by Heather Hastie | Mar 27, 2015 | Atheism, Freedom of Speech, Religion, Science & Nature
Yesterday (26 March) was Richard Dawkins’s 74th birthday. I’m a big fan of Dawkins – it was while watching one of his documentaries a few years ago that I realized that I was an atheist, and had been at least agnostic since I was a child. The God...
by Heather Hastie | Mar 18, 2015 | Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Religion
I wrote about New Zealander Philip Blackwood here in January when he was still awaiting trial after his arrest on 10 December last year. 10 December is International Human Rights Day, and so I thought it particularly ironic that he was arrested for his particular...
by Heather Hastie | Mar 7, 2015 | Democracy, Human Rights, Middle East, Religion, Women
Most of you have probably see the video below of Maajid Nawaz trying to get some of his fellow Muslims admit that some of the punishments in Sharia are inhumane. For whatever reason, they simply won’t say that punishments like stoning to death are wrong....
by Heather Hastie | Feb 13, 2015 | Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Religion, Terrorism, USA
On Tuesday 10 February 2015, Sydney Police arrested two Muslim men. They had received information that they planned to carry out a random murder that day. On raiding the men’s home the police found a hunting knife, a DAESH flag and a self-made video describing...
by Heather Hastie | Feb 7, 2015 | Democracy, Freedom of Speech, International Politics, Religion, Terrorism, US Politics, USA
In the United States there is a growing rift between Democrats and Republicans on how to describe the terrorism in the Middle East and northern Nigeria. (As if politics in America needed any more rifts!) The Obama administration will not use the word...
