Tag: religion

EXIT GOD, ENTER MADNESS: Nadeem Paracha on religious extremism in Pakistan (2012)

First posted July 06, 2012 As one distraught friend of mine once prayed: ‘May Allah save Islam from Pakistan.’ The self-claimed ‘bastion of Islam’ has gradually mutated into becoming a bastion of deluded messiahs and mindless, violent ranting machines to whom anything, from incoherent malangs to the reopening of Nato supply routes, are conspiracies against Islam. On… Read More EXIT GOD, ENTER MADNESS: Nadeem Paracha on religious extremism in Pakistan (2012)

Dilip

God’s Ghostwriters: did enslaved scribes write the New Testament?

The theologian and journalist suggests that slaves in the Roman empire contributed to the core texts of Christianity in this refreshingly readable book God’s Ghostwriters by Candida Moss Peter Stanford Graham Greene, who wrote so much about Catholicism in his novels, was regularly asked whether he was still a believer. It was listening to the… Read More God’s Ghostwriters: did enslaved scribes write the New Testament?

Dilip

Afghan girls accuse Taliban of sexual assault after arrests for ‘bad hijab’

Reports surface days before UN summit on Afghanistan that will exclude Afghan women and debate on women’s rights Ahmad Ahmadi*, Zahra Nader and Farshid Aram* Teenage girls and young women arrested by the Taliban for wearing “bad hijab” say they have been subjected to sexual violence and assault in detention. In more than one case the arrests… Read More Afghan girls accuse Taliban of sexual assault after arrests for ‘bad hijab’

Dilip

The Amini effect: The impact of a single life and the importance of accountability

NB: The crimes of the Iranian theocracy prompt the question: what is it in God’s will that calls for such barbarous cruelty and killing of people for leading an ordinary life? Does the tyranny of the Ayatollahs represent God’s will or is it simply the murderous rage of old men and hooligans using any opportunity… Read More The Amini effect: The impact of a single life and the importance of accountability

Dilip

Leaflet by leaflet, a few aging activists fight India’s tide of bigotry

To respect God and to pretend to do that for votes are two different things: Vipin Kumar Tripathi Sameer Yasir One recent morning, Roop Rekha Verma, an 80-year-old peace activist and former university leader, walked through a north Indian neighborhood prone to sectarian strife and parked herself near a tea shop. From her sling bag,… Read More Leaflet by leaflet, a few aging activists fight India’s tide of bigotry

Dilip

Significance of Modi’s meditation at Kanyakumari

Narendra Modi deliberately combines Hindu rituals in his public persona for the political purpose of appealing to the Hindu masses. Bharat Bhushan Opposition parties have objected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to meditate at Dhyan Mandapam at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, and have approached the Election Commission of India to ban any telecast of… Read More Significance of Modi’s meditation at Kanyakumari

Dilip

US Supreme Court is Driven by Christian Theocracy

Millions of Evangelicals have “anointed” Trump as their modern day King Cyrus, despite his deeply UN-Christian lifestyle. Why? Because he promised them to end legal access to abortion in the US, which is all they care about as a fast-track toward Christian theocracy in the US… Six of the nine SCOTUS justices are devout, ideological Catholics,… Read More US Supreme Court is Driven by Christian Theocracy

Dilip

Civil Society Hearing into the 1988 Massacre in Iran / Open Letter to the UN Human Rights Council

The UN Special Rapporteur on Iran and the Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances join JVMI and survivors of the 1988 massacre in Geneva on 15 February 2024 in an appeal for justice London, 2 April 2024 – A group of 77 current and former United Nations special procedure mandate-holders and commissioners… Read More Civil Society Hearing into the 1988 Massacre in Iran / Open Letter to the UN Human Rights Council

Dilip

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging

NB: The Iranian regime is a tyrannical theocracy, which permits no criticism, no deviation from so-called divinely sanctioned modes of behaviour. To punish people with flogging and imprisonment for speaking truth about corruption is itself a criminal act. It should never be forgotten that the regime’s leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa for the execution… Read More Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging

Dilip