Tag Archives: FGM

West Midlands Police Do Not See ‘Benefit’ In FGM Prosecutions

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Female genital mutilation (FGM) is an utterly barbaric practice that has been illegal in the UK since 1985. Despite its legal status, there were 5700 recorded cases of FGM between 2015 and 2016 alone. As of today there is yet to be a single prosecution for this debilitating crime.

For those unfamiliar with this life-changing ‘procedure’.

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Journalist Mona Eltahaway Labels Me A ‘Misogynist Prick’

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My patience is wearing thin with those who assume to tell people which causes they can’t support or have an opinion on due to their location, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender.

It seems a form of identity politics where it’s more important to be seen ‘fighting the good fight’ than it is to actually win the war. It’s going to take more than every woman on this planet to achieve gender equality for instance. Excluding men is counterproductive because if men are the problem they need to be part of the solution too.

There will be many valuable voices in any movement, some with relevant, direct experiences and some without – but it’s going to take more than one particular clique, or a singular political persuasion to make progress on the big issues of our day. This is why sensible allies are vital.

Regardless of whether they have a personal link to the issue, sensible allies can also serve to support, promote and amplify good ideas and challenge the bad ones. And that’s a vital component of influencing changes to attitudes and behaviour. There’s nothing about this view in my mind that prevents one from listening to people directly affected also.

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‘Reza Aslan Cannot Be Trusted’ Video

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I thought it would be worthwhile drawing your attention to a video exposé on our favourite Islamic apologist and ‘scholar’ Reza Aslan.

For those already familiar with Aslan’s particular brand of obfuscation, you will find no new revelations here. However, it’s useful to have them all in one place and presented in a coherent form for the benefit of those who have no idea what Aslan is about. The video covers Aslan’s dubious credentials, his false claims about FGM and his attempts to pull the wool over our eyes on the issue of slavery within Islam. In the wake of any Islamist terror attack on Western soil, I notice an increase in people sharing Aslan’s TV appearances on social networks in order to bolster the harmful ‘nothing to do with Islam’ narrative. Feel free to send this video the way of those you catch doing this.

 

Video by the David Pakman Show

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

You Can’t Fight Segregation and Support Faith Schools Mr. Cameron

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The Conservative Conference is currently taking place in my home city of Manchester. Aside from it playing havoc with my morning commute, David Cameron has had some things of note to say about extremism and religious fundamentalism. There’s a more detailed summary over at The Telegraph, but I thought I’d post some of the paper’s highlights here.

On Jeremy Corbyn

Cameron says, of Corbyn:

“My friends, we cannot let that man inflict his security-threatening, terrorist-sympathising, Britain-hating ideology on the country we love”

Ouch

He also chastises Corbyn for describing the death of Bin Laden as a ‘tragedy’. Full context of that can be found here.

I’ve expressed my own dissatisfaction with the current Labour Leader on a recent episode of Taking The Myth. You can read a bit more about some of my shared concerns in this open letter to him on Left Foot Forward.

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