look at each other; I was reading some messages on my phone," she said. The elevator, big enough for four people, stopped suddenly, and the lights went out. The electricity ... [visit site to read more]

Photo Sunday: Córdoba

Ebonmuse — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:34:48 +0000

To see the pictures, follow the link to continue:

... [visit site to read more]

Photo Sunday: Toledo

Ebonmuse — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 19:37:50 +0000

More pictures from my Spanish trip. Click the link below to see:

... [visit site to read more]

The Baffling Era of Religious Suicide-Massacres

Ebonmuse — Tue, 31 May 2011 10:40:47 +0000

By James A. Haught

Osama bin Laden achieved a remarkable feat: He mobilized the power of religion to spur devout young men to kill themselves in order to murder defenseless strangers. Grotesquely, the suicide-killers felt they were performing holy acts that would please God and assure them martyr rewards in paradise.

The annals of faith-based killing are long: human sacrifice, the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch-hunts, Reformation wars, drowning of Anabaptists, jihads, pogroms ... [visit site to read more]

Saudi Arabian Women Hit the Road

Ebonmuse — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:42:53 +0000

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ruled by an absolute monarchy in cooperation with the vicious and medieval Wahhabist clerics, has some of the most oppressive and primitive laws in the world when it comes to the rights of women. Saudi women are forbidden to appear in public without a face-covering veil and a full-body shroud; they're forbidden to travel, get an education or even leave their house without the permission of a male guardian; and they're forbidden to mingle with unrelated men in public ... [visit site to read more]

Marching for Oppression

Ebonmuse — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:35:08 +0000

Over the past few months, we've seen amazing and inspiring demonstrations of people power erupting across the Middle East, toppling dictatorships that have been in place for decades. It's far too soon to say what form of government will emerge from these movements - whether they'll give rise to true democracies, or whether new dictatorships will replace the old - and the unwelcome news that Egypt's ... [visit site to read more]

On Qur'an Burning, Redux

Ebonmuse — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:07:03 +0000

A few months ago, I wrote briefly about an obscure Florida pastor who had the idea of burning a Qur'an. At the time he backed off under intense pressure, but later changed his mind and went through with it. This would have gone nowhere, except that some Islamic mullahs in Afghanistan (aided by Hamid Karzai, who cynically fanned the flames), incited their ... [visit site to read more]

What Comes Next For the Middle East?

Ebonmuse — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:52:30 +0000

The last few weeks in the Middle East have been a story of extraordinary courage and heroism. With dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia lying in ruins and the democratic revolt now spreading to Yemen, Bahrain and Libya, it's not too early to start thinking about what will come next.

The omnipresent fear in Western media is that the newly free countries will be taken over by an Islamist majority. This isn't an unreasonable concern (although it hardly justifies the West's decades of supporting ... [visit site to read more]

The March of Tyranny in the Middle East

Ebonmuse — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 19:23:48 +0000

The invasion of Iraq was cheered by right-wing Christians as a way to bring democracy to a people oppressed by tyranny. And, on paper at least, it achieved that goal. But in reality, Iraq as a nation hardly exists anymore. The anarchy of the invasion unleashed a wave of sectarian bloodshed, and the fragile stability which the country now possesses survives mainly because the ethnic cleansing is essentially complete - because all the mixed Sunni/Shia neighborhoods have been destroyed, their ... [visit site to read more]

Qur'an Burnings and Manhattan Mosques

Ebonmuse — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 21:58:36 +0000

I haven't commented until now on this "Ground Zero mosque" - a ridiculous misnomer invented to inflame prejudice, since it's not at Ground Zero and it isn't a mosque - because, honestly, I don't think there's much that needs to be said. America still has the First Amendment, it still has freedom of religion, and Muslims have the same rights as anyone to build their religious centers anywhere they want. Unless they're directly advocating or planning violence, there's nothing that the government ... [visit site to read more]