Category Archives: Rant

Chapel Hill Shame Belongs To Reactionaries Like @TheFlowerThrowe AKA @LIFG_4_HRC

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Twitter user @TheFlowerThrowe (Update April 2016 – now changed to @LIFG_4_HRC), or ‘Johnny Spooner’ is an individual often uncharitably described as a ‘CJ Werleman flea’ due to his consistent promotion of Werleman’s articles, and a propensity for attacking Werleman’s detractors. When he isn’t being abusive towards me, he attacks me by way of ‘guilt by association’ – namely the fact that ex-EDL leader Tommy Robinson has been on my podcast.

This is a point he attempts to use against me yet again in a new blog piece he has cobbled together when he states:

‘…new atheist podcaster/blogger Stephen Knight – who also has given a platform to anti-Muslim extremists – takes up the baton, armed only with half-truths and attacks an author for dedicating his book, The New Atheist Threat to the three Chapel Hill victims.  And as these half-truths spread they become whole truths’

I note there is no attempt whatsoever to highlight what these ‘half truths’ are in my piece titled The Views And Potential Motivations Of Craig Hicks. Lazy. Also, as you can see from my comprehensive book review, mere ‘dedication’ is not what I ‘attacked’ Werleman for, but rather it was misrepresentation and exploitation.

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The Views And Potential Motivations Of Craig Hicks

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Yet another school shooting has taken place earlier this week in The USA. How often can you keep labelling these events as ‘shocking’ before ‘routine’ seems more appropriate?

Reports suggest the killer quizzed his victims on their religious convictions before gunning down those identifying as Christians. The usual liberal regressive apologists have been out in force, finger-waving at ‘New Atheism’. And worse, sanctimonious atheists have been penning obnoxious ‘atheists, we need to talk’ type blogs. The fact is: We know very little about this shooting. We also know very little about this killer. All that these over-opinionated individuals are doing is blowing a trumpet in a concerto of uninformed noise.

There may well be many things to discuss with atheists, and non-atheists alike over this horrific mass murder – however, I think the gravity of the event deserves a more responsible approach. It is for this reason I shall wait until there has been an investigation before joining the orchestra.

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The Pope Thanks Kim Davis For Her ‘Courage’

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I’ve never quite understood why many of my fellow secularists fawn over Pope Francis. There seems to be an unexplainable consensus that this Pope is some sort of uber-liberal who’ll spearhead an era of progressiveness within the Catholic Church.

He is no such thing. His public rhetoric may be more palatable, but the edicts and dogma remain the same. This is simply a new era of savvy public relations, rather than anything of actual substance.

This is evidenced in the Pope’s reported sit-down time with Kim Davis recently.

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Warwick University Cancels Maryam Namazie Talk

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UPDATE 28 Sep 2015 – Warwick Student Union have now confirmed Maryam Namazie will speak as originally scheduled, and will be issuing her an apology. My original article is below.

Partially untouched by that compromising crush of the dreary adult life, you could always count on young British students, right or wrong, to quite frankly, not give a shit who they ‘offended’ with their opinions. It seems that’s still true in all but one sense: Islamism.

Maryam Namazie is the latest critic of Islamism to fall afoul of this liberal regressive blind spot. Not for the first time either. The latest episode comes courtesy of  Warwick University Student Union. Maryam was due to give a talk on the 28th of October after an invite from ‘Warwick Atheists, Secularists and Humanists’ Society’.

The student union have now cancelled the talk, justifying their decision by claiming:

“There a number of articles written both by the speaker and by others about the speaker that indicate that she is highly inflammatory, and could incite hatred on campus. This is in contravention of our external speaker policy”.

Maryam Namazie is an ex-Muslim and tireless campaigner for human rights. I’ve been to see Maryam Namazie speak in person. I’ve also interviewed her for The #GSPodcast. Everything she says about Islam and Islamism oozes with an urgent concern for women, children, apostates and Muslims. Not hatred. Whether you agree with her or not, refusing her a platform is another example of an overflowing cesspool of liberal cowardice. It’s particularly laughable that the feelings of a 1.6 billion strong ‘group’ need to be protected here, but the voices of our minority dissenters do not.

On the University’s policy regarding guest speakers, The National Secular Society reports:

Shockingly, the policy states that external speakers on campus must “seek to avoid insulting other faiths or groups, within a framework of positive debate and challenge”.

Maryam Namazie notes:

The Student Union position is of course nothing new. It is the predominant post-modernist “Left” point of view that conflates Islam, Muslims and Islamists, homogenises the “Muslim community”, thinks believers are one and the same as the religious-Right and sides with the Islamist narrative against its many dissenters.

I would encourage people to demand answers from the academic institutions we trust to uphold free speech and critical debate. You can make a complaint to Warwick Student Union here.

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

Hundreds Killed In Hajj Stampede

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In the last few days, scores of people have embarked on the Hajj pilgrimage. Two million Muslims from multiple nations descended on Mecca to complete Islamic rituals.

This has tragically culminated in the death of hundreds.

I’m currently travelling in Greece, meaning access to wi-fi and news is sporadic (check privilege here), but when I first caught the story, the death toll stood at 200 or so. At the time of writing this, it’s closer to 800 – spanning over 5 nationalities. I dread to think what I will find the next opportunity I get to touch base with the modern world.

Any international event involving millions of people is always going to be a logistical and safety nightmare. And everyone has a right to their traditions. However, you can’t help but succumb to a feeling of hopeless incredulity at the sheer pointlessness of it all. If the ideas responsible for this ritual had died some time ago, as they had every obligation to, perhaps these poor people needn’t have done so instead.

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

The Young Turks Link Ahmed Mohamed’s ‘Bomb Clock’ Fiasco To Atheists

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The story of a 14-year-old Muslim boy from Texas who was arrested on suspicion of taking a bomb to school has been widely commented on this week. Poor Ahmed Mohamed, a student who brought his homemade clock project into school, promptly found himself handcuffed and in police custody. Despite telling the teachers in charge that he was in possession of nothing more than a clock, they called in the police anyway. Perhaps in their apparent wisdom they deemed his name too Boko Haramish to take the chance. Who knows?

It’s one of those stories that has you asking: “Really? Surely there must be more to it”. Well, it appears not. It’s also odd that those intuitive enough to identify a potential ‘bomb’ on the premises weren’t proactive enough to evacuate them. This goes some way as to demonstrating how credible they truly considered this ‘threat’.

This kind of unjust treatment is not the best way to encourage and inspire budding young innovators, I hope you will agree. Read more

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