Harry’s Place

It is common knowledge that dogs are considered dirty animals in the Islamic religion. In 2002, an Iranian hardline cleric was so concerned about pet dog ownership he issued the following statement:
“I demand the judiciary arrest all dogs with long, medium or short legs - together with their long-legged owners,”
Of course, dogs are disgusting, […]

The United Nations recently passed a resolution which will fundamentally change the nature and focus of work of its Human Rights Council. The General Assembly resolution backed up a decade of similar resolutions passed by the UNHRC (and its predecessor, the UNCHR). Instead of being a watchdog, monitoring abuses of people, it will now finally shift […]

Yosef “Tommy” Lapid– a Holocaust survivor, a militantly secular Israeli Zionist, a former journalist and cabinet minister– has died at 77.
Starting in 1999, Lapid headed the Shinui (Change) party, which opposed the special privileges (subsidies, military deferments, etc.) the government traditionally provides to Israel’s ultra-Orthodox communities. Shinui supported efforts to allow non-religious civil marriage and […]

“Radical Islam is threatening to fill a ‘moral vacuum’ in Britain as a result of a decline of Christian values,” says The Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali.
Behind this scaremongering is a much more duplicitous agenda.
The bishop is attempting to rally all those lapsed and apathetic Anglicans - who, frankly, probably don’t even […]

Multiculturalism. I like it. At least in the sense that I like the large melting pot of cultures and ethnicity that you get in large UK cities. Yep, mixed multiple cultures are fun and add to life’s gaiety. However, there are problems. I don’t like multiple parallel monocultures that hold supremacist views of their own […]

“The BBC still seems to believe that those who call themselves ‘religious’ can somehow think more clearly, deeply and meaningfully than those who call themselves ‘non-religious’. How can the BBC defend that bigoted view?” said listener Amanda Baker following an experimental “alternative” Thought for the Day recorded by Richard Dawkins for the BBC in 2002.
More […]

Two exceptionally good articles on the current Sharia Law controversy:
Andrew Copson at Comment Is Free.
Johann Hari in the Independent.
Both reach beyond the headlines and see the slick powerplay driving the Archbishop’s remarks.

(via Maryam Namazie)
Join the demonstration tomorrow on Friday, February 8, 2008, 12.00 to 2.00 pm Afghanistan Embassy, 31 Princes Gate, London, SW7
Since October 2007, Parwiz Kambakhsh, a 23 year old Afghan journalist, has been in prison in Balkh province, Northern Afghanistan and sentenced to execution for blasphemy by a local Sharia court in Mazar-e-Sharif. His […]

As readers of Harry’s Place will know, I like to spend my Sundays engaged in non-religious activities with my family.
Last week, I tried - but failed - to go swimming with my wife and five year old son. Unfortunately, Clissold Leisure Centre holds what it terms a “Modesty Swim” on Sunday mornings in the Training […]

I blame the Jews.
More here.
Gene adds: Tim Page in The Washington Post writes of Fischer:
He did one thing magnificently, perhaps better than anybody who has ever lived. The rest was chaos.