Student Union backs down and apologises
In a frank apology on their website, Warwick Student Union admitted they had ‘failed, and failed badly’ over a ban imposed on secular campaigner Maryam Namazie, above. Its climb-down came in the wake...
View Article‘We don’t want your sort in Australia’
Troy Newman, a deranged American anti-abortion activist who has called for doctors who perform terminations to be executed for murder, has been blocked from entering Australia. Newman is the head of...
View ArticleFree speech prize for jailed Saudi blogger
Raif Badawi, languishing in jail in Saudi Arabia for ‘insulting Islam’, has won the Pen Pinter Prize for championing free speech. Badawi is serving a 10-year sentence and received 50 of 1,000 lashes...
View ArticleG W Foote essay contest launched
Today, October 17, is the 100th anniversary the death of George William Foote, founder of the Freethinker. Foote, who launched the Freethinker in 1881, edited the publication until he died, aged 65, in...
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Angry Christians attack atheists
A group of atheists in Bogotá, Colombia, last week decided that they had had enough of religious rallies being staged in a local park without proper authorisation. So, “in defence of public space”,...
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Ad company rejects Sam Harris billboards
A series of billboards, including the one above, have have been rejected by a major Australian outdoor advertising company. The ads were to be posted in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to promote a...
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Islamists butcher Bangladesh publisher
Secular book publisher Faisal Arefin Deepan, above, was found hacked to death inside his office in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka yesterday. On the same day, according to this report, another publisher,...
View ArticleUK charity praises award for Badawi
The UK LGBTI Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) has warmly welcomed the news that Raif Badawi, above, has won the European Parliament’s Sakharov prize for human rights. Badawi is the Saudi...
View ArticleCatholic school bars atheist speaker
A Dublin-based Dominican girl’s secondary school is being asked to reconsider its decision to cancel a talk due to be delivered on November 5 to final years students by Atheist Ireland chairperson...
View ArticleSaudia Arabia imposes death sentence on Palestinian poet
A court in Saudi Arabia this week sentenced Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh, above, to death for renouncing his religious faith. Middle East Eye reports that Fayadh, 50, was handed the sentence on...
View ArticleCatholic Church blasted over attack on press freedom
Italian journalists, Emiliano Fittipaldi, left, and Gianluigi Nuzzi are among five people who are set to go on trial in the Vatican on charges of leaking and publishing secret documents that exposed...
View ArticleRabbi claims Israel is a taboo subject for UK Jewish students
In an op-ed written for the Jerusalem Post, American rabbi Shmuley Boteach complains of having been ‘silenced’ when he tried to tell an audience of Jewish students in London about democracy in Israel...
View ArticleMuslim hooligans target Maryam Namazie’s lecture
After she was branded ‘mindless’ and ‘Islamophobic’ by the Goldsmiths’ Islamic Society (ISOC), secularist and human right’s campaigner Maryam Namazie was subjected to threats and extreme harassment...
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Tyson Fury saga: BBC reporter threatened with suspension
Andy West, above, a gay reporter on BBC Northern Ireland’s Newsline, is in hot water for criticising the broadcaster’s decision to keep Christian loon Tyson Fury on the nominee list for this year’s...
View ArticleChristian Institute & secularists unite to defend free speech
Leading secularists and conservative Christians in the UK have attacked plans to introduce Extremism Disruption Orders next year. According to this report, the National Secular Society and the...
View ArticleCharlie Hebdo angers Vatican with a murderous God cartoon
The Vatican has accused the French satirical magazine of insulting religious people of all faiths by portraying God as a as a gun-toting terrorist on an anniversary cover. The Guardian reports that the...
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Animal rights advocate jailed in Egypt for insulting Islam
Egyptian writer Fatima Naoot, above, has been sentenced to three years in prison for talking about animal rights. According to this report, she was found guilty of insulting Islam after using Facebook...
View ArticleReward for death of Salman Rushdie is renewed in Iran
A new $600,000 bounty for the death of British Indian author Salman RushdieForty has been jointly offered by 40 state-run Iranian media outlets in Iran. According to this report, Fars News Agency,...
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Prominent Saudi journalist jailed over ‘insulting tweets’
Alaa Brinji, above, has been jailed for five years and handed an eight-year travel ban for posting a series of tweets about human rights. He was also fined 50,000 riyals (£9,410). According to this...
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Erdogan is not amused
Free thought is not just thought itself in the narrow sense – it has many components, such as free inquiry, free exploration, free speculation, free discussion, and so on. One important part of free...
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