Secularism

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Connexions Library

The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles
Article
1997
Principles of secular humanism.
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
Hedges, Chris
Book
2006
Hedges examines the Christian Right's origins, its driving motivation and its dark ideological underpinnings, with interviews and coverage of events such as pro-life rallies and weeklong classes on co...
An anti-clerical policy of Socialism
Luxemburg, Rosa
Article
1903
According to Luxemburg, "the incessant guerrilla warfare waged for the last ten years against the priests is for French middle-class Republicans one of the best ways of turning away the attention of t...
Beyond the Veil
Malik, Kenan
Article
2013
The question of the Muslim veil seems never to leave the headlines for long. The latest controversies have erupted in Britain after a defendant in a criminal trial demanded the right to wear a niqab i...
Bigotry in the Guise of Secularism
Hopkins, Carmen Teeple
Article
2015
The murder at Charlie Hebdo and the Paris kosher supermarket have unleashed a wave of attacks on French Muslim communities, their culture and religion.The analysis by Carmen Teeple Hopkins helps expla...
Broadcast Licenses for Religious Groups
Diemer, Ulli
Article
1999
Religious freedom does not imply the right of any group to use the public airwaves to promulgate their own religious views while excluding all conflicting points of view.
Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State
Fatah, Tarek
Book
2008
According to Tarek Fatah, "Morality is doing what is right, regardless what we are told; Religious dogma is doing what we are told, no matter what is right." Fatah argues that since Islam's advent, th...
Connexions Annual Resource and Reading List
Article
1989
A short and selective list of resources on issues addressed in the Connexions Annual, such as environment, education, peace, interntional development, women's issues, urban issues, housing, human rig...
Connexions Library: Race, Racism, Ethnicity, Multiculturalism Focus
Website
2009
Selected articles, books, websites and other resources on race, racism, ethnicity, multiculturalism, identity.
The Future Belongs to the Blasphemers: A message from ex-Muslims to mark International Blasphemy Day
Article
2017
Some people believe that disagreeing with deeply held beliefs is hate. It is not. I want to remind you that many of the most powerful ideas, ideas that changed our world were once heretical. I want to...
The Great Fear of Israel's Leaders
Spritzler, John
Article
2009
The great fear of Israel's Zionist leaders is that ordinary people in all of historic Palestine, no matter what their religion, will define the struggle against Zionism not as Jew versus non-Jew but a...
In Defence of Democracy
Malik, Kenan
Article
2012
On Jacques Berlinerblau's book How to Be Secular.
The lessons we have learned: Palestine & Iraq: Any Signs of Hope?
Lowi, Henry
Article
2002
A speech on "the peace movement: lessons learned and the way forward." Henry Lowi argues that "There is no sign of hope, for the old prejudices and the old concepts, and there is no hope for the colon...
Married to Another Man: Israel's Dilemma in Palestine
Karmi, Ghada
Book
2007
Karmi argues that Israel has never been able to solve the original and unresolved Zionist quandary of how to create and maintain a Jewish state in a land inhabited by another people. She maintains tha...
The Marxists and the Jewish Question: The History of a Debate 1843 - 1943
Traverso, Enzo (translated by Bernard Gibbons)
Book
1994
Covers the difficult history of European Marxists' efforts to comprehend what "The Jewish Question" was about. The assumption that Jewish life and religion were a historical anachronism, something tha...
Merry Christmas from an Atheist
Malik, Kenan
Article
2006
I probably represent one of Archbishop John Sentanu's worst nightmares - I am not just an 'aggressive secularist' but a militant atheist to boot. But I have a Christmas tree in the house, I've sent ou...
The OIC does not speak for Muslims
Fatah, Tarek
Article
2008
Tarek Fatah says that "To suggest that any criticism of Islamism, the political ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian Ayatollahs, is anti-Islamic is a bogus and fraudulent position. I wou...
On the Second Coming of Religion
Malik, Kenan
Article
2012
The question we should ask is not just: ‘What is it about religion that makes people believe or behave in certain ways?’ It is also: ‘What is it about contemporary societies that draws many people, bo...
Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine
Kovel, Joel
Book
2007
Kovel argues that the inner contradictions of Zionism have led Israel to a 'state-sponsored racism' fully as incorrigible as that of apartheid South Africa and deserving of the same resolution. Only a...
Palestine/Israel: A single state, with liberty and justice for all
Abulhawa, Susan; Baroud, Ramzy
Article
2009
The notion of religious-ethnocentric entitlement and exclusivity for one people at the expense of another has been rejected the world over. Palestinians reject it and we assert that we are human being...
Radical Digressions 2
Diemer, Ulli
Website
1981
Rahul Pandita's New India: A Hindutva India On the Ashes Of Democratic Secular India
Islam, Shamsul
Article
2017
Shamsul Islam responds to the rise of the Hindutva in India and challenges their anti-Muslim propaganda.
The Right to Offend
Bonbnell, Kenneth H.
Article
1990
Humans do have a right to offend other humans, especially in presenting dissent from the views with which many people seem to be very content. This includes those views called religious.
The rise of humanism and secularism in Iran
Namazie, Maryam
Article
2005
The backlash and opposition in Iran is at its essence strongly humanist, secularist and modern. You can see it clearly in the rational, popular, and spontaneous acts and the establishment of hundreds...
The St. Petersburg Declaration
Article
2007
We are secular Muslims, and secular persons of Muslim societies. We are believers, doubters, and unbelievers, brought together by a great struggle, not between the West and Islam, but between the free...
Secularism: Connexipedia Article
Article
The concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.
The Secularization Yet to be Done
Guesde, Jules
Article
1887
The secularization of primary instruction, which our bourgeois republic doesn't want, is nothing but the substitution of one religion for another. It's a matter of placing the capitalist faith instead...
Sharia 'Courts': Why Regulation is Not the Answer
Patel, Pragna
Article
'Sharia' and other religious systems of arbitration are back in the news once again. There appears to be growing recognition of the profoundly discriminatory nature of religious arbitration systems wh...
The Sharia debate in the UK: who will listen to our voices?
Patel, Pragna
Article
2016
Over 300 abused women have signed a statement opposing Sharia courts and religious bodies, warning of the growing threat to their rights and to their collective struggles for security and independence...
The Social Passion: Religion and Social Reform in Canada 1914-28
Allen, Richard
Book
1973
An account of the movement within Canadian protestantism which sought to revive the neglected social dimensions of Christianity and to involve the church in social action.
The Socialist Register 1989: Volume 25: Revolution Today. Aspirations and Realities
Miliband, Ralph; Saville, John (eds.)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1989
Tactics of desperation: Using false accusations of 'anti-semitism' as a weapon to silence criticism of Israel's behaviour
Diemer, Ulli
Article
2009
The Israeli state and its defenders are increasingly attempting to silence critics because they are losing the battle for public opinion.
UK: Walking a tightrope: Between the pro-Islamist Left and the far-Right
Namazie, Maryam
Article
2013
Opposing Sharia and Islamism in the west is like walking on a tight rope most of the time -- thwarting attacks from the Left, refuting cultural relativism, preventing alliances with the far-Right, exp...
Why is Inclusive Mosque so Afraid of Secularism?
Namazie, Maryam
Article
2018
Secularism is merely a framework that separates religion from the state to ensure that religion cannot influence the state and public policy and impose itself on private lives. After all, not everyone...
Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism
Bennoune, Karima
Book
2013
Karima Bennoune interviews 300 people from 30 countries to report on a largely invisible group of people: Muslim opponents of fundamentalism. They remain largely invisible, lost amid the heated cover...
Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight against Muslim Fundamentalism, by Karima Bennoune (Book Review)
Droeber, Julia
Article
2013
Karima Bennoune, a US-based law scholar raised in Algeria, has written an account of the stories of numerous people whose lives have been scarred by Islamic fundamentalism and who decided, using a var...

Connexions Directory of Groups & Websites

Apostates of Islam
An organization of former Muslims.
Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
We, non-believers, atheists, and ex-Muslims, are establishing or joining the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain to insist that no one be pigeonholed as Muslims with culturally relative rights nor deemed...
Education Equality in Ontario
Education Equality in Ontario is a non-governmental human rights organization and education advocacy group. We seek the elimination of religious discrimination and duplication in the Ontario school s...
KenanMalik.com
Kenan Malik's home page. See also blog at http://kenanmalik.wordpress.com. Academically, my main areas of interest are the history of ideas; the history and philosophy of science; the philosophy of m...
JoelKovel.org
Featuring the writings of Joel Kovel on social justice, ecology, Zionism and other topics.
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human right...
Secular Web
The Secular Web is owned and operated by the Internet Infidels, Inc., a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to defending and promoting a naturalistic worldview on the Internet. In the words o...
Winchevsky Centre (Morris Winchevsky School)
The Winchevsky Centre is a progressive secular Jewish community centre offering intergenerational cultural and educational opportunities emphasizing Jewish history and traditions. Programs reflect a s...
Women Against Fundamentalism
Women Against Fundamentalism (WAF) was formed in 1989 to challenge the rise of fundamentalism in all religions. Its members include women from a wide range of backgrounds and from across the world. B...
Women Living Under Muslim Law
WLUML is an international solidarity network that provides information and support for those women whose lives have been shaped by the customs and/or laws of Islam. It extends to more 70 countries and...

Sources Experts & Spokespersons

Sources Library

The Many Roots of Christian Europe
Malik, Kenan
2014
This is a transcript of a I talk I gave yesterday at the LSE Literary Festival. My thanks to Arthur Bradley who also took part and responded to many of the themes I raised here and to Danielle Sands o...

From the Connexions Archives

Muslim Canadian Congress
Website
A grassroots organization that provides a voice to Muslims who are not represented by existing organizations; organizations that are either sectarian or ethnocentric, largely authoritarian, and influe...