Ep#81 – Iram Ramzan – Sedaa.org

Iram Ramzan (@Iram_Ramzan) will be joining me on The #GSPodcast this week. After seeing a lack of progressive voices in the media, particularly those of Muslim heritage, Iram decided to set up Sedaa (@Sedaa_ourvoices). We’ll be talking about cultural relativism, radicalisation, Labour party anti-Semitism, racism, ‘What Muslims Really Think, reform and more!

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6 comments

  • I had the same “religious difference” at 10 yrs old when A Catholic boy, new to the school asked me what religion I was. He told me I was a Protestant, cos of my “Erm C of E I suppose”. All was well, but he was obviously testing the water for trouble, which I didn’t realise at the time, having come over from Ireland.

    I agree about Malia Bouattia, in that if nobody had said she was the “first Muslim President” or even “black”, I wouldn’t have known, cared, or certainly not gone searching to see if she was. It seems a bit strange to be doing stuff like that now

    Yes, outside of everything else it was quite funny to see those who grabbed a decent poll result (according to them) and then rubbished the rest of the poll for various reasons of methodology. It was all quite obvious.

    The clash between “white atheists” and others on the same side is something I’d always wondered about. It’s not that long ago that Douglas Murray and Maajid Nawaz weren’t so happy together. It was the Charlie Hebdo thing that seemed to change Murray’s mind on that, and he’s perfectly happy to boost Nawaz at every opportunity now. But then it’s gone full circle with Namazie and a few others, calling “bigotry” and that was the basis for the interview with Sam Harris. That interview was fascinating and frustrating at the same time. Harris’ straight down the line cold logic (“Should the FBI waste time investigating the Amish/Mormons for Jihadism?”) up against some sort of “holier than thou” emotion and failed logic, where you should not profile Muslims at all, nada, nothing, but then, suddenly out of the blue, you can profile a certain type of Muslim. No wonder Harris was confused.

    I’d ask what would make Iram fall out with someone on this subject?

  • 28:00 Couldn’t you say the same about Homophobia or Transphobia (regarding the mental illness aspect of the terminology).

  • Regarding Trevor Phillips and his journey from relativism and multi-cuturalism, I found this to be essential listening:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078hlsz

    (A future guest perhaps?)

  • Loved it. would warn though – don’t listen whilst eating dinner …. I nearly choked laughing in minute 22.

  • Hi Stephen,
    Fairly recent big fan.
    Have had many arguments with my ex Muslim atheist girlfriend about some of the problems within Islam. Most of the time she would shut me down by calling me racist (we are in a mixed race relationship – funny on two levels. lol)

    We took a road trip at the weekend and I asked her to pick a podcast. I was praying to Dawkins she would pick one of yours (Her ears would be closed if I picked a podcast that was critical of Islam). She did, and completely got it.
    She even disagreed with some of the “What Muslims really think” data saying “no way do only 50% of Muslims believe homosexuality should be illegal, from my experience as a Muslim I would say it would be in the 90’s”
    I thought that would be nice to hear.

    Keep up the good work!

  • I thoroughly enjoyed listening to your interview with Iram Ramzan. She is one of the most important people to speak out against the misguided, and even dangerous beliefs of bigots and misogynists, especially those who consider themselves Muslim and their apologists. We need more intelligent voices like hers pushing up against regressive liberals who condone a religion that treats women so pathetically. And btw, the reason Iram said she was given as a girl to keep her head covered (because the devil would pee in her hair) was hilarious! Iram’s wit, and warmth was charming. But most of all wisdom like hers needs to be repeated louder and more often by all ex-muslins. Keep up the good work fighting for reason, Iram!

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