Now Heina Dadabhoy Joins FtB!

Self-pic of the Beautiful Heina Dadabhoy.I promised two more awesome women would be joining FtB this week, and lo, here is the second: my good friend (and one of my favorite bloggers) Heina Dadabhoy (and that’s “hee-nuh dad-uh-boyâ€?), also a queer poly ex-Muslim (though her background is interestingly different from Krisht’s). She’s migrated a year of stuff to her new blog Heinous Dealings. And now just launched her provocative inaugural post on her perfectly respectable exhibitionism. She has always been delightfully frank about this before in my company, so no surprise to me, but she has the audacity to defend the philosophy of it…hence my assessment of the awesome. Definitely challenge yourself by reading more of her stuff!

Hiba Krisht Joins FtB!

Photos of Hiba Krisht side-by-side, at left her past Muslim self fully covered in a hijab, only her face showing, at right her new godless self showing glorious curled hair and bare shoulders. A queer, poly, ex-Muslim woman has joined our blog network. Formerly pen-named Marwa Berro to blog confidentially, she is now going public with her real identity, Hiba Krisht (and that’s hib- not heeb-), and moving her blog here. Check it out: Between a Veil and a Dark Place. Her inaugural post is a must-read. It will get you fully up to speed on this remarkable woman and what she’ll be contributing here that you might want to keep up on. She also does freelance Arabic translation (to or from English) on contract, so if you have need of that service, check her out for that, too. She has an impressive resume.

Two more groovy women will be joining our network this week. Stay tuned!

Bread and Roses: Help Support the Fight for Freedom in Iran

Maryam Namazie, a renowned voice for the freethought movement worldwide and our colleague here at Freethought Blogs, has been running an online television news program for audiences interested in, and those engaged in, the long fight for political freedom and justice in Iran. With episodes in English and Persian, it’s a well produced and valuable service, especially to many in Iran, but also across the world. But their equipment is aging and they need to get new stuff. They are short of their June 16 fundraising target. So please see if you can give any little amount you can spare, and spread the word in case others can, too. Namazie’s full explanation (and how to donate, and see the show) is on her blog here. Check it out!

-:-

P.S. Some of you may object to Namazie’s politics, as I somewhat do, although they aren’t Soviet, and her video program is about promoting freedom, not Stalinism. I think we can all support that objective, and let Iranians democratically decide how to organize their society as long as basic freedoms are guaranteed. That’s what she wants. And it’s what I want. And it’s what this video program can help make happen. It certainly gives some justified hope and recognition to political dreamers and dissidents in Iran, and to ex-pats the world over who would like one day to go home.

Pat Condell Gets Seriously Fucking Pwned

Oh snap. This. Is. Beautiful.

For those who don’t know, Pat Condell is primarily known in our community because Dawkins likes and endorses him repeatedly. Condell is everywhere billed as a “comedian and atheist internet personality,” I suppose because he doesn’t have any actual qualifications in anything (beyond that). He’s sort of like the Rush Limbaugh of criticizing Islam. Indeed, so far as I can tell, that’s Condell’s only substantive contribution to the atheist movement. And getting a hundred thousand Likes for it.

Now, Condell has said some really stupid and ignorant things before, demonstrating his tremendous and epic failure to adhere to even the most rudimentary principles of skepticism (like “check your facts” and “be suspicious of extraordinary claims”). Avicenna has pwned him (and exposed his implicit racism and ethnophobia). PZ Myers has pwned him (and exposed his implicit racism and ethnophobia).

But now it’s just straight off world’s end into the abyss, as Alex Gabriel meticulously demonstrates (with, you know, facts) that in Condell’s latest right wing rant he could not have provided a clearer or more consistent example of…

  • Not knowing what the fuck he is talking about (while arrogantly claiming he’s the one who knows what he’s talking about).
  • Why criticism of Islam needs to be Way Fucking More Nuanced than his racist, ethnophobic bullshit (and, through Gabriel’s deconstruction of it, how to actually effect such a nuanced critique).
  • Why Dawkins needs to start listening to smarter friends who Actually Know What They’re Talking About (given that Dawkins repeatedly praises Condell as the man to heed on this issue).
  • How not to do skepticism (and, amusingly, giving Gabriel a superb opportunity to demonstrate how to do skepticism really well).

Alex’s takedown (with its even more beautiful and educational and extensive statistics addendum) is a tour de force of admirable measure. I cannot fathom how anyone so brutally and thoroughly exposed as wrong about nearly everything he says, and wrong for no plausibly good reason (thus demonstrating that it is very probably bigotry driving his rants and not, say, facts), and never apologize and correct it, can continue to have anyone’s respect in the atheism, humanism, or skepticism communities.

In a world using objective outcome measures, Condell would be done and dusted. Sadly, too many people in the atheism, humanism, or skepticism communities replace objective facts with subjective feelings and defend their Brave Heroes rather than admit when they’ve destroyed their own credibility and their entire efforts have been exposed as a factophobic sham. Condellians will probably pepper my comments with defensive screeds somehow trying to restore Condell’s bullet-riddled body in logic-space to some semblance of crypto-ethnophobic zombie life. Just not with actual facts or logic. (Or they’ll just attack me with complete non sequiturs that don’t even defend their Hero, like I’ve seen them do time and again to others.)

There are lots of things wrong with Islam. But there are lots of things wrong with Christianity, too. And fascism. And poverty. And superstition. And ignorance. And bigotry.

Don’t listen to the Rush Limbaugh of Islamocriticism anymore. Please. Listen to people who know what they’re talking about, and aren’t ignorant ethnophobic bigots. We have at least six blogs on our network with contributors who have extensive experience with or knowledge of Islam and Muslims, some of them by or featuring actual ex-Muslims. I’m sure if you take the trouble to explore our roster you’ll find them (yes, I’m challenging you to do that…assuming you haven’t already!). Hear what they have to say instead.