Atheist banned from criticising the Islamic faith
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University bans secular/atheist because she focuses on Islam religion.
An example of her artilces
Another of my suggestions for a press release by ourselves on our attitude towards religion. I know some say that the muslim apostates are the best suited to tackle this but i think this goes beyond their remit…It is a denial of political freedoms in supposedly a centre of 'intellectual' debate and we ourselves could easily be the next victims to have our free speech curtailed.
Correction – It wasn't the university who banned Namazie, they are still to make a final decision, but the Students Union. Perhaps we could invite her to give a talk at HO as a sign of solidarity…Or would we be too cautious of a possible backlash and damage to premises and perhaps injury to members and thus follow in the footsteps of the Warwick Students Union by not inviting trouble.
She is not just an atheist but a Marxist, a member of the "Worker Communist Party of Iran":https://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/warwick-university-student-union-bans-feminist-marxist-secularist-maryam-namazie/Here's their definition of socialism::
Quote:Socialism has been defined and interpreted in lots of different ways. We are one of the few currents who emphatically maintain that socialism should be identified with abolition of wage-labour and creation of economic equality between people. It means equality in the status of people in the social production.This clearly distinguishes us from all those currents who identify socialism with planned state economy, with industrialization, or with redistribution of wealth, etc. We maintain that socialism requires the abolition of wage-labour, and the transformation of the means of labour, means of production, into the common property of society. Social welfare and economic security of people can only be the result of such a revolution in the economic foundations of society.We'd get banned too by the politically correct opponents of free speech at Warwick University. And there are people on this forum who want us to go soft on religion.I have heard her speak. She's good. More power to her elbow.
I just placed a quick post on our blog before reading your commenthttp://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2015/09/our-enemys-enemy-is-not-our-friend.htmlBut your own link to another blog is much more detailed and explanative
Quote:And there are people on this forum who want us to go soft on religion.I am sure there is no-one on this forum who endorses religious fundamentalism whether it is from the Islamic right or the Christian right or Jewish right or Buddhist right or Hindu right, all who have exhibited the signs of fascism that Namazie and others are exposing. We cannot compare a Quaker with an evangelical extremist bombing abortion clinics and killing doctors.I am not well versed in the Islamic religion but i am sure there are schools of thought within it that are as far away from Wahhabist beliefhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Muslim_movements
One thing that I found interesting about the Islamic religion ‘as we see it’ is that it is pretty much unrecognizable from reading the Quran (I read through about 80% of it before getting bored) . In fact one bod got into real trouble recently from just about all muslim sects for saying all you need is the Quran and you should be able or should base your muslim faith just on that. He was of course Fatwa-ed and apostasied for that. Most of the Islamic religion comes from the ‘post’ Quran Hadiths which are too voluminous to get a handle on, so I gave it up as a project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith As we are on Iran and corbynite clause four nationalisation/state capitalism elsewhere. Until very recently, and even still, substantial sections of the Iranian ‘GDP’ has been under state control. Eg As of 2009, Iran has privatized $63 billion worth of government equity in state-owned firms since 2005 (out of $120 billion). Subsequently, the disinvestment has brought the government's direct ownership in the GDP from 80% down to 40%.[1]However, privatization through the boursehas tended to involve the sale of state-owned enterprises to other state actors such as pension funds.[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatization_in_Iran I suppose this is the Islamic/Iranian model that so appals the so called feudal gulf states. It looks a bit like theological Bolshevism with a dose of NEP. Islam is formally an Abrahamic 'monotheistic ’ religion, sharing its acceptance of much of the ‘old testament’ and even JC as a kind of prophet etc. Mohamed was supposed to have had christian slave and there is a bit of eccentric christianity in the Quran including stuff from the infancy gospel of Thomas which was popular in that area at the time and didn’t make it into the cannon. The christians went wrong in crypto creeping polytheism with the holy trinity and not accepting Mohamed as a prophet, and the last one at that. Shia’s crime is that they are a little bit too much into the idea of ‘saint-hood’ with their shrines and martyrs etc etc. I think it is reasonable to compare the difference to the the one in the 17th century between radical Protestantism and Catholicism. Shia’s theology of ‘saint-hood’ and ‘idol worship’ etc also appears to some ‘sunni’s’ as another form of crypto creeping polytheism; hence the Saudi’s and Isis enthusiasm for bulldozing and blowing up holy sites and mosques. Another part of it is a succession thing a bit like the papacy, saint Peter and upon this rock I will build my Vatican thing. With Islam it is too complicated to explain. Well that is my take on it anyway.
Dave B wrote:With Islam it is too complicated to explain.Load of bollocks if you ask me. But at least it's not a death cult like christianity with its images of blood, sacrifice, etc. Ugh.!
ALB wrote:Dave B wrote:With Islam it is too complicated to explain.Load of bollocks if you ask me. But at least it's not a death cult like christianity with its images of blood, sacrifice, etc. Ugh.!
Actually in Islam there are also sacrifices, blood-covenants and consecration by blood, of which many seem unaware. The chief feast in the world of Islam is the Feast of Sacrifice held at Mecca during the pilgrimage** and simultaneously in every Moslem community from Tangier and Timbuctoo to Bombay and Bokhara.There are two main occasions when Islam enjoins a blood-sacrifice, namely, at the birth of a child, and at the annual feast in Mecca which is also celebrated in every Moslem community. One of these is the sacrament of initiation, like Christian baptism, which consists of shaving the head of the new-born child, killing a sheep or goat as sacrifice, no bone of which may be broken, and offering a prayer !!! **Then there's the human 'sacrifices' which occur on a fairly regular basis during the Hajj, the latest of which happened only three days ago when 769 people were killed and a further 934 injured in a stampede.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_during_the_HajjGoing by the long list of incidents that have happened at this pilgrimage over the years one might have expected the penny to have dropped by now in the minds of at least some of the faithful, but they probably just put it all down to God working in his 'mysterious ways'. That's religiosity for you. Thank goodness we don't have fruit cakes like that in the party…
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34357047Apostates and the persecution by family and the Muslim communityBut it got me thinking…can you reject your Jewish religion if you are defined ethnically as a Jew. Same with Sikhs.
I think self described Marxists also have there own tradition of blood sacrifices don’t they? I think the feast of sacrifice is derived from one of the many obnoxious stories in the old testament eg; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha#cite_note-2 Although Islam or the Quran can be quite selective as to its interpretation of old testament material. For instance the story of Lot, as role model, has quite a high profile in the Quran. Lot is visited by some attractive looking male angels whom the neighbours wish to rape. Lot suggest that they rape his virgin daughters instead. Later on Lot and his daughters go off and live in a cave or something and the sexually frustrated daughters get Lot, their dad drunk, and rape him instead. Although it is presented as pro-creational rather than just recreational sex. However; "The allegation of drunkenness and incestuous behaviour of Lot is completely rejected in Islam, and he is regarded as one of the messengers of Allah (God) who was an example of moral and spiritual rectitude." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lot_(biblical_person) I can only remember one passage in the Quran about alcohol and that just seemed to say it was a bad idea to get pissed. Maybe I missed something or there was other stuff in the last 20% . I think the early Christians were relatively unique in abandoning concepts of animal sacrifices etc and got into trouble for just that. In fact it is hardly believable today but for their time they were the relative anti mumbo jumbo-ists. Amazingly some of the second century ones, like Origen, come across as rational sceptics when it comes to ‘magic’ and discussed rationally, as tricks, some of the amazing ‘David Blaine’ stuff you could see in the market place in Alexandria; including mass hypnosis etc. The standard blood and guts dying bod on the cross and the crucifix stuff didn’t appear in Christian iconography until the 4th century. [Incidentally there is quite a lot of seemingly unconnected Judiac and very early Christian material that suggests that JC was crucified on a ‘tree’.] Early Christian iconography appeared as the symbol of the fish which is presumed to be an acronym and was used as a kind of Masonic handshake. They would doodle half of it as just a wavy line and the other would complete it or something. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthys The other pre 4th century iconography was Jonah images and Orpheus ones. A lot of these more intelligent and better read atheists and students of Christianity eg Richard Carrier think that Christianity is a reworking of certain Egyptian and Greek myths etc. But I find it a bit strange because they seem to select some unlikely examples like Mithras etc which other atheists scholars like Bart Erhman have done a good job of debunking it as not a very good fits. I think the Orpheus story is a good fit, certainly contemporary with Ovid doing a cover version of it around 30AD, and ‘archaeological’ evidence of Christian ‘iconography’. Although you have to understand that JC went to down to hell for three days to get that bit. http://www.home2b.nl/home2b-ancient-christianity/ancient-christianity-orpheus-relation.html The Marcionites, ‘my kind’ of early Christians, thought that the old testament was a load of shit and were against martyrdom, preferring to stay alive and develop their religious consciousness. I still think that early Christianity was a class analysis developed within a metaphysical framework which was the only framework at the time.
They did a brief Orhpeus theme on radio four last week that reminded me of it and I had been dicussing Ovid narcissus and stirner egotism a bit before that 'elsewhere'.
robbo203 wrote:Could someone please explain why some posts have been deleted from this thread?See this explanation:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/forum/website-technical/notice-posts-and-content-created-27th-28th-sept-2015
I see the idiot student union officials who proscribed her have been forced to back down by public outrage and ridicule:http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/ex-muslim-speakers-warwick-university-10145068Good thing too.
Man killed for supposedly eating beefhttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-34398433Less to do with vegetarianism but more to do with Hindutva – right-wing Hindu nationalismhttp://www.countercurrents.org/cc300915.htm
Quote:It is ironic that India is the largest exporter of beef in the world! According to data released by U.S. Department of Agriculture India exported 2.4 million tonnes of beef and veal in FY2015, compared to 2 million tonnes by Brazil and 1.5 million by Australia. India accounts for 23.5 per cent of global beef exports. This is up from a 20.8 per cent share last year.
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