Switzerland to ban wearing of burqa and niqab in public places, Philip Oltermann, The Guardian, 2021-03-07. Switzerland will follow France, Belgium and Austria after narrowly voting in a referendum to ban women from wearing the burqa or niqab in public…
Atheist Freethinkers
Philosophical Materialism, Critical Thought, Secularism
Category: In the News
News articles
In the News:
Launch of Prix de la laïcité Guy-Rocher
Le gouvernement du Québec lance le prix de la laïcité Guy-Rocher (The Quebec Government launches the Guy-Rocher Secularism Prize), Cabinet of the Minister of Justice and the Attorney-General, Gouvernement du Québec, 2021-03-06. Click to view full size Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette…
In the News:
Montreal: Death Threats to Impose the Veil
Menaces de mort pour le port du voile (“Death Threats to Impose Wearing the Veil”), Michael Nguyen, Journal de Montréal, 2021-03-03. A Montréal Muslim man told his four daughters that he would kill them if they stopped wearing the Islamic…
In the News:
Petition to End Discrimination Against Atheist Refugees
Petition e-3114 (Citizenship and immigration), Parliament of Canada, 2021-01-25. Several organizations—CFI Canada, Humanist Canada and Secular Connexion Séculière—have initiated a parliamentary petition asking that atheist refugees, not just religious, be eligible for refugee status under the “Less Complex Claims” policy.…
In the News:
Neoracist Propaganda at Radio-Canada
Radio-Canada: la rééducation, Sophie Durocher, Journal de Montréal, 2021-02-12. According to columnist Sophie Durocher, employees at Radio-Canada (the French-langage CBC) are now required to take special training to become more “inclusive,” to recognize their unconscious biases and “privileges” and to…
In the News:
Call to Repeal the Concordat in Alsace-Moselle
Loi séparatisme: il est temps d’abroger le concordat d’Alsace-Moselle (“Separatism Law: It is Time to Repeal the Concordat in Alsace-Moselle”), Alexis Corbière, Huffington Post France, 2021-02-10. The author of the above article argues that it is inconsistent to allow a…
In the News:
AAI Obtains Freedom for Umar Farouk in Nigeria
Story from an email of Atheist Alliance International (AAI), 2021-02-09. Click to view full size Umar Farouk leaving prison Last week our lawyers in Nigeria succeeded in quashing two convictions for blasphemy in the Shariah State of Kano. The first…
In the News:
In France, A Teacher Denounces the Islamist Threat
Menacé de mort après avoir défendu Samuel Paty, un professeur témoigne (“Threatened with Death for Having Defended Samuel Paty, A Teacher Testifies”), Idèr Nabili, LCI, 2021-02-07. A philosophy teacher Didier Lemaire in the French town of Trappes, outside Paris, is…
In the News:
Indonesia bans forced religious attire in schools
Indonesia bans forced religious attire in schools, BBC, 2021-02-05. Indonesia has banned public schools from making religious attire compulsory, after the story of a Christian student being pressured to wear a headscarf in class went viral. The 16-year-old girl was…
In the News: AAI’s John Richards Interviews David Rand, UPDATE
Interview: David Rand, Canada, John Richards, AAI Youtube channel, 2020-06-22. Previous video: In the News: AAI’s John Richards Interviews David Rand about Quebec Bill 21 Please donate to our Legal Fund: Legal Fund, Fundraising Campaign for our Court Intervention in…
In the News: AAI’s John Richards Interviews David Rand about Quebec Bill 21
John Richards, Publications Director of Atheist Alliance International (AAI) and editor of AAI’s magazine Secular World, interviews David Rand, president of Atheist Freethinkers, about Quebec’s secularism law, Bill 21: Interview: David Rand, Canada, John Richards, AAI Youtube channel, 2020-05-02. Follow-up…
In the News: AAI Fundraiser: Free Mubarak Bala
#Free Mubarak Bala, Fundraiser by Atheist Alliance International (AAI), Facebook. Mubarak Bala, President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria has been arrested on a charge of blasphemy. He was arrested in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria. Sources say he will be taken…
Tagged with: AAI
In the News: Sudan Criminalizes FGM
Sudan criminalises female genital mutilation, as campaigners welcome a ‘new era’ for women’s rights in the country, Ryan Fahey, Daily Mail, 2020-05-01. Sudan has criminalised female genital mutilation (FGM), making it punishable by three years in jail, a move campaigners…
In the News: Sikhs Must Respect Workplace Helmet Rules
Supreme Court won’t hear Sikh truck drivers’ challenge to workplace helmets, The Canadian Press, 2020-04-30. The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear a case from Sikh truck drivers seeking exemption from wearing protective helmets upon exiting their vehicles at…
In the News: Archives Show Pope Pius Knew about the Holocaust
Wartime Vatican archive shows how much Pius knew about the Holocaust, says researcher, Tom Heneghan, Religion News Service, 2020-04-27. PARIS (RNS) — The long-awaited opening of Pope Pius XII’s wartime records only lasted a week before the coronavirus shut the…
In the News: Je suis Mila: Even in France, insulting Islam is taboo
Je suis Mila: A French teenager has been mobbed on Twitter, forced out of school and investigated by police for insulting Islam., Fraser Myers, Spiked, 2020-02-07. A 16-year-old has become the most hated girl in France after she criticised Islam…
In the News: Kazimierz Lyszczynski Foundation Calls for Nominations for Atheist of the Year
Atheist of the Year 2020 Contest: Call for nominations, Nina Sankari, Fundacja im. Kazimierza Łyszczyńskiego, 2020-02-01. Kazimierz Lyszczynski Foundation is pleased to announce that the Atheist of the Year Award is already held for the seventh time in Warsaw. The…
In the News: US Congressional Hearings on Blasphemy, Heresy and Apostasy Laws
Humanist Witness Provides Testimony at Congressional Hearing on Blasphemy’s Impacts, American Humanist Association, 2020-01-28. (Washington, DC, January 28, 2020) — On Tuesday, American Humanist Association Policy Manager Rachel Deitch read congressional testimony on behalf of the AHA from Rafida Bonya…
In the News: Council of Europe Rejects Religious Accommodation
Council of Europe rejects recommendation on reasonable accommodation, European Humanist Federation (EHF), 2020-01-29. Brussels, 29 January 2020 – The European Humanist Federation (EHF) welcomes the rejection of the recommendation on “The protection of freedom of religion or belief in the…
In the News: Complete Revision of ERC Planned
Quebec to abolish ethics and religious culture course, to make way for ’21st-century themes’ , Laura Marchand, CBC News, 2020-01-10. The Coalition Avenir Québec government plans to abolish the ethics and religious culture (ECR) course currently offered in Quebec schools.…
In the News: MLQ Intervenes in Court For Bill 21
Pro-Bill 21 group wins round in court challenge, Presse Canadienne, Montreal Gazette, 2020-01-09. A pro-secularism group has obtained leave from Quebec Superior Court to intervene in one of the legal challenges to Bill 21, Quebec’s secularism legislation. The Mouvement laïque…
In the News: Ireland’s Blasphemy Law Finally Gone
Ireland no longer has a blasphemy law, Atheist Ireland, 2020-01-02. We start the new decade with the good news that Ireland no longer has the medieval crime of blasphemy in our laws. Over the Christmas period, President Michael D Higgins…
In the News: Clergy Excluded from Order of Precedence in Quebec
Le clergé écarté de l’ordre de préséance pour les cérémonies publiques au Québec (Clergy Excluded from Order of Precedence for Official Ceremonies in Quebec), Marie-Michèle Sioui, Le Devoir, 2019-11-22. Catholic Church authorities will no longer have precedence over Members of…
In the News: Freedom of Thought Report 2019 from Humanists International
Blasphemy laws exist in 69 countries, report finds, National Secular Society (NSS), 2019-11-13. Sixty-nine countries have blasphemy laws and penalties have hardened in parts of the world in recent years, according to a report on the status and rights of…
In the News: Alberta Conscience Rights Bill Threatens Access to Abortion and Other Health Services
Dissent grows over Alberta conscience rights bill as MLAs vote for more consultation, Nadine Yousif, The Star Edmonton, 2019-11-18. A controversial bill that deals with conscience rights for healthcare workers who refuse to provide care on moral or religious grounds…
