Tag Archives: Maajid Nawaz

Will Mo Shafiq Please Outline The Correct Application Of ‘Blasphemy’ Law?

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I recently wrote about the British Imam from Bradford who openly proclaimed his support for Malik Mumtaz Qadri, a man who gunned down a Pakistani governor named Salman Taseer in the service of ‘blasphemy’. Qadri was executed for this crime last week1, sparking outrage amongst many Muslims who consider Qadri be more of a martyr than a murderer.

Over at The Daily Beast, anti-extremist Maajid Nawaz laments the support for Qadri amongst his fellow Muslims and highlights a number of examples from so-called ‘moderates’.

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  1. I do not support the death penalty or this execution ↩

Taking The Myth – 30 Jan Edition

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This week on Taking The Myth, Stephen Knight and A Scotsman Abroad discuss the big topics with guest callers. We talk about: The man arrested at Disneyland with two guns and a Qur’an, ‘offensive words’ and my open letter to St Andrew’s Primary School. We’ll also be talking about Maajid Nawaz’s peculiar Australian TV appearance. And of course, The ASLAN Awards.

Also available on iTunes and Stitcher.

Support the podcast at www.patreon.com/gspellchecker

Listeners get a free audiobook and trial with Audible at http://www.audibletrial.com/gs



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Maajid Nawaz On Australian TV

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On the heels of a joint speaking engagement down under with Sam Harris, Maajid Nawaz appeared on Australian talk show ‘The Drum’. Non-Australians can now watch this online here.

Firstly, I think it’s great to see liberal, progressive Muslims like Maajid granted a platform on mainstream TV – rather than the usual rent-a-loons that are invited in the service of controversy, rather than discussion.

Nawaz, as always, shared some articulate views on extremism, secularism and the Islamist narrative. This brings me to another guest and ‘Human Rights Campaigner’, Sarah Saleh.

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Keep in mind what Maajid Nawaz stands for and speaks clearly about on this TV appearance: anti-extremism, freedom of expression, human rights and secularism. Saleh’s response? She summarises Nawaz’s position as ‘extreme’. She also appears to have a hard time accepting that theocracy is a bad idea. “Surely you agree theocracy is wrong?” asks Nawaz. “Do I need to?” responds Saleh. At least she was helpful insofar as demonstrating the problem we have with so-called ‘moderate Muslims’.

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 ‘Voldemort Effect’ Claims Rufus Hound As Its Victim

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As information continues to pour in and the body count increases, I’m gripped with an utter sense of grief, frustration and impotence over the horrific terror attacks that have occurred in France. Seemingly, the information we do have appears to point towards Islamist extremism. Quelle surprise.

In an attempt to offset my feeling of hopelessness, I couldn’t help but take to Twitter to poke my fellow ‘liberals’ about their disgusting apologist rhetoric in service of the ideology that shall not be named  – lest we hurt some feelings.

This brings me to UK comedian and former Liberal Democrat campaigner Rufus Hound. Rufus has 1.12 million Twitter followers and has been engaging in a regressive bout of ‘nothing to do with Islam’ on his Twitter feed. To compound matters, he decided to retweet this from our favourite plagiarist hack:

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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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Taking The Myth – 04 Oct Edition

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This week on Taking The Myth, Stephen Knight and A Scotsman Abroad discuss the big topics with guest callers. Topics include: The UCC Oregon shooting, Craig Stephen Hicks and The Pope. Dean Obeidallah and The Pope are this week’s ASLAN contenders. A Scotsman Abroad also blames something on religion. We also pay our respects to Glen Carrigan. Also, correction – ‘Rand’ is a male name…

Also available on iTunes and Stitcher.

Support the podcast at www.patreon.com/gspellchecker

Listeners get a free audiobook and trial with Audible at http://www.audibletrial.com/gs


Direct Mp3 Download

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