UK
A Legoland theme park in Windsor, England said it had to cancel an Islamic group’s “fun day” and temporarily close for business following a torrent of abusive threats from right wing extremists.
TUNISIA
A blogger sentenced to seven years in prison for posting cartoons deemed insulting to the prophet Muhammad in 2012 was pardoned and released from prison.
MEXICO
Yakiri, a young woman sent to prison for killing her rapist, is out on bail. She will now be tried for “excess of legitimate defense.” If found guilty, she could face up to 10 years in prison.
VATICAN CITY
Pope Francis said “dick” during a Papal address to thousands in St Peter’s Square. That was clearly an accident. But what he said about no-one doing more to root out pedophelia than the Catholic church, that was on purpose.
KENYA (via Ateorizar)
A pastor has ordered all female congregants to go to the church without bras and panties so they are free in body and spirit to receive Christ.
COSTA RICA
The Supreme Elections Tribunal ruled against the Costa Rican Evangelical Alliance Federation, finding that this political party violated Costa Rica’s ban on religious propaganda leading up to the elections when it took out a paid advertisement urging voters to cast their ballots according to their religious beliefs.
Featured image source.
So much for the good pope. That’s a real whopper.
The guy is likeable, but he gets too much credit just for being less horrible than the last two guys.
Well, Popey may be right (“We’re number one! We’re number one!”), but they’ve definitely led the way in replanting those roots…
I have been deeply disappointed at the way the cancellation of the Legoland must weekend has been treated by the atheist/freethought movement especially its intersectionality-orientated subdivisions. The cancellation of any event because of threats by right wingers is always a massive cause for concern. The fact that this cancellation has passed completely without comment on the main social justice atheist forums is evidence of the rapidly increasing marginalisation of muslim issues within social justice circles. Islamophobia has reached the status of being almost completely a taboo subject, one that a lot of people with extensive experience of social justice issues seem increasingly uncomfortable even talking about.
I think islamophobia is, if not the highest, then one of the very highest issues issues that any social justice movement needs to grapple with in 2014, in order to retain credibility in talking about the other pressing issues – feminism, LGBTQi freedom etc. We can’t pick and choose the issues we fight for equality on, and I do feel this one is being swept under the carpet. This is a tendency that seems to have become embedded in the last few months.
Personally, I am reeling in shock at the cancellation of the muslim family weekend. The news coverage of it has been highly incidental of a “now the rest of the news” nature. As far as I can tell no major politician in the UK has commented on it at all or at least no more than a few words. Apart from some not-very-convincing comments from police, the impression given by all commentators is that the right-wingers who achieved this outcome by intimidation and threats are going to be allowed to get away with it. I believe there has been a lot of complicity in the silence, especially in areas the atheist community that should be shouting the loudest.
If I am mistaken, and there has been a lot of comment and coverage somewhere I have not found yet, I apologize. Please someone point me to where the actual discussion has been taking place.
I’ve seen it mentioned in several places, but only in passing. Even the news item I’m linking to is only a paragraph long. If there’s a larger conversation about this issue somewhere, I’m not aware of it (and, to be fair, I haven’t looked for it either). If you do find something, let us know!
Thanks Daniela, will do