And speaking of going places and doing things – Veronica Abbass at Canadian Atheist has a post about what people are looking forward to at Eschaton in Ottawa next month. We’re all looking forward to meeting each other, is what it boils down to.

I hope there’s plenty of cat food.

 

From the Washington state Voters’ pamphlet, the section on Referendum Measure 74, which would allow same-sex couples to marry. From the Argument Against.

God’s creation of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is the foundation of society and has served us well for thousands of years.

Seriously?!

I shouldn’t be surprised. The statements are prepared by the people who prepare them. They can have batshit crazy stuff in them.

But I am suprised, all the same. “God’s creation of marriage as the union of one man and one woman” doesn’t exist. One man often had lots of women in God’s old-timey world.

My “Promised Land” is a place where people don’t talk stupid shite like that.

Belatedly catching up with the Halloween Jesus and Mo.

Is the barmaid praising their sense of humour, or their insight?

There’s a new group for liberal Muslims in Canada: Muslims Facing Tomorrow. There was a launch a couple of weeks ago.

I attended the launch of the Council of Muslims Facing Tomorrow at the invitation of Raheel Raza, journalist, author, public speaker and activist. She founded MFT to amplify the moderate Muslim voice at a time when it’s in danger of being lost in the clamor of extremist rhetoric.

An energetic advocate of women’s rights and social reform, Raheel wants the group to be unconstrained by religion and open to all who share a vision of tolerance and diversity. She sees it more as a movement than an organization, connecting and motivating people around the globe, holding conferences and workshops to educate and strengthen the progressive Muslim identity. Of particular concern to her is providing direction and support for Muslim youth.

Good good good. Support for the Malalas of the world, and the parents of the Malalas of the world.

As Raheel welcomed the audience and the cameras clicked and flashed, I glanced around the auditorium; half an hour in people continued to arrive. There were no hijabs or “Islamic” beards, no segregated seating. I heard the prophet mentioned without the suffix “Salallahu alayhi wasalam” (Peace be upon Him). I can’t tell you how comfortable that made me; dialogue with some Muslims can feel like a piety competition – the tension is palpable when you don’t couch your words in the correct phrases.

Let’s hope the group thrives.

 

I forgot to say – I’m doing a talk at CFI Los Angeles on Sunday, so if you’re in that area and want to come along, now you know. 11 a.m. 4773 Hollywood Boulevard.

I’m going to talk about Reap Paden.

Kidding! Totally kidding.

I might eat some cat food though, as a kind of party trick.

I’m adding the thing. There’s a thing. A description type thing.

Another girls’ school set on fire in Pakistan.

A large number of people, including activists of religious parties, ransacked and set on fire a girls’ school in Lahore and clashed with police following reports that a question paper for a test had contained blasphemous references to the Prophet, police said today.

Reports, please note. Also known as rumors. Reports that something something, so whammo, set fire to a girls’ school.

Residents of Karim Park near Data Darbar began gathering outside the school yesterday morning following reports that its owner, Asim Farooqi, and teacher Arifa had committed blasphemy. [Read more…]

There’s a lot of indignation about Bruce Gorton’s guest post about faitheists. People have been badgering Paul Fidalgo about it on Twitter merely because he linked to it in the Morning Heresy – he linked to it, he didn’t endorse it. James Croft has a long post on it. Vlad Chituc challenged me on it via Twitter, and we ended up having a decent discussion.

The indignation is about the claim that Chris Stedman “holds a degree of the basic unconscious racism that I find common in a lot of these arguments over religion.”

Part of the problem is just that people translated that into “Chris Stedman is a racist.”

Look closely at the two and you’ll see the difference. [Read more…]

A complete and utter horror.

Muzaffarabad: A mother and father in Pakistan-administered Kashmir killed their 15-year-old daughter by dousing her with acid after seeing her talking to a young man, police said on Thursday.

By dousing her with acid. Can there be a worse way to die? Being set on fire, perhaps.

And for talking to a man. Parents. Their child. Acid. Talking to a man.

Local police officer Tahir Ayub told AFP the father, Mohammad Zafar, had had suspicions about his daughter Anvu Sha and became enraged when he saw her with a boy outside their home on Monday.

“Zafar beat her up and then poured acid over her with the help of his wife. She was badly burnt but they did not take her to hospital until the next morning, and she died on Wednesday,” Ayub said.

Doctor Mohammad Jahangir of the state run Kotli hospital confirmed the death, saying the girl was brought to hospital in a “very critical condition” with almost 70 per cent burns.