Freethought Solidarity Bulletin #9

Freethought Solidarity Bulletin #9
March 11, 2007

This bulletin, edited and produced by Fred Whitehead, Kansas City, Kansas, U.S.A., for the International Committee to Protect Freethinkers (ICPF) is FREE.

Items:

(1) Update on Shoaib Choudhury case, Bangladesh

(2) Abdelkarim Nabil Soliman case, Egypt

(3) Nawal al-Saadawi case, Egypt

(4) Mahmud Sarem case, Syria

(5) News Notes

(6) Quotation of the Day

(7) Resources

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(1) Update on Shoaib Choudhury case, Bangladesh

We have previously reported on this case in our Bulletins. On January 22, when he was to face another trial for his criticisms of government policies, before an Islamist judge, witnesses against him did not appear in court. Thus the case could not go forward, though the charges have not been dropped either. Full information on current developments are available at a support website: http://www.freechoudhury.com/.

(2) Abdelkarim Nabil Soliman case, Egypt

Soliman is the author of a blog critical of the Islamic university of Al-Azhar and policies of President Mubarak. On February 22, he was sentenced to four years in prison, though he is planning to appeal through the courts. Karim has refused to apologize or retract his criticisms. For further details see the website: http://www.freekarim.org/, where it is possible to endorse a petition in his defense.

(3) Nawal al-Saadawi case, Egypt

One of Egypt's most prominent human rights activists, Dr. al-Saadawi is also a physician and distinguished author of several volumes of fiction. Most recently she authored a play, "God Resigns in the Summit Meeting," but the book has been recalled by the publisher, while the Islamic Research Council of Al-Azhar university is planning to file a legal suit against the play on the grounds that it is blasphemous. To lodge a protest, direct e-mail messages to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs at: http://us.f830.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=info@mfa.gov.eg.

(4) Mahmud Sarem case, Syria

In July 2006 Syrian officials rearrested Sarem, a physician, poet and writer for persisting in calls for government reform. In September he was released on bail. For details, go to the website of the Syrian Human Rights Committee: http://www.shrc.org/.

(5) News Notes

In the United States, the Freedom from Religion Foundation headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, has filed a lawsuit critical of official US government funding of religion in the Faith-Based Initiative. This lawsuit is now before the Supreme Court. For latest news on this, go to their website: http://www.ffrf.org/. The FFRF newspaper Freethought Today also regularly reports on this case.

The Guardian newspaper (UK) reported on February 1 that pagan activists entered the Olympian Sanctuary of Zeus in Athens, and conducted rituals. "Not since the late fourth century AD, when the newly Christian Roman state outlawed all forms of pagan worship, had a high priestess officiated on the sacred site." Representatives of the Greek Orthodox Church strenuously protested this event, but according to this article, there may be as many as 2,000 "hard core" followers of paganism in Greece today, with 100,000 sympathizers.

Following the assassination of Turkish newspaper publisher Hrant Dink on January 19, the recent Nobel Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk reportedly has gone into exile in the United States (UPI story, Feb. 14). Also, another Turkish author, Elif Shafak, whose novel "The Bastard of Istanbul" is a "runaway best seller" in her country, had to curtail a planned book tour in America (New York Times, Feb. 10). Shafak is presently a professor at the University of Arizona in the USA.

In Palestine, the Hamas-run Education Ministry has ordered an anthology of Palestinian folk-tales pulled from school libraries and destroyed. Entitled "Speak Bird, Speak Again," this is a collection of 45 folktales. Apparently some 1500 copies of the book have already been destroyed (Associated Press story, reported on the Jihad Watch website, Mar. 5 (http://www.jihadwatch.org/).

The Sugeiro website (http://sugiero.blogspot.com/) reported on Mar. 1 that a new group has formed in Germany, called The National Council of Ex-Muslims. Arzu Toker, deputy chairwoman of the group announced: "I herewith resign from Islam. That's it." She also quoted Nietzsche, and stated that "Islam humiliates women and turns them into servants of the men." The group has also received death threats from Islamists. Their website (presently only in German) is the Zentralrat der Ex-Muslime: http://www.ex-muslime.de/.

A group of Iranian intellectuals published a statement on the recent Holocaust conference sponsored by the government of Iran, calling for recognition that the Holocaust is an undoubted historical fact, and paying homage to "the memory of the millions of Jewish and non-Jewish victims." This appeared in the New York Review of Books on Feb. 15 (www.nybooks.com/articles/19831).

A distinguished group of "secular Muslims" met in St. Peterburg, Florida Mar. 4-5, and issued "The St. Petersburg Declaration" defending "the inviolable freedom of the individual conscience" and "the separation of religion from state and the observance of universal human rights." For the full text and more information on this event, go to: http://secularislam.org/.

Following the dramatic rejection of the proposed European Constitution by voters in the Netherlands and France, proponents have regrouped. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has furthered the effort to include God in the text. Resisting this, a group of politicians and others have produced The Brussels Declaration, calling for government neutrality in matters of religion. The text is available at the IHEU website: http://www.iheu.org/. However, the leading French Freethinkers organization La Libre Penee has declined to endorse this Declaration, stating among other things that it does not acknowledge the extent to which churches already and presently receive a great deal of government funding. This critique is available as a link via the IHEU website.

A signature campaign in defense of the rights of women has been proceeded in Iran. This petition drive is being carried out by 400 young women who then educate others and widen the effort. Some 30,000 have already signed it, in spite of imprisonment and death threats against activists in this cause, among them Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi (New York Times, Feb. 7).

An interesting website, Signandsight, provides regular texts translated into English from the German press. Among the materials indexed are several contributions by intellectuals on the issue of multi-culturalism. Go to: http://www.signandsight.com/.

The February issue of the American Atheist magazine features on its cover a dramatic photograph of a lively demonstration in Paris on Dec. 9, 2006, calling for respect of the separation of church and state in France. The same issue publishes the English translation of the Appeal of the Estates General for Secularism. Additional photographs and documentation are available from the splendidly exemplary website of the Libre Pensee: http://www.librepenseefrance.ouvaton.org/.

(6) Quotation of the Day

"Spain proves that societies do not fall apart when they give up religion and almost everything that was illegal for religious reasons, becomes legal. Moreover I believe that if Spain had not given up on religion it would not have been the success that it is now, as the Catholic Church in Spain was deeply involved in most state activities and acted as a deterrent for progress. For those, mostly in America, who believe that religion somehow makes countries more ethical Spain proves just the opposite. With a good secular and free Kindergarten to University education system Spain has less violent crime, less people in jail and less policemen per inhabitant than mostly religious USA. The key distinction between USA and Spain, or Europe in general, is that while most people in Europe dislike the same activities that people in America dislike but in Europe we don't ask that what we don't like be illegal. Moreover in Europe more people behave ethically than in America not because they fear God. Most people behave ethically because they personally believe in doing what is right."--Martin Varsavsky, "What Happens When a Country Gives Up Religion: as Spain Shows, Nothing Much." Published on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ on Mar. 9.

(7) Resources

Ralph Dumain, an independent scholar and intellectual critic has spent years developing what he calls The Autodidact Project. Among the offerings at the website are many on themes of philosophy, politics, culture and atheism. Go to: http://www.autodidactproject.org/.

The Humanist Society of Scotland publishes a lively magazine, Humanism Scotland, constituting a kind of continuation of the legendary Scottish Enlightenment. Past issues are archived at: http://www.humanism-scotland.org.uk/. The Spring 2006 issue's cover is a photograph of the Hume monument in Edinburgh.

I haven't seen Jack Huberman's new book "The Quotable Atheist" but it has an intriguing subtitle: "Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound," and among its "colorful cast" are to be found voices as diverse as Bjork, George Carlin, Noam Chomsky, Sigmund Freud, the Marquis de Sade and Sarah Silverman. We'll try to obtain a copy for review in a future issue of this Bulletin. It's available from: http://www.nationbooks.org/.

The February 2007 issue of the journal Labor History has a long report on an internet project collating and linking a wide range of resources concentrating on current labor struggles around the world. Eric Lee, the person responsible for the project, founded it in 1998, and it has grown into a network of "hundreds of volunteer correspondents, and circulated in some 20 languages." In the 19th century, the Labor and Freethought movements were often closely allied. Would such an alliance be possible today? For details of this amazing project go to: http://www.labourstart.org/.

Issue #14-15 of the ICPF journal Brave Minds has recently been published, and at more than 100 pages collects materials as diverse as Dr. Fritz Erik Hoevels' provocative essay "Why I Am Not a Rationalist," information on various cases of Freethinkers around the world, book reviews, and a long section of contributions in Arabic (now with useful abstracts in English). The journal editor, and President of the ICPF Dr. Marvin F. Zayed, has also started issuing a "E-report" as a full summary of the journal's contents. For a copy of these reports which include information on how to order the print version of the journal, send an e-mail message to: http://us.f830.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=institute@braveminds.info. The website address is http://www.braveminds.info/.

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