Talk by Yasmine Mohammed
The tenuous and dangerous living circumstances in Afghanistan following the nation’s fall to the Taliban are dire for many of its citizens, especially atheists and other apostates. […] Those citizens finding meaning in rethinking and rejecting the idea of supernatural entities, including gods, must be as respected as religious believers. […] a consortium of Canada’s many humanist, atheist and agnostic organizations have come together to urgently call upon the government to ameliorate a grave error in the Special Humanitarian Assistance Program for Afghan Nationals.
The Alliance for Secularism (Rassemblement pour la laïcité or RPL) is compelled to respond to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s October 6, 2021 declaration that federal public service employees may be granted immunization exemptions for religious reasons. State religious neutrality is essential, and all the moreso when it comes to public health. “In the context of the current pandemic, the beliefs of some individuals must not be allowed to impact the well-being of others, to the detriment of everyone’s health. This religious exception is not only dangerous, but it also risks exacerbating the cynicism of the population and undermining the government’s vaccination effort” said RPL President Claude Kamal Codsi.[…]
Soheil Arabi is an Iranian atheist initially sentenced to death for ‘insulting the Prophet of Islam’ in Facebook posts. Due to public pressure, his sentence was reduced but he continues to face multiple additional charges in attempts to silence him since his arrest in November 2013.[…]
A Canadian Jewish organization has denounced the Muslim Association of Canada or MAC for inviting an antisemitic speaker to its recent Muslim Student Leadership Conference.[…] The MAC has received a $225,000 grant from the Province of Ontario to combat so-called “Islamophobia” in schools. It has also received a $349,000 grant from the Canadian government in order to address so-called “systemic barriers” to the participation of Muslim girls in sports.
[…]if citizens cannot easily challenge in the courts that a compulsory Protestant prayer in the Australian Senate, as discussed below, is unconstitutional, if that is not simply a statement of fact, that is tantamount to saying the foundations of Australian law are theocratic. The legal cases discussed below provide evidence for this argument.[…]
Recently, in May and June of 2021, the discovery of unmarked graves, on grounds where schools for indigenous children had been located, has acutely shaken Canadians, forcing us to confront a very unsavoury part of this country’s history.[…]
A new book by economist and sociologist Eric Maurin […] sheds new light on the ban on pupils wearing religious symbols in French schools. His investigation concludes that it has resulted in a spectacular, massive and lasting improvement in the school performance of young girls from Muslim families.
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