So what is attracting all the young Jihadists to the sadism & intolerance of ISIS?

 

Is it:

A hatred of music?

A love of people being burnt in metal cages?

A hatred of Britain?

A love of being able to slowly saw the head off an aid worker who has gone out to altruistically help people?

A hatred of America?

A love of watching someone being crucified in agony?

A hatred of fun, pleasure, alcohol, pork, freedom, or democracy?

A love of seeing harmless gay people being callously thrown off tall buildings?

A hatred of peace, love and harmony?

A wish to see people being slowly stoned to death, buried alive or tortured?

A love of fascism?

Or is it a religious indoctrination? A fanatical intolerance? A hatred for anybody who doesn’t adhere to their narrow view of religion?

Not since the holocaust have we seen such barbaric evil. Yet just as it was then, the gullible are attracted to the superficial image and the devils are attracted to the agony. The indoctrinated are just brainwashed!

There’s a better way – a positive zeitgeist – Peace, Love and tolerance!!!

Je suis Charlie – is it right to print cartoons that some find offensive? Is it deliberately provocative?

je_suis_charlie_fist_and_pencil

There is a debate here that is worth exploring.

The grotesque murder of people for publishing cartoons of the prophet Mohamed is undoubtedly wrong. Most people, Muslims included, find those acts barbaric and reprehensible.

However those cartoons were offensive to many Muslims and perhaps deliberately so.

The debate is whether, in a free country with the right of freedom of speech, it is right to intentionally cause offense.

In the West we have a long tradition of lampooning, ridiculing and belittling our politicians, religious leaders and celebrities. Despite the fact that this causes offense to the targets of these lampoons and their followers.

We hold this right to be sacrosanct and a tenet of freedom of speech which is the basis of a free society and our democracy. This freedom, tolerance and democracy is why so many want to come and live here.

However, out of respect for our Muslim minority at what is a sensitive time, taking account of their particular sensitivity in this area, would it not be judicious to moderate this right instead of being inflammatory?

On one hand we have a group of people who are adamant that enough is enough and a point needs to be made; freedom of speech is non-negotiable. We need to publish whatever we want with impunity. Threats of violence will not dissuade us. It is a right.

On the other hand we have a group of devoutly religious people who feel angered, threatened and blamed. They feel they are under attack and grouped in with the barbaric thugs who have misused their religion, but they are also extremely offended and upset.

Are we presenting the Islamists an excuse? Are we fuelling more converts to extremism?

Or are we standing firm in the face of violence and showing we will not be cowed?

What are your views?

Loose Ends with Clive Anderson – Writer Shelina Janmohamed and head-scarves.

Headscarf Sarah-Elenary-shel_3158936b

This evening I was listening to an extremely articulate, highly intelligent, well-educated young Muslim woman explaining why it was hip to wear head-scarves. It was all very good up until she ducked the question of coercion.

Around the world and in Britain as well there are a number of women who would rather not wear a head-scarf but feel coerced into having to. In many countries they are physically whipped if they do not conform.

Where is the solidarity?

It is all very well pushing the limits by wearing a nice ‘hip’ headscarf but where is the choice? Is this a human rights issue? Are women being forced to comply?

Free Speech – Setting up a blog – 12 years in prison – lashing with a whip – 1000 lashes.

Raif

Setting up a blog in Saudi Arabia can kill you!

Exercising freedom of Speech can seriously damage your health.

A blogger sentenced to 1000 lashes!!! And 12 years imprisonment!! This is obscene!!

Just think what I’d get for running this blog and writing my controversial books.

This is what the guardian newspaper reported:

A Saudi blogger convicted of insulting Islam was brought after Friday prayers to a public square in the port city of Jeddah and flogged 50 times before hundreds of spectators, a witness to the lashing said.

The witness said Raif Badawi’s feet and hands were shackled during the flogging but his face was visible. He remained silent and did not cry out, said the witness, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity fearing government reprisal.

Badawi was sentenced last May to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. He had criticized Saudi Arabia’s powerful clerics on a liberal blog he founded. The blog has since been shut down. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 1m riyals or about $266,600.

Rights activists say Saudi authorities are using Badawi’s case as a warning to others who think to criticise the kingdom’s powerful religious establishment from which the ruling family partly derives its authority.

London-based Amnesty International said he would receive 50 lashes once a week for 20 weeks. The US, a close ally of Saudi Arabia, has called on authorities to cancel the punishment.

Despite international pleas for his release, Badawi, a father of three, was brought from prison by bus to the public square on Friday and flogged on the back in front of a crowd that had just finished midday prayers at a nearby mosque. His face was visible and, throughout the flogging, he clenched his eyes and remained silent, said the witness.

The witness, who also has close knowledge of the case, said the lashing lasted about 15 minutes.

Badawi has been held since mid-2012 after he founded the Free Saudi Liberals blog. He used it to criticise the kingdom’s influential clerics who follow a strict, conservative interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism, which originated in Saudi Arabia.

He was originally sentenced in 2013 to seven years in prison and 600 lashes in relation to the charges, but after an appeal the judge stiffened the punishment. Following his arrest, his wife and children left the kingdom for Canada.

Rights groups argue that the case against Badawi is part of a wider crackdown on freedom of speech and dissent in Saudi Arabia since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. Criticism of clerics is seen as a red line because of their prestige in the kingdom, as well as their influential role in supporting government policies.

According to Amnesty the charges against Badawi mention his failure to remove articles by other people on his website. He was also accused in court of ridiculing Saudi Arabia’s morality police.

In a statement after the flogging Amnesty called it a “vicious act of cruelty” and said Badawi’s “only ‘crime’ was to exercise his right to freedom of expression by setting up a website for public discussion”.

The US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the punishment an “inhumane” response to someone exercising his right to freedom of expression and religion.

In New York, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN secretary general, told reporters on Friday that the UN human rights office was “very concerned about the flogging” and had previously raised concerns about harsh sentences in Saudi Arabia for human rights defenders.Raif

American excessive responses to 9/11 do not justify atrocities!

There is little doubt that the American responses to 9/11 have contributed to the radicalisation of Jihadists. They were probably excessive and too knee-jerk and have ended up squandering the good will that came their way following what was an horrific barbaric attack.

If the Americans had maintained the high ground the whole world would have been behind them. Unfortunately they had the wrong President for that. They were too intent on revenge. There can be no justification for deploying tactics that are outside the law such as torture, waterboarding, unlawful abduction, or imprisonment without trial. What happened in American run prisons and Guantanamo Bay is wrong. Too many innocent people have been killed through indiscriminate bombing and drone attacks. The legal case for invading Iraq and Afghanistan is dubious.

America should have remained civilised and above any suggestion of wrong-doing. Britain should have kept its distance without allowing ourselves to be sucked into supporting American aggression, no matter how much provocation.

However, these excesses pale into insignificance in comparison to the level of the atrocities carried out by the militant Jihadists. Their level of sectarian violence is beyond belief. They have systematically tortured and killed. Their callous brutality is inhuman. They have killed people with electric drills, beheadings, lashings, stonings and bombings. They seem to feel justified in this by religious text and actually believe that any god would not only approve but would reward such unimaginable cruelty.

No god would approve of such cruelty.

These Jihadists have been turned into psychopaths.

If the West had not muddied the waters it would have been much easier to assume the moral high ground. We have provided the insane fanatics with an opportunity to mask the level of their own atrocities. They have used propaganda and religious fervour to disguise their power seeking psychopathy.

The fear generated by American involvement has led many Muslims to defend the act of flying a plane full of innocent people into a building full of innocent people. Any right minded person would be able to see that this is indefensible.

A civilised person would know that any act of beheading a human being is barbaric. To do that to an aide-worker who only aim is to help those in terrible circumstances is callous beyond understanding.

To kill people for blasphemy id mediaeval.

To be condemned to death for writing a book or drawing an image is grotesque no matter how offensive it may be.

To kill people because they do not believe in the same version of superstition as you is fascist.

The list of reprehensible acts is huge. They range from bombs on planes, busses, trains and subways, aimed at ordinary people, to the attack and beheading of arbitrary individuals.

Sane people know that no god would justify such barbarity.

The rabid, intolerant psychopathic Jihadists are merely exploiting the American relatively minor transgressions of human rights to justify their own heartless cruelty.

Two wrongs can never make a right.

The people who support these monstrous actions are a small minority. The majority of Muslims are moderate and tolerant. They are not to blame for the militants becoming brain-washed.

The last thing anybody other than the militants want is for this to develop into a war and witch-hunt.

The law has to be respected. Everyone has rights and deserves respect.

Offense is not an offence.

Religion should not oppose or be opposed upon.

Everyone should be subjected to the law of the land. That is what Magna Carta bestowed upon us.

While the lights dim and the bells ring the light of truth, justice, freedom and tolerance should blaze.

We who believe in enlightenment condemn those who would enslave us in religious dogma.

We are Charlie.

I hope all moderate Muslims speak out against the madness being done in their name and make their voices heard.

The tragedy is that so many gullible young men and women have been brainwashed into believing in the superstition of mediaeval prophesies such as ‘The End of Days’.

They are in Syria today trying to fulfil an ancient prophesy which has no basis. That is sad. They are buying in to a piece of superstitious nonsense. How many times have people fallen for the same claptrap?

Moderate Muslims speak up – for evil to exist it is only necessary for good people to remain silent.

Build a better zeitgeist!

Je suis Charlie aussi!!! Opher’s World stands for freedom of speech, tolerance and the right to offend!!

I salute the brave journalists of Charlie Hebdo who were callously, cold-bloodedly murdered by fascist religious fanatics.

Once again we have an act of cowardly, barbaric fanaticism in the name of religion. There can be no blasphemy if there is no god.

Europe was also once gripped by intolerant religious tyrants who sought to impose their limited, ignorant view of religion on everybody. They too used callous, cruel and vicious forms of torture and murder to crush free spirits. Those evil misguided individuals were ousted by people who fought for freedom and justice. Europe was freed from tyranny by the enlightenment.

Where are the signs of any Muslim enlightenment? Why has the religion become so intolerant, cruel, vicious and heartless? Where are the moderate Muslims speaking out against these atrocities? Do they all Muslims seek to impose their primitive Sharia law on everyone and force them to follow the same superstition? Why have modern day Muslims allowed themselves to be taken over by fascists?

I stand for freedom to believe in what I want. I stand for everyone else to believe what they choose without hindrance. I am no fascist.

Freedom of speech was fought for. Many people gave their lives for it. I have no wish to live under a theocracy of any description. We have to constantly fight for freedom.

My thoughts go out to the friends and relatives of those coldly murdered by intolerant sub-humans.

We need to build a positive zeitgeist!!

The Taliban & religious fanaticism.

Through history we find religions of all persuasions guilty of the most barbaric acts. In Britain the fundamental Christians at the time of Thomas Cromwell were well versed in routinely using the most gruesome torture to gain confessions. Catholics were regularly burnt to death at Smithfield market.

We have seen pressing, crucifixion, impalement, starvation and exposure in metal cages and stoning used to punish the unbelievers.

The insane fundamentalists believe they have a God-given right to inflict their views on the whole world. It has led to jihads, crusades, holocausts, pogroms, witch-hunts and ritual slaughter. Trainloads of mutilated corpses went both ways following India’s partition. The Jews believe they have a right to steal land and homes. We regularly are digging up mass graves in Bosnia, Sarajevo, and Syria………..

Is there no end to the barbaric practices of believers?

The latest brand of fundamental madness can be seen in the Islamic monsters who give full vent to their primitive, callous, uncaring viciousness. Yesterday they butchered defenceless children with Kalashnikovs. They planned it coldly and put the plan into practice without mercy or remorse. Yesterday they deliberately burnt a teacher to death in front of their class. None of this was done on the spur of the moment. It was carefully planned out with meticulous detail. This was premeditated murder. I think we can safely say that all the people involved in that planning were not actually involved in carrying it out. They do not seem to have the same thirst for the fictitious paradise they are quite happy to send their brain-washed disciples off to. They were watching from afar.

Seemingly the followers of the Taliban, ISIS, Al-Shabaab, Al-Quaeda, Boko Haram and the rest all feel that they are carrying out god’s will. For some reason they think it is OK to burn someone alive, murder children, torture children, blow up schools, subordinate women, slaughter anyone who believes something different, blow up innocent people in Mosques, train stations and planes, and fly planes into buildings.

Only insane or heavily brain-washed people feel that any god would condone such inhuman behaviour.

Yet these murderous sub-humans are attracting in huge numbers of people from civilised countries. What is it in human nature that turns pleasant people into cold-blooded monsters?

Something is very wrong with Islam.

It is time for all civilised people to stand up against these psychotic murderers.

Fearless Taliban with kalashnikovs gun down schoolchildren! Religious fanatic attacks cafe!

The bravery and courage necessary to take on school children or attack a café is unbelievable.

Do we now have to have armed security guards in our Old People’s homes or Kindergartens?

There is a serious moral deficit in these people. Their brutality and mercilessness demonstrate the hollowness of their religious beliefs. They are sick.

Islam – my views

I am an antitheist. I do not believe that there is a god. The more I look at things the more convinced I am that there definitely is not. As an antitheist I  believe all that religion and superstition in all its many guises has done more harm to human beings and the planet than good. I do think that there are good things that have come out of religion but they are greatly outweighed by the bad. Over the centuries the torture, stonings, burnings, inquisitions, beheadings, crusades, pogroms, witch-hunts, indoctrination, jihads, wars, holocausts and huge wastes of time and energy devoted to pointless rituals, prayers, fasts, and devotions have clearly spelt out to me that religion is man-made and has held us back from dealing with the problems we face.

As an environmentalist I am appalled by the mindless stupidity of religion in exhorting people to multiply. The seven billion people on this planet are destroying it. We need to reduce our numbers drastically to stand a chance of both surviving as a species and preserving wild-life and wilderness. I particularly would point the finger at Catholicism and islam as the worst offenders.

I have an extremely negative view of Islam. I have thought long and hard about this because I am concerned that my own jaundiced views are not just the result of a negative climate created by the media. So I have applied logic to the case. I would welcome views of Muslims to correct me on these points. These are my objections to Islam:

a. It is an extremely intolerant religion. The forcing of people of other faiths to adopt Islam is an infringement of human rights. I see examples all around the world. Apostasy is threatened with death.

b. It indoctrinates young children with brainwashing techniques in madrassas. I find the process abhorrent. It used to be the case with Christians and Jews and still is to an extent. The idea is that by instilling the dogma into young minds you have them for life. That is psychologically correct. Indoctrination is abominable.

c. It is misogynistic. This is true of all the Abrahamic religions. They stem from a patriarchal Arabic culture. Women are second class citizens, subjugated and subservient. They have an imposed dress code that is draconian, are disenfranchised, segregated, subservient and deprived on rights.

d. It is bigoted. It believes that it alone has the word of god. It is written in the Koran. It has to be obeyed. It has to be imposed on every human being on the planet. We have seen (and still do see) this same evangelical zeal in Christianity with its missionaries and wish to impose itself on other cultures. Islam appears to be the worst example at this present time.

e. It is violent and barbaric. Islam supposedly means peace yet we see the most violent and inhuman practices being carried out in the name of Islam. Seemingly there are sections of Islamic thought that believe it is OK to fly airplanes of innocent people into buildings, to behead aid-workers who are trying to help, to stone to death women for the crime of allowing themselves to be forcibly raped by their relatives, and to use suicide bombers to blow up innocent civilians in mosques, planes, trains, buses and underground. They seem to reserve their worst crimes for their own kind. The senseless war between Shia and Sunni seems to have surpassed anything seen between Catholics and Protestants in its ferocity and callousness. The killing of innocent people with electric drills is too obnoxious to contemplate.

f. It is stultifying. Islam seemingly wishes to freeze time in the era of the prophet. The region, which was the seat of civilisation – giving rise to maths, science and agriculture – is no longer a place for creativity and progressive thought. People are still wearing mediaeval costume and behaving as if it was over a thousand years ago. The culture has been castrated and all new thinking is stifled.

I could go on. I can see that the stupid policies of America and Britain in the Middle East have only served to exacerbate and inflame the situation. But two wrongs do not make a right. I am opposed to a lot of the capitalist philosophy of the West which has created a lot of the difficulties in the world. Islam appears much worse to me than capitalism.

I believe in freedom, tolerance, justice, peace, respect, fairness and love. I do not see either Islam or Capitalism espousing those values.

I believe we have to build a new zeitgeist based on that philosophy of love and freedom. We have to respect each other and save the planet from destruction.

My views are laid out in my books:

I’d like to hear your views. Particularly anyone who is Muslim who would like to explain where I am going wrong.

Beat Generation, Rock Music to Sci-fi via Alternative Novels, Education, the Environment and Antitheism! There’s a book for everyone!

Many to choose from!!

Solstice is coming.

Take a chance on something different and extraordinary!