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Category Archives: Human rights

Price and Prejudice

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A 25-year-old man who was teased and humiliated for being gay has won a substantial payout from his employers, the Presbyterian Church of Wales, according to a report in the Pink Paper.
Stephen Price’s ordeal began almost as soon as he began working at the Coleg Trefeca centre with 40-year-old Mair Jones, his manager. The 37-bed [...]

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Blasphemy heads for oblivion in Ireland

Sunday, July 13, 2008

MORE bad news for the Catholic Church in Ireland, which has suffered a number of setbacks in this increasingly sceptical country: the offence of blasphemy is likely to be dropped from the Irish Constitution.
According to the Irish Independent, the joint committee on the Constitution said last Friday that changes to the Constitution in the areas [...]

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‘Muslims breed like mosquitos’ is not hate speech

Monday, June 30, 2008

THE Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed a Muslim group’s complaint against Maclean’s magazine.
The long-running case came before the Commission after the Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) complained that the highly-regarded magazine published an article in October 2006 likely to expose Muslims to hatred and contempt.
The article, entitled “The Future Belongs to Islam,” by Canadian writer [...]

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Ritually-slaughtered meat? Not on my damn plate!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

EVER since witnessing – as a 12-year-old – the sickening slaughter of calf by a rabbi who slit the animal’s throat and impassively watched it in its death throes, I have sworn off religiously-slaughtered meat, and have gone to great lengths to avoid all kosher and halal produce.
So you can imagine my disgust when – [...]

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Iraqi father claims God is ‘blessing him’ for killing his daughter

Sunday, May 11, 2008

AN Iraqi father, who was “congratulated by police” in Basra after he beat his 17-year-old daughter to death because she had become infatuated with a British soldier, said in an interview in today’s Observer that:
Death was the least she deserved. I don’t regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are [...]

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Atheist US soldier accused of being ‘immoral’, a ‘devil worshipper’ – and ‘gay’

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

A YOUNG US soldier who declared his atheism while on active duty in Iraq last year – and, as a result, was harassed and reviled – has filed a law suit alleging that his constitutional rights had been violated. The suit names Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

Since bringing the suit, Specialist Jeremy Hall has been called [...]

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Middle East earthquakes: It’s the gays what did it

Sunday, February 24, 2008

SIX earthquakes have struck Israel and neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan in recent months, with two coming last week alone - and what is to blame? Homosexuality.
That’s the view of imbecile Shlomo Benizri, MP, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas party, who, according to the Telegraph, believes that the tremors could be stopped by repealing various liberalising [...]

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Scouts Challenged Over Discrimination against Non-Believers

Saturday, February 2, 2008

WHY would any self-respecting young atheist want to join an organisation originally launched by a devious, authoritarian imperialist, and racist to boot?
Furthermore, Lord Baden-Powell detested atheists, intellectuals, and socialists, and suggested a bonding of the Boys Scouts with the Hitler Youth Movement.
We ask the question because the Boy Scouts were in the news again [...]

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Religion versus marriage: a “landmark” case

Sunday, January 13, 2008

A registrar in London is taking her employers to a tribunal because her religion gets in the way of her carrying out her duties.
Lillian Ladele won’t officiate at civil-partnership ceremonies in Islington, and now she’s in conflict with the council, for which she’s worked for more than ten years. She’s taking her case to an [...]

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Ditch blasphemy law, says PEN chief

Sunday, January 6, 2008

The president of English PEN (the UK arm of the worldwide writers’ organisation) says the law of blasphemous libel is not only obsolete but contravenes our rights to freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Lisa Appignanesi (pictured below), writing in the Guardian, quotes the Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, who said, “If [...]

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