Showing posts with label Theocratic fascism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Theocratic fascism. Show all posts
Only SkyWhen the US pulled out of Afghanistan, you might have assumed that was the end of the story.

Adam Lee

The Taliban swiftly retook control of the country—and everyone expected that they would reimpose their brutal theocracy. 

They’d ban all heretical pursuits like books, music, sports and education. They’d return Afghanistan to a medieval stasis. Innovation and change would cease, and life would contract to the endless echoing of Qur’anic verses. The ease of their victory over the US-backed government made it seem that they’d achieve all their goals without facing any serious resistance.

However, that proved to be false. It turns out, not even the Taliban can control Afghanistan. A new enemy has arisen to threaten their grasp on power.

The Taliban face an insurgency of their own

In the nearly two years since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, ISIS-K has scaled up the volume and complexity of attacks across the country, putting pressure on the new government and raising concerns in the West about the possible regeneration of a group that could once again pose a serious threat internationally.

…ISIS-K’s recent attacks have largely been aimed at the Taliban . . . 

Continue reading @ Only Sky.

Taliban Vs. ISIS 💣 The Endless Wars Of Religious Fundamentalism

Anthony McIntyre ✒ 'A religion that claims it is able to behave like this, religious leaders who are able to behave like this, and then say this is a religion which must be above any kind of whisper of criticism, that doesn't add up' - Salman Rushdie.

More than three decades after theocratic fascists issued a licence to murder the writer Salman Rushdie, an assailant almost succeeded. A smile brought to a certain face in the grave of Hugh Trevor Roper.

Fortunately, Rushdie was not killed in the attack, inflicted while speaking at a New York event. He is now said by his agent to be on the road to recovery. The pen has survived the knife. The irony lies in Rushdie having been at the event for the purpose of giving a speech on the US as a safe haven for threatened writers. The US not being a safe haven for schoolkids is unlikely to be one for writers who annoy religious fanatics. 

Rushdie's woes began with the 1988 publication of Satanic Verses. Then, much of the Muslim world was convulsed by frenzy and relentlessly battered by wave upon wave of incendiary incitement stoked up by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini:

I inform the proud Muslim people of the world that the author of the The Satanic Verses book which is against Islam, the Prophet and the Koran, and all those involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death. I ask all the Muslims to execute them wherever they find them.

Hate Theology in an unadulterated form. There is nothing in Satanic Verses as offensive as a call to murder. 

Whether the bounty offered at the time of the original fatwa in 1987 by the Hate Ayatollah still stands is not entirely clear. Ten years after the original fatwa the Iranian Foreign Minister stated:

The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention, nor is it going to take any action whatsoever, to threaten the life of the author of The Satanic Verses or anybody associated with his work, nor will it encourage or assist anybody to do so.

However in 2019 Twitter took action against the account of the country's leader which stated that “Imam Khomeini’s verdict regarding Salman Rushdie is based on divine verses and just like divine verses, it is solid and irrevocable.” There really only is one way to impose such nonsense: repression.
 
At the heart of the Rushdie controversy sits the contrived crime of blasphemy.  Rushdie, allowing himself to be drawn onto the Mullahs' ground, denied from the outset that his work amounted to blasphemy:

It’s not true that this book is a blasphemy against Islam. I doubt very much that Khomeini or anyone else in Iran has read the book or more than selected extracts out of context.

He later mumbled an apology which his haters dismissed. 

Not being a particular fan of Rushdie over the years, I have followed his literary odyssey with only passing interest. In 2006 I publicly backed his support for the Danish anti-theocratic cartoons which saw some on the Left side with the theocrats. I found his characterisation apt:

so much of the left always seems to fall for fascist bastards pretending to be speaking on behalf of the masses. They've done it before with communism in its various forms, and here's another bunch of fascist bastards claiming to be speaking for the downtrodden masses, and they're falling for it again.

Paramount is the need to protect his freedom to write, it being vital to a healthy society where ideas flow and are not derailed by some mullah brandishing a Stop sign. 

Most shamefully, within a day of Salman Rushdie almost losing his life for defending freedom of opinion, there has also been the spineless spectacle of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, speaking fluent wankology to justify its banning of the comedian Jerry Sadowitz. 

Victory to the Committee of Public Safety
Long Live the Dictatorship of the Woketariat. 

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Someman Mustdie

Mick Hall @ Organized Rage questions the notion of superior British values.

We do not need lessons in British values from Mrs May: the truth is they're no superior to those of any other nation.

British Values From Theresa May

A statement from Humanists UK on the weekend theocratic fascist attack on civilians in London.

On The London Attacks

Regular TPQ commenter Daithi O’Donnabhain discusses the IS counter offensive in Mosul, their use of child suicide bombers, and suitable responses from the West to what comes after.

Cubs of the Caliphate

Mick Hall argues that in order to defeat the theocratic fascist movement, ISIS, and end the conflict in Syria an agreement will have to be struck with President Assad. Mick Hall is a Marxist blogger @ Organized Rage.

  • The only viable option to defeat Isis and end the Syrian civil war is to reach an agreement with the Assad regime.

     

Defeat ISIS Via Assad

A timely moment in the wake of last night's ISIS slaughter of civilians in Paris to reproduce a speech by Maryam Namazie.

  • Below is my speech “Apostasy, Blasphemy and Free Expression in the Age of ISIS,” which I gave at Warwick University on 28 October 2015. I had been initially barred by the Student Union but the talk went ahead after protests. I gave a similar speech a week earlier at Trinity College Dublin, after my talk had been cancelled by a student group earlier this year after I refused last-minute restrictions on my talk.

Apostasy, Blasphemy And Free Expression In The Age Of ISIS