Category Archives: Obscurantism

It happened on the way to Ground Zero

By Faisal | Published: August 24, 2010
Watch the video, it is astonishing. Warning: Social cohesion it is not. But don’t worry, no ‘black Muslim Puerto Rican types’ were physically hurt in the making of this video. This is a take of it from gawker.com : Both supporters and opponents of the “Ground Zero” “Mosque”—a proposed community center—held rallies in lower Manhattan today. Can you guess which [...]
Posted in Obscurantism | 9 Comments

Is this the “counter-Enlightenment”?

By bananabrain | Published: August 6, 2010
i’ve not posted for a while, mostly because of pressure of work, but there are a number of things which are currently causing me to more or less lose sleep. recently, i gave up posting on pickled politics, partly because of the level of personal animosity i was facing, but mostly just in frustration at my [...]
Also posted in Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Blogosphere, Christian Evangelical Nutters, Civil Rights, Democracy, Entryism, European Fascism, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion, Human Rights, Identity Politics, Interfaith, Islamism, Jewish Extremism, Moral relativism, Multiculturalism, Sectarianism, Secularism, The Far Left, The Regressive Left, UK Politics | 37 Comments

Hizb-ut-Tahrir Australia: Spokesman Eviscerated on Live TV

By Effendi | Published: July 7, 2010
This short video should be watched in its entirety. The sound you hear at the end of it is the Australian reporter ripping the pathetic Hizbi chap a brand new fenestration. That was a party political broadcast brought to you by Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
Also posted in Islamism | 8 Comments

The Zakir Naik School of Comparitive Religion

By Faisal | Published: June 19, 2010
Abu Faris has dismantled Naik’s spurious theology quite succinctly: [Zakir Naik] is a past master of making false analogies. One of my favourites concerns his defence of state intolerance of non-Muslim faith communities in Muslim-majority countries. It runs like this: (1) If you were running a school then you would not appoint a maths teacher who believed [...]
Posted in Obscurantism | 7 Comments

The Trouble With Prince Charles

By Faisal | Published: June 17, 2010
Christopher Hitchens on the pseudo-intellectual anti-science quackery of HRH Prince Charles: A hereditary head of state, as Thomas Paine so crisply phrased it, is as absurd a proposition as a hereditary physician or a hereditary astronomer. To this innate absurdity, Prince Charles manages to bring fatuities that are entirely his own. And, as he paged his way [...]
Posted in Obscurantism | 3 Comments

religious idiots round up: vengeful volcanoes

By bananabrain | Published: May 12, 2010
of course, nobody should be surprised that when a natural disaster occurs, the usual suspects jump on the bandwagon to explain why it proves their wacky theologies and that G!D Is Having a good old Smite at people of whom they disapprove or, alternatively, that it’s all part of the dastardly plans of the illuminati [...]
Also posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Blogosphere, Environmental, Esoterica, Farce, International Affairs, Israel/Palestine, Media, Misc | 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, Exegesis, Feminism, Hermeneutics, Human Rights, Interfaith, Jewish Extremism, Moral relativism, Secularism | 8 Comments

religious idiots round-up

By bananabrain | Published: April 21, 2010
  a woman causing an earthquake yesterday by blatantly showing her elbows and knees well, i expect most of us have probably heard by now that, according to the not-at-all-bonkers iranian regime, that immodestly dressed women cause earthquakes. i expect the haitians are buying their chadors as we speak. in the interests of balance, i thought it [...]
Also posted in Esoterica, Farce, Interfaith, Jewish Extremism | 18 Comments

How an “Imperialist” Schoolgirl Trashed A “Post-Colonial” Academic

By Faisal | Published: April 13, 2010
Alaina Podmorov is a 13 year old girl from Canada who started a humanitarian campaign for the education of girls and women in Afghanistan. She wrote this article in response to a masters’ thesis by the University of British Columbia’s Melanie Butler. This is a snippet from Alaina’s article: Continue reading >>
Also posted in Human Rights, Moral relativism | 10 Comments

would it kill me to go along with dawkins and hitchens for once?

By bananabrain | Published: April 12, 2010
as you have probably heard, the hierarchy of the catholic church is coping with plenty of more-than-usually-unpleasant scandal involving the usual suspects: priests, paedophiles, children, cover-ups, pay-offs, not-quite-apologies, denials, denouncings and defrockings which have, for the first time i can remember, started to take on a somewhat apocalyptic tone, that’s apocalyptic in terms of the [...]
Also posted in Activism, Farce, Freedom of Expression, Identity Politics, Interfaith, Lawfare | 9 Comments