It's pretty rare I agree with the Pope, but he's recently been calling on Pakistan to repeal their insane blasphemy laws, and I'm behind him on this one. His calls were met, unsurprisingly, with a friendly "mind your own fucking business": The pope has given a statement today that has not only offended the 180 million Muslims in Pakistan, it has also hurt the sentiments of the entire Islamic world," said Ha ...

From the BBC: Men and women have been banned from shaking hands in a district of Somalia controlled by the Islamist group al-Shabab. Under the ban imposed in the southern town of Jowhar, men and women who are not related are also barred from walking together or chatting in public. It is the first time such social restrictions have been introduced. The al-Shabab administration said those who disobeyed the ne ...

Imagine your loved one gets gunned down for trying to reform a law that makes the lives of people visibly worse, and the murderer is showered with rose petals and celebrated for his actions? Well, for that to happen, you'd have to be in Pakistan, and the law you would have to try and reform would be the blasphemy kind. Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was attempting to reform the laws in an effort to ...

There's an interesting Cracked article entitled "5 Ridiculous Things You Probably Believe About Islam", and while I thought it fair to point out religion hasn't always been a gigantic problem for this world, it fundamentally glosses over the fact in many parts of the world, the dangerous combination of faith and tradition leads to the suppression, torture and murder of women. It's true Christianity, on a wh ...

Here is Ayaan Hirsi Ali debating whether or not Islam is a religion of peace. I spend an inordinate amount of time debating this with people, but unlike Ayaan, I haven't had first hand experience in the violence and misogyny of Islam. I'm sick of the argument politics is responsible for the violence of this religion. Why is everyone ignoring the elephant in the room? The actions of the religious may be poli ...

You remember Pakistan right? It's the country currently being ruled by a military dictator who happens to be nice and chummy to Islamic groups who like to get women sentenced to death for blasphemy. They seem to be profoundly confused about what to do regarding the sacredness of the name "Muhammad", as they've recently arrested a man for throwing out a business card of someone who shared the namesake. You c ...

It doesn't take much to send Christians into a hissy-fit these days. If it's not billboards and bus ads that have them declaring western civilization is persecuting them, it's an innocent comment made by Liam Neeson sparking outrage. Neeson is the voice of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, the Christian themed fable by famous apologist C.S. Lewis, and he made remarks the character reminded him of other sim ...

  What's the harm in a little superstition? Ask all the people who listened to an energy peddling "holy man" and ended up worm food. These were folks who received advanced warning from serious scientists, and still chose to believe a man who managed to convince himself he could speak directly to the spirit of the volcano. You also have to love how "Islamic" Indonesians are. It's obvious elements of the ...

A few podcasts ago, Ryan and I discussed the case of the world famous "blasphemer", Asia Bibi of Pakistan, who faces the death penalty for insulting Islam. She's recently been trying to get a Presidential pardon, which was just rejected by a Pakistani "court" yesterday. The high court barred the President from even attempting to let her off the hook for having supposedly said some hurtful things about a man ...

We often joke about the "big brotherism" of Facebook and other social media, but it's no laughing matter when these websites are used to track down apostates of Islam whose only "crime" is speaking their damn minds. Walid Husayin, a 26 year old barber in the West Bank, has been arrested and faces life imprisonment for insulting Muhammad. His friends and family are shocked he led a double life online, where ...