Anthony McIntyre's Blog, page 675

A Morning Thought @ 1328

On #HijabDay, We Are #Free from Hijab

Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) ✒ View posters online marking
1 February #WorldHijabDay's #FreeFromHijab. Feel free to download and use.‘Hijab Day is like FGM or Breast-Ironing Day: a celebration of misogyny and sexism.’ – Maryam Namazie‘Human beings are worthy of respect but not all beliefs must be respected.’ – Maryam Namazie, 1998‘The chador and burqa are like a mobile prison and body

Aron Atabek ✒ Poet, Rebel, Kazakh Samurai

People And Nature ✒ The dissident poet Aron Atabek has died in Kazakhstan, weeks after being released from 15 years as a political prisoner.Atabek, 68, died in hospital on 24 November, where he was being treated for Covid-19. Years in prison, beatings by guards, and long stretches of solitary confinement had taken their toll on his health.Aron Atabek after his release from prison. Photo from

End Times For Beginners!

Dr John Coulter ✒ TPQ Presbyterian minister’s son and religious commentator casts a critical eye over a new book by his schoolboy and university chum, the Christian theologian and missionary M David McKillen on the contentious subject of Biblical prophecy.The Covid pandemic has provided conspiracy theorists with a goldmine of opportunities to spout crazy reasons about who is about to do what

A Morning Thought @ 1327

"Sheer Unadulterated Murder"

Bloody Sunday 50th AnniversaryCoroner Hubert O'Neill at the Inquest into the massacre described the actions of the state terrorists who carried out the killings as "Sheer Unadulterated Murder".The verdict has not changed. It remains as it was when Hubert O'Neill delivered that outcome. An unarmed civilian population was slaughtered on the streets of its own own city in an act of state

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Hundred And Twenty Nine

Ten links to a diverse range of opinion that might be of interest to TPQ readers. They are selected not to invite agreement but curiosity. Readers can submit links to pieces they find thought provoking.Before We Conform, Let Us At Least Be CuriousMeat Loaf: Bat Out of Hell singer dead at 74War With Russia Over Ukraine 'Last Thing' US Needs, Say ProgressivesOpinion | America's Class War: Organized

Best Catholics In The World

New Humanist 🔖 Book review ✑ The Best Catholics In The WorldRichard ScorerA new book traces the collapse of the moral and political authority of the Catholic Church in Ireland.When Pope John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979, he drew an audience of over a million – around a third of the country’s population – to mass in Dublin. Barely three decades later, the moral and political authority of the

Religiously Slaughtered Meat Supply Outstrips Demand, Says Report

National Secular Society ✒ Millions more animals than necessary to meet demand are religiously slaughtered without stunning, according to a recent study.Analysis by the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF) has found the total oversupply of non-stun meat could range between 32% to 278%. This represents between 34 and 99 million animals unnecessarily slaughtered without stunning each year.

White Supremacists, Christian Nationalists Celebrate Existential Threat To Roe At The March For Life

Right Wing Watch ✒ Thousands descended on the National Mall Friday to protest Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling granting women the right to an abortion, which faces an existential threat this year from the Supreme Court’s conservative majority.  Kristen Doerer Joining the students—many of whom arrived in waves from Catholic high schools wearing matching beanies to be easily