Reading Time: 5 minutes I’ve been reading Yuval Harari’s latest book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (UK) and I must say that it is arguably one of the most important books I have ever read (well, listened to in this case). There are so many great nuggets and things to think about in its very digestible pages. For this […]
ISIS
Posted inEthics and Morality, Politics
The UK and the ISIS Members’ Death Penalty
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, recently declared the UK would not get in the way of the US sought to impose the death penalty on two captured infamous ISIS members: The government came under attack from MPs and experts on Monday after it made a “secret and unilateral” change to its stance on the use of […]
Posted inUncategorized
ISIS “have*something* to do with Islam”
Reading Time: 2 minutes There are claims and counter claims that ISIS represent Islam more truthfully, or, indeed, have nothing to do with Islam and are in no way representative of the true (perhaps peaceful) tenets of Islam. I have often been involved in such wranglings. Maajid Nawaz, an ex-radical who now works hard, with Quilliam, to tackle radicalisation, bridges […]
Posted inEducation
5-Year-Olds, Pond Dipping, Innocent Childhoods, and ISIS
Reading Time: 2 minutes Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man, said the Jesuit priest. The other evening, I was lying in bed with one of my five-year-old twins, Finn. He is learning to read, and we were reading a book for early readers called Pond Dipping. We were talking about the […]
Posted inUncategorized
“Raqqa is being slaughtered silently” – A Must Watch
Reading Time: < 1 minute BBC Newsnight featured this incredible video last night which documents the struggle of a few committed journalists in Raqqa who initially fought against the President, but now fight, many in exile, against the impositions of ISIS. It moved me enough to post it here. Powerful, evocative and fascinating. Life can be really shitty for so […]
Posted inUncategorized
Former Yazidi Sex Slaves Form All-Female Battalion ‘Sun Ladies’ to Launch Assault on ISIS
Reading Time: 2 minutes In an interesting devlopment, former Yazidi sex slaves have taken to revenge in forming an all-female battalion to fight their oppressors. As Alalam reports: Hundreds of former ISIS sex slaves have joined an all-female battalion to launch a massive assault against their abusers in Iraq. The Yazidi women – who call themselves the ‘Force of […]
Posted inUncategorized
UN Reports on “Staggering” ISIS Violence
Reading Time: 3 minutes Yes, this is no surprise. But the extent, the sheer volume, of the violence, and the “creativity” enlisted in committing it, is mind-blowing. Some 3,500 people are reported as being enslaved in Iraq alone. The UN has just released a report on the violence committed by ISIS, and one must remember that there are many, […]
Posted inPolitics
The Atlantic vs The Nation on ISIS
Reading Time: 5 minutes Two of the most interesting pieces concerning what has happened with regard to ISIS have come from The Atlantic and The Nation. I advise reading both, especially as The Nation’s piece is an attempt to rebut the first article.
![By Yo (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i0.wp.com/onlysky.media/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/AQMI_Flag.svg_.png?resize=256%2C171&ssl=1)
Posted inEthics and Morality, Politics, The Secular
“True Islam” and violent extremism – redux
Reading Time: 19 minutes I am reposting this in response to the terror attacks in France last night, resulting in the deaths of over one hundred people. As ever, the internet is awash with right-wing shouts to “kill all Muslims” and refugees, to the left-wing shouts that it is the Imperial West to blame and not Islam or Muslims. Neither of these positions are correct. It is obviously thoroughly complex, indeed involving international politics. However, to deny the Qu’ran, Muhammad and the Hadith causal responsibility in these atrocities is to deny the self-determination of those very terrorists who claim that they are doing these actions in the name of Islam and their god.
Posted inPolitics
Quote of the Day – Evan T on ISIS
Reading Time: < 1 minute Evan T made this incisive comment: I wonder when the UN is going to get off their collective asses and decide to do something. Or does ISIS first have to occupy some major oil producing facility? History is finite; every single piece we lose, we can never recover. We’ve already lost so much to ideological […]