Link blog: islam, sam-harris, muslim, tom-holland

[nameandnature]

FactCheck: Case dismissed on employment law reform | The FactCheck Blog

"The Beecroft study as it appears in the Telegraph contains little in the way of factual evidence as it stands, so it’s difficult to support the venture capitalist’s assertions that a change in the law on unfair dismissal is needed." Via andrewducker.
(tags: dismissal factcheck law employment beecroft conservatives)

Heresy Corner: Tom Holland: In the shadow of a sword?

Don't examine Islam too closely: "Channel 4 said today that it had cancelled a special screening planned for this Thursday of Islam: the Untold Story, its documentary of last month written and presented by Tom Holland and based on his latest book In The Shadow of the Sword."
(tags: history tom-holland channel4 muslim islam)

Speaking Out Because I Must

"I am shocked but not surprised by the film. I am horrified and really, really pissed off at my Muslim brothers."
(tags: muslim islam)

On the Freedom to Offend an Imaginary God : Sam Harris

"Here is where the line must be drawn and defended without apology: We are free to burn the Qur’an or any other book, and to criticize Muhammad or any other human being. Let no one forget it." "The freedom to think out loud on certain topics, without fear of being hounded into hiding or killed, has already been lost. And the only forces on earth that can recover it are strong, secular governments that will face down charges of blasphemy with scorn. "
(tags: sam-harris islam mohammed koran politics free speech religion)

Sam Harris on the Innocence of Muslims affair | Talking Philosophy

Russel Blackford examines Harris's essay. He gets a couple of commenters telling him that he's a cultural imperialist or doesn't understand the sacred or something, so I waded in.
(tags: religion blasphemy islam russell-blackford sam-harris)

Comments

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Holland's book is very interesting and well worth a read, incidentally - much better than his book on Persia which (after a promising start) spends far too much time on the well-known wars with Greece and not enough on the uniquely Persian. He's skeptical about the Hadith, the role of Mecca, and the illiteracy of Mohammed, but thinks that the Qur'an really does date from the early C7th and that Medina was involved somewhere in the actual events.

Pandas

[wmconnolley.livejournal.com]

> If you don’t want the bear to eat you, train it, don’t panda to it.

Was that deliberate? (I need to know these things).

Re: Pandas

[nameandnature]

Of course :-)