Category Archives: Exegesis

religious people need to recommit to and engage with critical thinking

By bananabrain | Published: August 23, 2010
following an unusually thoughtful broadcast last week by richard dawkins (he’s obviously trying to take on board how much his militancy turns people off by some of the pleas he made on behalf of sacred texts as fine language, cultural literacy and so on) i am grappling again with some of the issues raised by [...]
Also posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Blogosphere, Christian Evangelical Nutters, Democracy, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion, Hate Speech, Hermeneutics, Human Rights, Interfaith, Islamism, Jewish Extremism | 16 Comments

Islam’s Attitude to Women

By Faisal | Published: July 23, 2010
Back in 2001, Madeleine Bunting of the Guardian came up with this: Blaming Islam for practices such as female circumcision, they claim, is the equivalent of blaming feminism for domestic violence – it is linking totally unrelated phenomena. Again, the absence of a critical analysis of the tradition is striking, and there is no answer to [...]
Posted in Exegesis | Leave a comment

G!D the “misogynist” and other cyclical lepidopterisms

By bananabrain | Published: May 6, 2010
thanks to the delightful sonia from pickled politics, i ended up in a jolly discussion over at butterflies and wheels on feminism and religion. they seem to have closed the comments for some reason, but i still thought it was an interesting subject and thought i’d continue it here if anyone (like ophelia benson or [...]
Also posted in Blogosphere, Esoterica, Ethics, Feminism, Hermeneutics, Human Rights, Interfaith, Jewish Extremism, Moral relativism, Obscurantism, Secularism | 8 Comments

beard-pulling update: are lubavitch a bunch of messianic heretics, or what?

By bananabrain | Published: December 8, 2009
it appears that the mainstream orthodox rabbinical council of america has picked a fight with the powerful chabad / lubavitch movement over the perennial problem about whether the last lubavitcher rebbe is dead, or the messiah, or both, or what. obviously, there is a slight problem with jews who start believing that the messiah has [...]
Also posted in Farce, Freedom of Expression, Obscurantism | Tagged | 3 Comments

ultra-orthodox rabbinate explores new ways of making life pointlessly difficult

By bananabrain | Published: September 30, 2009
just so you don’t think it’s only muslims and christians who like to impose unnecessary strictures on daily life, this just in from ha’aretz: the latest halachic ruling banning the use of elevators on the Sabbath shocked residents of the Tovei Ha’Ir retirement home in Jerusalem. Most residents at this institution, which caters to the religious and [...]
Also posted in Obscurantism | Tagged | 27 Comments

What is the Quran?

By Guest | Published: September 16, 2009
This is a cross post from the Averroes Press **** Ten years ago, this cover story in The Atlantic caused quite a stir. It revealed, researchers were proposing new theories about Islam’s holy book and Islamic history to reinterpret Islam for the modern world. I believe Muslims will be well served if they read this essay rather [...]
Also posted in History | 28 Comments

Islamist Doublespeak Part II: Misrepresenting the Divine Word Itself

By bananabrain | Published: July 20, 2009
we’ve already seen in my last piece how islamists manage to pervert the Quran’s open-minded approach to the other abrahamic religions: the only true followers of Moses [pbuh], are the Muslims, for it is part of moses religion [and the religion of all other prophets] to accept the latest Messenger and revelation; that is why Muslims [...]
Also posted in Interfaith, Islamism | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

The hijab, Sarkozy and all that

By Zorro | Published: June 25, 2009
Sarkozy’s call for a ban on the veil has indeed opened up a number of issues and perspectives, even if he may well have had his own motives for doing so! We have had the normal reaction on the left to condemn him, the reaction from the right in the UK to call for a ban [...]
Also posted in Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Democracy, Ethics, Freedom of Expression, Hermeneutics, Human Rights, Islamism, Politics, Secularism, Sharia | 4 Comments

Why Sharia doesn’t seek the Sharia to be enforced by the State

By Zorro | Published: June 17, 2009
It seems that the Islamists, and some anti-Islamists, are getting into the debate involving the implementation of Sharia with certain assumptions in mind. 1. There is such a thing as The Sharia! This is simply not true. Muslim scholars do not have a single detailed rule of Sharia that they agree upon. They agree on broad principles [...]
Also posted in Ethics, Islamism, Secularism, Sharia | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Islamist Economics and the Capitalist System – Riba!

By Zorro | Published: June 11, 2009
"Islamic" economic 'thinkers' and Islamist political activists ranging from the terror crew (Bin Laden et al), to the "moderates" often like to have a rant at the evil Capitalist economic system, and specifically interest based banking. They often equate the above with the Islamic prohibition on Riba - usually vaguely translated as usury.
Also posted in Ethics, Hermeneutics, Islamism, Sharia | 5 Comments