Hold your breath! UK ex-Muslims to celebrate Blasphemy Day on September 30

Soheil Arabi

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), in a suprise move, has decided to observe September 30 as the Blasphemy Day. In an email alert, Maryam Namazie, CEMB spokesperson, has asked anyone interested to join CEMB in celebrating blasphemy by "uploading your photo into our #blasphemyday frame and sharing on social media."
"If you can’t show your face because it may put you at risk, hide it or leave it blank", Namazie offers an option, adding, "On this day, we reiterate that blasphemy is not a crime. It is part and parcel of freedom of conscience and expression and that ideas don’t need rights, people do."
Then, Namazie says, on November 20, there will be Blasphemous Women Film and Panel Discussion. She say,
"On Saturday November 20 from 6-8 pm, CEMB is screening 'Women Leaving Islam' for the first time in London. After the film, there will be a panel discussion on Blasphemous Women and Equality. Speakers include Somali Ex-Muslim Voices Founder Halima Salat, CEMB spokesperson Maryam Namazie, Youtuber Nuriyeh Khan, clinical psychologist Savin Bapir-Tardy, and writer and Southall Black Sisters activist Rahila Gupta, amongst others. Earlier, on October 3, CEMB proposes to observe Soheil Day. According to Namazie, "Over 140 personalities have called for October 3 to be recognised as International #SoheilDay in solidarity with Soheil Arabi, the atheist political prisoner in Iran who had originally been sentenced to death for a Facebook post. He has been imprisoned since 2013 and has become known as an outspoken advocate of atheism and prisoner rights despite the risks and pressures."
She insists, "Add your signature to the statement calling for #SoheilDay. On October 3, help highlight his case and put pressure on the Islamic regime of Iran to release him immediately and unconditionally."Then on December 10, CEMB will be publishing a poetry anthology on being ex-Muslim, atheist and a freethinker on December 10, International Human Rights Day. Poems related to being ex-Muslim/atheist as well as on Islam, Sharia, religion, fundamentalism, women’s or LGBT rights and other relevant issues are welcome. "If you are a poet, please send any unpublished work by 15 November to hello@ex-muslim.org.uk for consideration", says Namazie.
"Face-to-face meet-ups have begun since August. If you missed CEMB's Ali Malik speaking to Australian ex-Muslim activist Harris Sultan and Youtuber Nuriyeh Khan, you can see videos of the talks here", she says, adding, on November 29-30, she will be speaking at De Balie’s Freethinkers Festival in Amsterdam.
Other events she lists are:
* Signing up to a number of statements in support of women and people of Afghanistan, including "Women Against Taliban" and "Carte blanche: liberté, dignité et fraternité pour l’Afghanistan" in Le Soir.
* Maryam Namazie’s interview in "Dispatches on Global Secular Progress" by Marc Schaus for Humanist Canada Press.
* Ibn Warraq’s 2020 book “Leaving the Allah Delusion Behind: Atheism and Freethought in Islam” documenting atheism in Islam and the rising ex-Muslim movement. In it he writes, “If it were not for Ms. Namazie’s tireless efforts, I doubt if the ex-Muslim atheist movement as a whole would have had the success it is experiencing now.”

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog