Secularism is the separation of a government, organisation or institution from religion and/or religious beliefs.

In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and the right to freedom from governmental imposition of religion upon the people within a state that is neutral on matters of belief. (See also Separation of church and state and Laïcité.) In another sense, it refers to the view that human activities and decisions, especially political ones, should be unbiased by religious influence. (See also public reason.) Some scholars are now arguing that the very idea of secularism will change.

Secularism draws its intellectual roots from Greek and Roman philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius and Epicurus, medieval Muslim polymaths such as Ibn Rushd, Enlightenment thinkers like Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Benedict Spinoza, John Locke, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine, and modern freethinkers, agnostics and atheists such as Bertrand Russell and Robert Ingersoll.

The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely. In European laicism, it has been argued that secularism is a movement toward modernization, and away from traditional religious values (also known as "secularisation"). This type of secularism, on a social or philosophical level, has often occurred while maintaining an official state church or other state support of religion. In the United States, some argue that state secularism has served to a greater extent to protect religion from governmental interference, while secularism on a social level is less prevalent. Within countries as well, differing political movements support secularism for varying reasons.

Overview

The term "secularism" was first used by the British writer George Holyoake in 1851. Although the term was new, the general notions of freethought on which it was based had existed throughout history. In particular, early secular ideas involving the separation of philosophy and religion can be traced back to Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and the Averroism school of philosophy. Holyoake invented the term "secularism" to describe his views of promoting a social order separate from religion, without actively dismissing or criticizing religious belief. An agnostic himself, Holyoake argued that "Secularism is not an argument against Christianity, it is one independent of it. It does not question the pretensions of Christianity; it advances others. Secularism does not say there is no light or guidance elsewhere, but maintains that there is light and guidance in secular truth, whose conditions and sanctions exist independently, and act forever. Secular knowledge is manifestly that kind of knowledge which is founded in this life, which relates to the conduct of this life, conduces to the welfare of this life, and is capable of being tested by the experience of this life."

Barry Kosmin of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture breaks modern secularism into two types: hard and soft secularism. According to Kosmin, "the hard secularist considers religious propositions to be epistemologically illegitimate, warranted by neither reason nor experience." However, in the view of soft secularism, "the attainment of absolute truth was impossible and therefore skepticism and tolerance should be the principle and overriding values in the discussion of science and religion."

State secularism

In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of religion and government (often termed the separation of church and state). This can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion, replacing laws based on scripture (such as the Torah and Sharia law) with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion. This is said to add to democracy by protecting the rights of religious minorities.

Secularism is often associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and plays a major role in Western society. The principles, but not necessarily practices, of separation of church and state in the United States and ''Laïcité'' in France draw heavily on secularism. Secular states also existed in the Islamic world during the Middle Ages (see Islam and secularism).

Due in part to the belief in the separation of church and state, secularists tend to prefer that politicians make decisions for secular rather than religious reasons. In this respect, policy decisions pertaining to topics like abortion, contraception, embryonic stem cell research, same-sex marriage, and sex education are prominently focused upon by American secularist organizations such as the Center for Inquiry.

Most major religions accept the primacy of the rules of secular, democratic society but may still seek to influence political decisions or achieve specific privileges or influence through church-state agreements such as a concordat. Many Christians support a secular state, and may acknowledge that the conception has support in Biblical teachings, particularly Jesus' statement, "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." (See article). However, some Christian fundamentalists (notably in the United States) oppose secularism, often claiming that there is a "radical secularist" ideology being adopted in current days and see secularism as a threat to "Christian rights" and national security. The most significant forces of religious fundamentalism in the contemporary world are Fundamentalist Christianity and Fundamentalist Islam. At the same time, one significant stream of secularism has come from religious minorities who see governmental and political secularism as integral to preserving equal rights.

Some of the well known states that are often considered "constitutionally secular" are USA, France, India, Mexico South Korea, and Turkey although none of these nations have identical forms of governance.

Secular society

In studies of religion, modern Western societies are generally recognized as secular. This is due to the near-complete freedom of religion (beliefs on religion generally are not subject to legal or social sanctions), and the lack of authority of religious leaders over political decisions. Nevertheless, religious beliefs are widely considered a relevant part of the political discourse in many of these countries. This contrasts with other Western countries where religious references are generally considered out-of-place in mainstream politics.

The nature of a secular society could characterize a secular society as one which:

# Refuses to commit itself as a whole to any one view of the nature of the universe and the role of man in it. # Is not homogenous, but is pluralistic. # Is tolerant. It widens the sphere of private decision-making. # While every society must have some common aims, which implies there must be agreed on methods of problem-solving, and a common framework of law; in a secular society these are as limited as possible. # Problem solving is approached rationally, through examination of the facts. While the secular society does not set any overall aim, it helps its members realize their aims. # Is a society without any official images. Nor is there a common ideal type of behavior with universal application.

Positive Ideals behind the secular society

# Deep respect for individuals and the small groups of which they are a part. # Equality of all people. # Each person should be helped to realize their particular excellence. # Breaking down of the barriers of class and caste.

Modern sociology has, since Max Weber, often been preoccupied with the problem of authority in secularized societies and with secularization as a sociological or historical process. Twentieth-century scholars whose work has contributed to the understanding of these matters include Carl L. Becker, Karl Löwith, Hans Blumenberg, M.H. Abrams, Peter L. Berger, Paul Bénichou and D. L. Munby, among others.

Some societies become increasingly secular as the result of social processes, rather than through the actions of a dedicated secular movement; this process is known as secularization.

Secular ethics

George Holyoake's 1896 publication ''English Secularism'' defines secularism as:

Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life, founded on considerations purely human, and intended mainly for those who find theology indefinite or inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. Its essential principles are three: (1) The improvement of this life by material means. (2) That science is the available Providence of man. (3) That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good.

Holyoake held that secularism and secular ethics should take no interest at all in religious questions (as they were irrelevant), and was thus to be distinguished from strong freethought and atheism. In this he disagreed with Charles Bradlaugh, and the disagreement split the secularist movement between those who argued that anti-religious movements and activism was not necessary or desirable and those who argued that it was.

Contemporary ethical debate is often described as "secular", with the work of Derek Parfit and Peter Singer, and even the whole field of contemporary bioethics, having been described or self-described as explicitly secular or non-religious.

Organizations

Groups such as the National Secular Society (United Kingdom) and Americans United campaign for secularism are often supported by Humanists. In 2005, the National Secular Society held the inaugural "Secularist of the Year" awards ceremony. Its first winner was Maryam Namazie, of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran.

Another secularist organization is the Secular Coalition for America. The Secular Coalition for America lobbies and advocates for separation of church and state as well as the acceptance and inclusion of Secular Americans in American life and public policy. While Secular Coalition for America is linked to many secular humanistic organizations and many secular humanists support it, as with the Secular Society, some non-humanists support it.

Local organizations work to raise the profile of secularism in their communities and tend to include secularists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, and humanists under their organizational umbrella.

Student Organizations, such as the Toronto Secular Alliance, try to popularize nontheism and secularism on campus. The Secular Student Alliance is an educational nonprofit that organizes and aids such high school and college secular student groups.

In Turkey, the most prominent and active secularist organization is Atatürk Thought Association (ADD), which is credited for organizing the Republic Protests – demonstrations in the four largest cities in Turkey in 2007, where over 2 million people, mostly women, defended their concern in and support of secularist principles introduced by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Leicester Secular Society founded in 1851 is the world's oldest secular society.

See also

Agnosticism

Anticlericalism

Atheism

Antitheism

Civil religion

Clericalism

Concordat

Deism

Freethought

Humanism

Ignosticism

Laïcité

Multiculturalism

Naturalism

Nontheism

Pluralism

Political Catholicism

Postsecularism

Pseudo-Secularism

Rationalism

Religious toleration

Secular humanism

Secular state

Secularism in Bangladesh

Secularism in India

Secularism in Iran

Secularism in Turkey

Secularism (South Asia)

Secularity

Secularization

Separation of church and state

Six Arrows of Kemal Atatürk

State atheism

Contrast:

Theocracy

Religious police

References

Further reading

;Secular ethic

Boyer, Pascal (2002). ''Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought.'' ISBN 0-465-00696-5

Cliteur, Paul (2010). ''The Secular Outlook: in defense of moral and political secularism.'' ISBN 978-4443-3521-7

Dacey, Austin (2008). The Secular Conscience: Why belief belongs in public life. ISBN 978-1-59102-604-4

Holyoake, G.J. (1898). ''The Origin and Nature of Secularism.'' London: Watts & Co.

Jacoby, Susan (2004). ''Freethinkers: a history of American secularism''. New York: Metropolitan Books. ISBN 0-8050-7442-2

Nash, David (1992). ''Secularism, Art and Freedom''. London: Continuum International. ISBN 0-7185-1417-3 (paperback published by Continuum, 1994: ISBN 0-7185-2084-X)

Royle, Edward (1974). ''Victorian Infidels: the origins of the British Secularist Movement, 1791–1866''. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0557-4 Online version

Royle, Edward (1980). ''Radicals, Secularists and Republicans: popular freethought in Britain, 1866–1915''. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0783-6

Asad,Talal(2003). " Formations Of The Secular: Christianity,Islam,Modernity ". Stanford University Press. ISBN 08047-4768-7

Taylor, Charles (2007). ''A Secular Age''. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02676-6

;Secular society ''See also the references list in the article on secularization''

Berger, Peter L. (1967) ''The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Chadwick, Owen (1975). ''The Secularization of the European mind in the nineteenth century''. Cambridge University Press.

Cox, Harvey (1996). ''The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective''. NY: Macmillan.

Kosmin, Barry A. and Ariela Keysar (2007). ''Secularism and Secularity: Contemporary International Perspectives''. Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture. ISBN 978-0-9794816-0-4; ISBN 0-9794816-0-0

Martin, David (1978). ''A General Theory of Secularization''. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-18960-2

Martin, David (2005). ''On Secularization: Towards a Revised General Theory''. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5322-6

McLeod, Hugh (2000). ''Secularisation in Western Europe, 1848–1914''. Basingstoke: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-59748-6

Wilson, Bryan (1969). ''Religion in Secular Society''. London: Penguin.

King, Mike (2007). ''Secularism. The HIdden Origins of Disbelief''. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co. ISBN 9780227172452

;Secular state

Adıvar, Halide Edip (1928). "The Turkish Ordeal". The Century Club. ISBN 0-830-50057-X

Benson, Iain (2004). "Considering Secularism." in Farrows, Douglas(ed.)."Recognizing Religion in a Secular Society" McGill-Queens Press. ISBN 0773528121

Blancarte, Roberto (2006). "Religion, church, and state in contemporary Mexico." in Randall, Laura (ed.). ''Changing structure of Mexico: political, social, and economic prospects''. [Columbia University Seminar]. 2nd. ed. M.E. Sharpe. Chapter 23, pp. 424–437. ISBN 978-0765614056.

Cinar, Alev (2006). "Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey: Bodies, Places, and Time". University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-816-64411-X

Cliteur, Paul (1010). ''The Secular Outlook: in defense of moral and political secularism.'' ISBN 978-4443-3521-7

Juergensmeyer, Mark (1994). ''The New cold war?: religious nationalism confronts the secular state''. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08651-1

Schmitt, Karl M. (1962). "Catholic adjustment to the secular state: the case of Mexico, 1867–1911." ''Catholic Historical Review'', Vol.48 (2), July, pp. 182–204.

Urban, Greg (2008). "The circulation of secularism." ''International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society'', Vol. 21, (1–4), December. pp. 17–37.

External links

Iain Benson"Considering Secularism"

Secularism 101: Religion, Society, and Politics

SecularSites

SSRC Blog on Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere

Category:The Enlightenment Category:Religion and politics Category:Religion and society Category:Political philosophy Category:Atheism Category:Agnosticism Category:Freethought

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Coordinates	62°08′″N65°23′″N
birth name	Alan Morton Dershowitz
alt	photograph
birth date	September 01, 1938
birth place	Brooklyn, New York
nationality	American
ethnicity	Jewish
education	Brooklyn College (A.B.) Yale Law School (LL.B)
occupation	Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
spouse	1. Sue Barlach 2. Carolyn Cohen
parents	Harry and Claire Dershowitz
website	www.alandershowitz.com

Alan Morton Dershowitz (born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history. He has held the Felix Frankfurter professorship there since 1993.

Dershowitz is known for his involvement in several high-profile legal cases and as a commentator on the Arab–Israeli conflict. As a criminal appellate lawyer, he has won 13 of the 15 murder and attempted murder cases he has handled, and has represented a series of celebrity clients, including Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst, and Jim Bakker. His most notable cases include his role in 1984 in overturning the conviction of Claus von Bülow for the attempted murder of his wife, Sunny, and as the appellate adviser for the defense in the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995.

A political liberal, he is the author of a number of books about politics and law, including ''Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case'' (1985), the basis of the 1990 film; ''Chutzpah'' (1991); ''Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case'' (1996); ''The Case for Israel'' (2003); ''Rights From Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights'' (2004) and ''The Case for Peace'' (2005).

Early life

Dershowitz was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to Harry and Claire Dershowitz, an Orthodox Jewish couple, and was raised in Borough Park. His father was a founder and president of the Young Israel Synagogue in the 1960s, served on the board of directors of the Etz Chaim School in Borough Park, and in retirement was co-owner of the Manhattan-based Merit Sales Company. According to Dershowitz, Harry had a strong sense of justice and talked about how it was "the Jew's job to defend the underdog."

Dershowitz's first job was at a deli factory on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1952, at age 14. He recalls tying the strings that separated the hot dogs and once getting locked in the freezer. He attended Yeshiva University High School, where he played on the basketball team. He was a rebellious student, often criticized by his teachers. The school's career placement center told him he had talent and was capable of becoming an advertising executive, funeral director, or salesman. He later said his teachers told him to do something that "requires a big mouth and no brain ... so I became a lawyer." After graduating from high school, he attended Brooklyn College and received his A.B. in 1959. Next he attended Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the ''Yale Law Journal'', and graduated first in his class with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 1962. He has been a member of a Conservative minyan at Harvard Hillel, but is now a secular Jew. He is married to Carolyn Cohen and has three children.

Career

After being admitted to the bar, Dershowitz served as a clerk for David L. Bazelon, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He said that "Bazelon was my best and worst boss at once ... He worked me to the bone; he didn't hesitate to call at 2 a.m. He taught me everything—how to be a civil libertarian, a Jewish activist, a mensch. He was halfway between a slave master and a father figure." During the 1963–1964 term, he served as law clerk for the Supreme Court Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg. He told Tom Van Riper of ''Forbes'' that getting a Supreme Court clerkship was probably his second big break; his first was when, at age 14 or 15, a camp counselor told him he was smart but that his mind operated a little differently. He joined the faculty of Harvard Law School as an assistant professor in 1964, and was made a full professor in 1967 at the age of 28, at that time the youngest full professor of law in the school's history. He was appointed Felix Frankfurter professor of law in 1993.

Much of his legal career has focused on criminal law, and his clients have included high-profile figures such as Patty Hearst, Harry Reems, Leona Helmsley, Jim Bakker, Mike Tyson, Michael Milken, O.J. Simpson and Kirtanananda Swami. He sees himself as a "lawyer of last resort"—someone to turn to when the defendant has few other legal options—and takes those cases that are what he calls "the most challenging, the most difficult and precedent-setting cases." He is currently advising Julian Assange's legal team.

Recognition

Dershowitz has been described by ''Newsweek'' as America's "most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights." He was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1979, and in 1983 received the William O. Douglas First Amendment Award from the Anti-Defamation League for his work on civil rights. In November 2007, he was awarded the Soviet Jewry Freedom Award by the Russian Jewish Community Foundation. In December 2011, he was awarded the Menachem Begin Award of Honor by the Menachem Begin Heritage Center at an event co-sponsored by NGO Monitor. He has been awarded honorary doctorates in law from Yeshiva University, the Hebrew Union College, Monmouth University, University of Haifa, Syracuse University, Fitchburg State College, Bar-Ilan University, and Brooklyn College. In addition, he is a member of the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor.

Cases

Pornography (1976)

In 1976, Dershowitz handled the successful appeal of Harry Reems, who had been convicted of distribution of obscenity resulting from his acting in the pornographic movie ''Deep Throat''. In public debates, Dershowitz commonly argues against censorship of pornography on First Amendment grounds, and maintains that consumption of pornography is not harmful.

Claus von Bülow (1984)

Dershowitz represented Claus von Bülow, a British socialite, at appeal for the attempted murder of his wife, Sunny von Bülow, who died in 2008 after going into a coma in Newport, Rhode Island in 1980. He had the conviction overturned, and von Bülow was acquitted in a retrial. Dershowitz told the story of the case in his book, ''Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow case'' (1985), which was turned into a movie in 1990. Dershowitz was played by actor Ron Silver, and Dershowitz himself had a cameo role as a judge.

Józef Glemp (1989)

In 1989, Dershowitz filed a defamation suit against Cardinal Józef Glemp, then Archbishop of Warsaw, on behalf of Rabbi Avi Weiss. Glemp had accused Weiss and six other New York Jews of attacking nuns at a much-disputed convent on the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Glemp's statement about Weiss, made in July 1989, was coupled with suggestions that Jews control the world's news media. Dershowitz's account of the lawsuit appears in his book ''Chutzpah'' (1991).

Mike Barnicle (1990)

Dershowitz sued ''The Boston Globe'' in 1990 over a remark reporter Mike Barnicle attributed to him, in which Dershowitz allegedly said he preferred Asian women because they are deferential to men. Dershowitz reportedly received a $75,000 out-of-court settlement and the newspaper's ombudsman questioned Barnicle's credibility, according to ''The Boston Phoenix''.

O.J. Simpson (1995)

Dershowitz acted as an appellate adviser to O.J. Simpson's defense team during the trial, and later wrote a book about it, ''Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case'' (1996). He wrote: "the Simpson case will not be remembered in the next century. It will not rank as one of the trials of the century. It will not rank with the Nuremberg trials, the Rosenberg trial, Sacco and Vanzetti. It is on par with Leopold and Loeb and the Lindbergh case, all involving celebrities. It is also not one of the most important cases of my own career. I would rank it somewhere in the middle in terms of interest and importance." The case has been described as the most publicized criminal trial in American history.

Jeffrey Epstein (2006)

Dershowitz provided legal assistance to friend and reported billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was investigated following accusations that he had repeatedly solicited sex from minors. Dershowitz investigated some of Epstein's accusers and provided both the police and the State attorney’s office with a dossier containing information about their personal behavior, which had been obtained from their personal MySpace pages, including allegations of alcohol and drug use. Eventually, in 2008, Epstein plead guilty to a single state charge of soliciting prostitution and began serving an 18-month sentence.

Views

On Israel

While Dershowitz is an outspoken supporter of Israel, Dershowitz self-identifies as "Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestine". Dershowitz engaged in highly publicized debates with a number of other commentators, including Meir Kahane, Noam Chomsky, and Norman Finkelstein. When former U.S. President Jimmy Carter had his book ''Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid'' (2006) published—in which he argues that Israel's control of Palestinian land is the primary obstacle to peace—Dershowitz challenged Carter to a debate at Brandeis University. Carter declined, saying, "I don't want to have a conversation even indirectly with Dershowitz. There is no need to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine." Carter did address Brandeis in January 2007, but only Brandeis students and staff were allowed to attend. Dershowitz was invited to respond on the same stage only after Carter had left.

He also took part in the Doha Debates at Georgetown University in April 2009, where he spoke against the motion "this House believes it's time for the US to get tough on Israel," with Dore Gold, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Speakers for the motion were Avraham Burg, former Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and former Speaker of the Knesset; and Michael Scheuer, former Chief of the CIA Bin Laden Issue Station. Dershowitz's side lost the debate, with 63 percent of the audience voting for the motion.

Harvard-MIT divestment petition

Randall Adams of ''The Harvard Crimson'' writes that, in the spring of 2002, a petition within Harvard calling for Harvard and MIT to divest from Israel and American companies that sell arms to Israel gathered over 600 signatures, including 74 from the Harvard faculty and 56 from the MIT faculty. Among the signatures was that of Harvard's Winthrop House Master Paul D. Hanson, in response to which Dershowitz staged a debate for 200 students in the Winthrop Junior Common Room. He called the petition's signatories antisemitic, bigots, and said they knew nothing about the Middle East. "Your House master is a bigot," he told the students, "and you ought to know that." Adams writes that Dershowitz cited examples of human rights violations in countries that the United States supports, such as the execution of homosexuals in Egypt and the repression of women in Saudi Arabia, and said he would sue any professor who voted against the tenure of another academic because of the candidate's position toward Israel, calling them "ignoramuses with Ph.D.s."

"New Response to Palestinian Terrorism" (2002)

In March 2002, Dershowitz published an article in ''The Jerusalem Post'' entitled "New Response to Palestinian Terrorism." In it, he wrote that Israel should announce a unilateral cessation in retaliation, at the end of which it would "announce precisely what it will do in response to the next act of terrorism. For example, it could announce the first act of terrorism following the moratorium will result in the destruction of a small village which has been used as a base for terrorist operations. The residents would be given 24 hours to leave, and then troops will come in and bulldoze all of the buildings." The list of targets would be made public in advance. The proposal attracted criticism from within Harvard University and beyond. James Bamford argued in ''The Washington Post'' that it would violate international law. Norman Finkelstein wrote that "it is hard to make out any difference between the policy Dershowitz advocates and the Nazi destruction of Lidice, for which he expresses abhorrence—except that Jews, not Germans, would be implementing it."

Norman Finkelstein

Shortly after the publication of Dershowitz's ''The Case for Israel'' (2003), Norman Finkelstein of DePaul University said the book contained plagiarism. He offered several examples, one of which was a quote from Mark Twain appearing on pages 23–24 of ''The Case for Israel'', which he said was the same as one on pages 159–160 of ''From Time Immemorial'' by Joan Peters, including with the ellipses in the same place. Dershowitz said the quote was taken from Mark Twain, to whom he gave credit. Harvard's president, Derek Bok, investigated the allegation and determined that no plagiarism had occurred.

In early 2004 it was announced that Dr Finkelstein would publish a study rebutting Professor Alan Dershowitz’s ''The Case for Israel'' and documenting that extensive passages in his book had been plagiarized. Dershowitz and his attorneys entered into a protracted correspondence with the publisher, originally New Press and subsequently University of California Press also involving Governor Schwarzenegger. Dershowitz had pressured the publishers suppressing the release of ''Beyond Chutzpah'', yet refused to release his correspondence – indeed, falsely claiming that he had released it. Later in 2007 a California Public Records Act (CPRA) request was made to the University of California Press and the letters were released.

In October 2006, Dershowitz wrote to DePaul University faculty members to lobby against Finkelstein's application for tenure. The university's Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty voted to send a letter of complaint to Harvard University. In June 2007, DePaul University denied Finkelstein tenure.

Mearsheimer and Walt

In March 2006, John Mearsheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, Professor of International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, co-wrote a paper entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," published in ''The London Review of Books''. Mearsheimer and Walt criticized what they described as "the Israel lobby" for influencing U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East in a direction away from U.S. interests and toward Israel's interests. They referred to Dershowitz specifically as an "apologist" for the Israel lobby. In an interview in March 2006 for ''The Harvard Crimson'', Dershowitz called the article "one-sided" and its authors "liars" and "bigots." The following day on MSNBC's ''Scarborough Country'', he suggested the paper had been taken from various hate sites: "every paragraph virtually is copied from a neo-Nazi Web site, from a radical Islamic Web site, from David Duke’s Web site." Dershowitz subsequently wrote a report challenging the paper, arguing that it contained "three types of major errors: quotations are wrenched out of context, important facts are misstated or omitted, and embarrassingly weak logic is employed." In a letter in the ''London Review of Books'' in May 2006, Mearsheimer and Walt denied that they had used any racist sources for their article, writing that Dershowitz had offered no evidence to support what they said was his false claim.

2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

In July 2006, Dershowitz wrote a series of articles defending the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. There was an international outcry at the time regarding escalating Lebanese civilian deaths and the destruction of civilian infrastructure resulting from Israel's stated attempt to weaken or destroy Hezbollah. After the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour indicated that Israeli officials might be investigated and indicted for possible war crimes, Dershowitz labeled her statement "bizarre," called for her dismissal, and wrote about what he called the "absurdity and counterproductive nature of current international law." In a ''Boston Globe'' editorial several days later, he argued that Israel was not to blame for civilian deaths: "Israel has every self-interest in minimizing civilian casualties, whereas the terrorists have every self-interest in maximizing them—on both sides. Israel should not be condemned for doing what every democracy would and should do: taking every reasonable military step to stop the killing of their own civilians."

Second Amendment and the U.S. Constitution

Dershowitz is strongly opposed to firearms ownership and the Second Amendment, and supports repealing the amendment, but he vigorously opposes using the judicial system to read it out of the Constitution because it would open the way for further revisions to the Bill of Rights and Constitution by the courts. "Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a public safety hazard don't see the danger in the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like."

Views on torture

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Dershowitz published an article in ''The San Francisco Chronicle'' entitled "Want to Torture? Get a Warrant," in which he advocated the issuance of warrants permitting the torture of terrorism suspects, if there were an "absolute need to obtain immediate information in order to save lives coupled with probable cause that the suspect had such information and is unwilling to reveal it." He argued that authorities should be permitted to use non-lethal torture in a "ticking time bomb scenario," and that it would be less destructive to the rule of law to regulate the process than to leave it to the discretion of individual law-enforcement agents. He favors preventing the government from prosecuting the subject of torture based on information revealed during such an interrogation. The "ticking time bomb scenario" is the subject of a play, ''The Dershowitz Protocol'', by Canadian author Robert Fothergill, in which the American government has established a protocol of "intensified interrogation" for terrorist suspects.

William F. Schulz, Executive Director of the U.S. section of Amnesty International, found Dershowitz's ticking-bomb scenario unrealistic because, he argued, it would require that "the authorities know that a bomb has been planted somewhere; know it is about to go off; know that the suspect in their custody has the information they need to stop it; know that the suspect will yield that information accurately in a matter of minutes if subjected to torture; and know that there is no other way to obtain it." James Bamford of ''The Washington Post'' described one of the practices recommended by Dershowitz—the "sterilized needle being shoved under the fingernails"—as "chillingly Nazi-like."

Animal rights

Dershowitz is one of a number of scholars at Harvard Law School who have expressed their support for limited animal rights. In his ''Rights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights'' (2004), he writes that, in order to avoid human beings treating each other the way we treat animals, we have made what he calls the "somewhat arbitrary decision" to single out our own species for different and better treatment. "Does this subject us to the charge of speciesism? Of course it does, and we cannot justify it, except by the fact that in the world in which we live, humans make the rules. That reality imposes on us a special responsibility to be fair and compassionate to those on whom we impose our rules. Hence the argument for animal rights."

Books

1982: ''The Best Defense''. ISBN 978-0-394-50736-1. 1985: ''Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case''. ISBN 978-0-394-53903-4. 1988: ''Taking Liberties: A Decade of Hard Cases, Bad Laws, and Bum Raps''. ISBN 978-0-8092-4616-8. 1991: ''Chutzpah''. ISBN 978-0-316-18137-2. 1992: ''Contrary to Popular Opinion''. ISBN 978-0-88687-701-9. 1994: ''The Advocate's Devil'' (fiction). ISBN 978-0-446-51759-1. 1994: ''The Abuse Excuse: And Other Cop-Outs, Sob Stories, and Evasions of Responsibility''. ISBN 978-0-316-18135-8. 1996: ''Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case''. ISBN 978-0-684-83021-6. 1997: ''The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identity for the Next Century''. ISBN 978-0-316-18133-4. 1998: ''Sexual McCarthyism: Clinton, Starr, and the Emerging Constitutional Crisis''. ISBN 978-0-465-01628-0. 1999: ''Just Revenge'' (fiction). ISBN 978-0-446-60871-8. 2000: ''The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice that Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law''. Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-446-67677-9. 2001: ''Letters to a Young Lawyer''. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-01631-0. 2001: ''Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514827-5. 2002: ''Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge''. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09766-5. 2002: ''Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age''. Little Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-18141-9.

2003: ''The Case for Israel''. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-46502-7

2003: ''America Declares Independence''. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-26482-8. 2004: ''America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles That Transformed Our Nation''. Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-446-52058-4. 2004: ''Rights From Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights''. ISBN 978-0-465-01713-3. 2005: ''The Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can be Resolved''. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-74317-0); . 2006: ''Preemption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways''. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06012-6. 2007: ''Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence''. ISBN 978-0-470-08455-7. 2007: ''Finding Jefferson: A Lost Letter, a Remarkable Discovery, and the First Amendment in an Age of Terrorism''. ISBN 978-0-470-16711-3.

2008: ''Is There a Right to Remain Silent?: Coercive Interrogation and the Fifth Amendment After 9/11''. ISBN 978-0-19-530779-5.

2008: ''The Case Against Israel's Enemies: Exposing Jimmy Carter and Others Who Stand in the Way of Peace''. ISBN 978-0-470-37992-9.

2009: ''Mouth of Webster, Head of Clay'' essay in ''The Face in the Mirror: Writers Reflect on Their Dreams of Youth and the Reality of Age''. ISBN 978-1-59102-752-2.

2009: ''The Case For Moral Clarity: Israel, Hamas and Gaza''. ISBN 978-0-9661548-5-6.

2010: ''The Trials of Zion''. ISBN 978-0-446-57673-4.

Notes

Further reading

Upham, S. Phineas (ed.). ''Philosophers in Conversation: Interviews from the Harvard Review of Philosophy'', Routledge, 2002, pp. 64–70.

Berkow, Ira. ''Court Vision: Unexpected Views on the Lure of Basketball'', University of Nebraska Press, 2004, pp. 207–216.

Dershowitz, Alan (ed.). ''What Israel Means to Me: By 80 Prominent Writers, Performers, Scholars, Politicians, and Journalists'', John Wiley & Sons, 2007, pp. 1–6.

Goldberg, Elizabeth Swanson. ''Beyond Terror: Gender, Narrative, Human Rights'', Rutgers University Press, 2007, pp. 88–95, 101.

Loewenstein, Antony. ''My Israel Question'', Melbourne University Press, 2007.

Dershowitz, Alan. "Echoes of 1938" in Helmreich, William B.; Rosenblum, Mark; Schimel, David. (eds.). ''The Jewish Condition: Challenges and Responses — 1938–2008'', Transaction Publishers, 2008, pp. 39–44.

Norwood, Stephen H.; Pollack, Eunice G. (eds.). ''Encyclopedia of American Jewish History'' (Volume 1), ABC-CLIO, 2008, pp. 53–54.

Rejali, Darius. ''Torture and Democracy'', Princeton University Press, 2009.

External links

Alan Dershowitz at ''The Huffington Post'' (June 2005– ). Dershowitz's blog.

Alan M. Dershowitz Faculty directory entry at Harvard Law School, incl. hyperlinked "Bibliography."

.

Alan M. Dershowitz Official website. (Top menu features hyperlinks to his biography and selected publications.)

Interview with Alan Dershowitz from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Alan M. Dershowitz Personal group space at Gather.com.

SWINDLE Magazine Interview

Alan Dershowitz debates Meir Kahane 1985

Alan Dershowitz Playlist Appearance on WMBR's ''Dinnertime Sampler'' May 11, 2005

Category:1938 births Category:Living people Category:People from Brooklyn Category:American lawyers Category:American legal writers Category:American legal scholars Category:Criminal defense lawyers Category:Jewish American writers Category:Brooklyn College alumni Category:Yale Law School alumni Category:Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Category:Harvard Law School faculty Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:O. J. Simpson murder case Category:Interdisciplinary Center faculty Category:Zionists Category:People associated with the American Civil Liberties Union Category:Writers on Zionism Category:Scholars of antisemitism Category:Historians of Israel Category:Academic scandals Category:Animal rights advocates

az:Alan Derşovitz da:Alan Dershowitz de:Alan M. Dershowitz fr:Alan Dershowitz it:Alan Dershowitz he:אלן דרשוביץ pt:Alan Dershowitz ru:Дершовиц, Алан fi:Alan Dershowitz sv:Alan Dershowitz uk:Алан Дершовіц yi:עלען דערשאוויץ

Coordinates	62°08′″N65°23′″N
name	Darrel Wayne Ray
birth name	Darrel Wayne Ray
birth date	August 24, 1950
birth place	Wichita, Kansas
nationality	American
ethnicity	White American
education	MA, Ed. D.
alma mater	Friends University, Scarritt College for Christian Workers , Peabody College of Vanderbilt University
occupation	Organizational psychologist, Author
years active	1978–present
genre	Non-fiction
subject	Religion, Organization development
notable works	The God Virus

Darrel Wayne Ray (born 1950) is a writer and speaker on leadership and organizational development and author of two books on the topic. He is the author of the book ''The God Virus: How Religion Affects Our Lives and Culture''. Ray is founder of the organization "Recovering Religionists", a national self-help group for those leaving their religious indoctrination. In May 2011, he published the survey ''Sex and Secularism: What Happens When You Leave Religion?''.

Early life and education

Ray was raised a fundamentalist Christian in Wichita, Kansas by parents who eventually became missionaries, and among family members highly involved in church life.

In 1972, he earned a bachelor's degree in sociology/anthropology at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, and in 1974 he completed an MA in Church and Community at Scarritt College for Christian Workers in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1978 he finished a doctoral program in psychology at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, earning his Ed.D.

In 1979, Ray joined the Quaker church and later he attended the Presbyterian church. From 1969 to 1984 he taught Sunday school, preached, and was a tenor soloist in several church choirs. He left the church in the mid 1980s.

Books

''Teaming up: making the transition to a self-directed, team-based organization'' (1995). ISBN 978-0-0705-1646-5

''The performance culture: maximizing the power of teams'' (2001). ISBN 978-0-9709-5050-5

''The God Virus: How Religion Affects Our Lives and Culture'' (2009). ISBN 978-0-9709-5051-2

Research

In May 2011, Ray and Amanda Brown (an undergraduate at University of Kansas studying sex and sexuality) released the results of a self-reporting online survey of over 14,500 American secularists, titled "Sex and Secularism: What Happens When You Leave Religion?", concluding that sex improves dramatically after leaving religion, and people who are religious exhibit similar sexual behaviors as the non-religious, but experience markedly increased guilt. The study has been criticized for suffering from self-selection bias, due to its recruiting of participants via the science blog Pharyngula.

References

External links

The God Virus book website

Recovering Religionists

Sex and Secularism - press release and full report

Atheist Nexus profile - Darrel Ray

Category:Articles created via the Article Wizard Category:American atheists Category:American social sciences writers Category:Atheism activists Category:Criticism of religion Category:Living people Category:Friends University alumni Category:Peabody College alumni

Coordinates	62°08′″N65°23′″N
name	Julie Bindel
birth place	United Kingdom
occupation	Columnist, political commentator, cultural critic
nationality	British
period	Early twenty-first century
genre	Advocacy journalism
subject	Women's rights, feminism, lesbian feminism
movement	Feminism and LGBT rights movement
influences	Andrea Dworkin
website	http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/juliebindel guardian.co.uk/profile/JulieBindel }}

Julie Bindel (born 1962) is an English writer, feminist and co-founder of the group Justice For Women, which opposes violence against women from a feminist viewpoint.

She is described as a "Marmite writer", in that readers tend either to love or hate her work, and is a freelance journalist whose work regularly appears in ''The Guardian''. She writes non-fiction including news articles; interviews; as well as columns, reviews and editorial pieces. Her primary areas of interest are lesbian rights, opposition to the sex industry, modern anti-trafficking campaigns and defending female victims of domestic violence. Bindel, who has been involved in feminist law reform campaigns for victims of domestic violence, originally began writing as a way to get the message across to the wider public. Bindel is also openly lesbian and has shared her views and been quoted regarding sexual identity and sexual orientation issues and refers to herself as a political lesbian feminist.

As of 2009 she resides in Crouch End and has written about the area. In August 2010 she entered the Independent's "Pink List" as ninety-eighth of the top 101 most influential gay and lesbian people in the UK.

Early career, activism and research

Julie Bindel was a teenager in Leeds when she became involved in feminism in 1979, through meeting feminists who were then campaigning about sexual violence and the complacency of the police at the time of the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe. "The Yorkshire Ripper case was my reason for becoming a campaigner against sexual violence". Sutcliffe was convicted for murdering thirteen women between 1975-1980. She states, "I was angry, like many others, that the police only really seemed to step up the investigation when the first 'non-prostitute' was killed." Bindel was angry about the police's advice for women to stay indoors although many had jobs which required them to be out after dark; she was also not happy about the police's assertions in 1979-1980 that sex workers were the killer's target even though, from May 1978 onwards, all the victims were not sex workers by trade. Bindel took part in feminist protests against the killings including flyering mock-up police notices for men to stay off the streets for the safety of women. She continued campaigning against sexual violence, and worked as an unpaid feminist activist working for women's rights. In the 1990s she attended London Metropolitan University as an undergraduate.

In 1990, Bindel was a co-founder of Justice for Women (JFW), a group which opposes violence against women from a feminist viewpoint. "Justice For Women is a feminist organisation that campaigns and supports women who have fought back against or killed violent male partners". They are concerned with issues of mariticide arising from domestic abuse. JFW offer welfare advice, campaign on domestic violence, abused women who kill violent partners, immigration rights, and the dangers women face with the rise of religious fundamentalism. JFW "campaign for changes in the defences to murder so that they encompass and reflect women's experiences of domestic violence."

Bindel's writing on cyberstalking, where a victim is humiliated or threatened with unwelcome email messages at work or to professional associates, has been cited by academics. In 2006 Bindel wrote of a personal pact regarding rape and how rape victims are re-victimized by being "identified, vilified and even crimialised." She shared that if she were raped at the time she would likely not report it to the police because of these concerns.

Bindel's activism is reflected in her contribution to research and writing on feminist issues, violence against women, and prostitution; she was a researcher at both Leeds and London Metropolitan Universities, being the assistant director of the research unit on violence and abuse at Leeds. Her writing features in books and reports she has authored, edited, contributed to, or been quoted in, and these are detailed in the bibliography.

Journalism

Bindel's journalistic writing began while she was Assistant Director of the Research Centre on Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations at Leeds Metropolitan University. She was first published by ''The Independent'' newspaper in 1998 concerning prostitution in the UK. According to her writing, the life and death of her friend Emma Humphreys in 1998 led her into journalism. Bindel had campaigned for Emma to be acquitted and released from prison following Emma's conviction for the murder of a violent pimp.

In 2001 she began writing an occasional column for ''The Guardian'', from the start covering gay and lesbian issues, child protection, prostitution and violence against women. From October 2003, her contributions in ''The Guardian'' became more frequent, and she wrote about the main themes that concerned her: rape, child sexual abuse, domestic violence, men who murder women, men who murder partners, child protection, sex offenders, prostitution, gay and lesbian issues, broader LGBT issues including transsexualism and reassignment surgery, human trafficking, sex tourism, women who murder violent men, and lesbian issues. Her style is often controversial. During her time at ''The Guardian'', Bindel also broadened her range of topics to include vegetarianism, Barbie, Sylvia Pankhurst memorial, and wrote columns on Andrea Dworkin, Sheila Jeffreys and Louis Armstrong.

In March 2006 ''The Guardian'' started the 'Comment is Free' section of its website which encourages the response of readers. Bindel's articles have occasionally received comments in the hundreds, and the focus of her 'hates' that started with vegetarians also encompassed the Arsenal football team, was soon followed by men who rape and abuse women. In 2006 her output increased. Some of her writing has voluminous comments, such as on prostitution (311), rape (352), drug rape (403), women murdered by violent partners (348), transsexualism (203), and LGBT inclusion (374). In January 2009, her espousal of radical lesbian feminism attracted the most comments (560) for her writing at that time.

Domestic violence and murder

Bindel's writing on the issue of violence against women in domestic and personal relationships with men has featured in her journalism from the start, and continues to do so.

In 2008 her activism and writing coincided when the issue she had campaigned on for over a decade became the focus of government legislation. Since the death of Emma Humphreys, who she helped to get released from prison, Bindel had sought to get a law changed that had historically protected men and penalised women. If men murdered a partner in the heat of the moment, an appeal to 'provocation' had been admissible in mitigation. Such an appeal was not practical for women trapped in violent relationships, because murders carried out in the context of ongoing subjection to violence tended not to occur in the heat of the moment, but would be often be calculated as a solution which provided an escape from violence. Bindel's campaign against violence against women on the one hand sought to resist the mitigation men could appeal to when partners were murdered, and allow the sustained violence women could be subjected to act as a mitigating factor if they murdered their partner. Harriet Harmen, Minister for Women and Equality, was of a similar mind on this issue, and legislation was proposed that would change the law to this effect. Bindel explained her support for this legislation in her column. Erin Pizzey, one of the early founders of women's refuges, was critical of the new law, and other newspapers leveled their criticisms at both Harman and Bindel.

Using titles like "Why I hate men" and "Why men hate me", Bindel has discussed her views on men, violence, and the way men relate to women, and what is revealed in their comments about her writing.

Sex work, trafficking and sex tourism

Bindel has written and worked on issues concerning prostitution and sex work since 1998, and this is reflected in her Guardian writing.

In 2008 Bindel co-authored a report commissioned by the POPPY Project on British brothels, named ''Big Brothel'' (a play on the title of the Channel 4 reality TV program ''Big Brother''). The report found that unprotected anal sex was available from £10, and penetrative sex from £15, in over 900 brothels operating as legitimate business across every borough in London; many of the premises involved offered "very young girls", but denied any were under age, and many of the women were from Eastern Europe and South East Asia. Bindel wrote about the findings in her Guardian column, describing experiences such as those of a young woman having sex with twenty men a day, and discussed Harriet Harman's (UK Minister for Women and Equality) plans to make paying for sex illegal.

The report was criticised by 27 leading academics involved in sex work research, claiming that the report was carried out without formal academic ethical approval, without acknowledgement of existing sources, and co-authored by a journalist with anti-prostitution views. The POPPY project responded that the report was one they produced independently, that the POPPY project was not an academic institution, and because significant media attention was usually lacking in this area of research it was important to provide a counterbalance to the positive media focus on the sex industry.

Transsexualism and transgenderism

Bindel's writings on gender reassignment surgery, transsexualism and transgender issues have upset people in transsexual and transgender communities, particularly the 2004 piece that cast transsexual people as ungenuinely transitioning while ridiculing their experiences.

Bindel's first published article on transsexualism was a December 2003 ''Sunday Telegraph Magazine'' report; it was the first example of coverage of a narrative of 'transsexual regret' in the UK media. Bindel interviewed 'Claudia', a post-operative transsexual, who regretted her decision to have surgery and felt that the psychiatrist involved did not take sufficient care in reaching a diagnosis. Bindel questioned the medical approach in the article.

A month later a piece, "Gender Benders, beware" was printed in ''The Guardian'' concerning her anger about a rape crisis centre's dispute with a transsexual rape counselor; the article also expressed her views about transsexuals and transsexualism. Many considered the language used to be offensive and demeaning. ''The Guardian'' received more than two hundred letters of complaint from transsexual people, doctors, therapists, academics and others. Transgender activist group Press for Change cite this article as an example of 'discriminatory writing' about transsexual people in the press. Complaints focussed on the title, "Gender benders, beware", the cartoon accompanying the piece, and the disparaging tone, such as "Think about a world inhabited just by transsexuals. It would look like the set of ''Grease''" and "I don't have a problem with men disposing of their genitals, but it does not make them women, in the same way that shoving a bit of vacuum hose down your 501s [jeans] does not make you a man."

Four responses were published, including one from Julie Hesmondhalgh, an actress who played transsexual character 'Hayley' in the ITV soap ''Coronation Street'': "Men in dresses with birds'-nest hair chopping off their meat and two veg in order to enjoy the privileges of using the women's bog or snogging their same sex partner without fear of ridicule?! Can someone please inform the intelligent and compassionate Julie Bindel, whose amazing work for Justice for Women I have long admired, that Les Battersby is using her name to masquerade as a ''Sun'' [tabloid] reporter? And that the ''Guardian'' is accidentally printing his column?"

In response to the complaints, the ''Guardian'' editor wrote that the newspaper received about 200 letters, and noted that international lobbying did not account for all of these, and that most condemned the views expressed in the column, the Guardian for publishing it, and the illustration accompanying it. Twelve of the letters were complaints. He said, "Dismay at the piece was registered not only by transsexual people but by doctors, therapists, academics and others involved in the field." Referring to her as "a lesbian activist for the rights of women and children [ ... ] a rare kind of writer who puts her money where her mouth is," he explained that Bindel understood that there were problems with the way the article was written. He echoed the sentiments of one therapist in concluding, "This column, which obscured any argument in discriminatory language, [...] abused an already abused minority that the Guardian might have been expected to protect."

Bindel expressed her views about transsexualism and reassignment surgery three years later in the context of psychiatrist Russell Reid's censure by the GMC due to his care of some transsexual patients. Reid was the private psychiatrist who had treated Claudia, and her second Guardian article on this topic followed a series of more than 20 reports in the Guardian focusing on transsexulism, Russell Reid and approaches to treatment from the time of Bindel's first article in 2004, when Reid began to be investigated, and his censure and hearing in 2007. The second article appeared after the results of the hearing were announced, and contained interview material with Claudia, and Bindel's views on reassignment surgery.

In the summer of 2007, Bindel was invited to present her views on transsexual reassignment surgery on BBC Radio 4's "Hecklers", a series in which someone argues a provocative thesis, and a panel of speakers challenges them. She proposed that "sex change surgery is unnecessary mutilation". the panelists who opposed this were Professor Stephen Whittle (Law professor and trans activist), Peter Tatchell (gay activist), Dr. Kevan Wylie (psychiatrist) and Michelle Bridgman (therapist and trans activist). She wrote about her appearance on the show in her column the same day, and summarised her position on transsexualism. On his website, Tatchell endorsed Bindel's criticism of "traditional male and female roles and the social pressure to conform to cultural expectations of how men and women are supposed to behave," recognising these as "often profoundly oppressive." But he criticises her for "putting gender theory and ideology before the happiness of individual human beings who feel out of place and unhappy in their birth sex." A year later, in 2008, Bindel's apology for the 2004 piece was noted by Christine Burns of Press for Change when she interviewed her in 2008, and Bindel repeated her apology for the tone of the original piece.

In autumn 2008 Bindel was nominated for the UK LGB rights organisation Stonewall's 2008 "Journalist of the year" award. Stonewall's nomination was protested by independent trans and queer groups. Bindel put out a release via the London Feminist Network, There was a picket of the awards ceremony on 6 November 2008 with mixed support from attendees of the event. Bindel attended, although she did not receive an award. Bindel responded to the protest in a piece in the Guardian which covered the way the LGBT movement had developed since her early days as a radical lesbian feminist. She suggested that the protest was as much about "Stonewall for refusing to add the T (for transsexual) on to the LGB (for lesbian, gay and bisexual).". She detailed her frustration with the bullying tactics of those involved, how she was expected to be part of the LGBTQQI movement, yet was criticised for expressing opinions on trans issues while at the same time being told to be inclusive to trans people and issues, concluding that she wanted nothing to do with it. The protest did not receive mainstream press attention, but was covered in the UK gay press. A spokesperson for the protest confirmed that the protest was about Stonewall rather than Bindel herself: "'We're quite happy to leave her alone,' said Zoe O'Connell from the London TransFeminist Group. 'The protest was very much against Stonewall and not Bindel.'"

Bindel is reported as still maintaining that "people should question the basis of the diagnosis of male psychiatrists, 'at a time when gender polarisation and homophobia work hand-in-hand.'" She argues that "Iran carries out the highest number of sex change surgeries in the world" that "surgery is an attempt to keep gender stereotypes intact" and that "the idea that certain distinct behaviours are appropriate for males and females underlies feminist criticism of the phenomenon of 'transgenderism'." Following the Stonewall protest Whittle invited her to debate these issues again with Susan Stryker, a trans academic and activist from the USA, in front of an audience at Manchester Metropolitan University on 12 December 2008. The debate was broadcast live on the internet, but has not been made available as a podcast at the time of writing.

Lesbian feminism, gay and lesbian

Bindel began writing about lesbian issues as a radical lesbian feminist before her entry into journalism; her time with the Guardian saw her interest on lesbian and feminist issues come to include gay issues, scientific theories about sexuality, the way gender roles are taught to children, the cosmetics industry, cosmetic surgery for women, the media portrayal of lesbian chic, and lesbian child-bearing.

In her November 2008 piece written after the Stonewall protest, Bindel talked about her frustration with being in a movement that insisted she accept trans people, yet resulted in her being criticised whenever she spoke on trans issues. She said that as a longtime active member of the lesbian community she felt uncomfortable with the increasing inclusion of sexuality and gender-variant communities into the expanding LGBT 'rainbow alliance': "the mantra now at 'gay' meetings is a tongue-twisting LGBTQQI." "It is all a bit of an unholy alliance. We have been put in a room together and told to play nicely." "I for one do not wish to be lumped in with an ever-increasing list of folk defined by 'odd' sexual habits or characteristics." "I just want to be left alone. I am not in your gang, I did not ask to be, so please don't tell me I am one of yours, and then tell me off for offending your orthodoxy." In January 2009 she wrote about the radical lesbian feminism of the 1970s and 1980s, and her desire to return to those values. She concluded with an invitation to heterosexual women to adopt lesbianism, saying "Come on sisters, you know it makes sense. Stop pretending you think lesbianism is an exclusive members' club, and join the ranks. I promise that you will not regret it."

Rape

During her time at the Guardian Bindel has begun to write more on issues about rape, such as drug rape and date rape. She is critical of how difficult life is made for women who report rape, how the investigative and legal process ends up with women being dealt with more like the offender than the victim in an environment where some appear to think it is more important to safeguard the rights of men who might be accused maliciously than women who are victims. Bindel responded to the difficulties of reporting and prosecuting rape by saying she would not report it herself, "we may as well forget about the criminal justice system and train groups of vigilantes to exact revenge and, hopefully, deter attacks. Because if I were raped, I would rather take my chances as a defendant in court, than as a complainant in a system that seems bent on proving that rape is a figment of malicious women's imagination." Her writing on rape has appeared in newspapers in the Middle East and India, and her views have been reported by the BBC.

Child protection and sex offenders

Bindel has written about child protection issues, the way sex offenders are dealt with and biological theories about what drives sex offenders.

Other topics

Bindel has written articles that depart from themes central to her lesbian feminist background, such as vegetarianism, Arsenal, and questioned the point of gender-neutral toilets at the Royal festival Hall, at the expense of one of the women's toilet facilities there.

Bibliography

Bindel has written for the ''Telegraph'', ''Independent'' and ''Guardian'' newspapers, including more than 160 columns for the Guardian, featured in the online 'Comment is Free' section, she has written several published works:

Lesbian feminism

Bindel J, 'Neither an Ism nor a Chasm', in All the Rage: Reasserting Radical Lesbian Feminism, Women's Press, London 1996

Domestic violence

Bindel, J. ''Map of my Life: The Story of Emma Humphreys''. Astraia Press, 2003 (ISBN 0954-6341-0-1)

Bindel, J. "Women Overcoming Violence and Abuse: Information Pack on Topics Covered at the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Women's Citizenship" (Research Paper No. 15, Research Centre on Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK) 1996

Bindel, J & Fleming, J. Women Overcoming Violence and Abuse: Information Pack on Topics Covered at the International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Women's Citizenship. University of Bradford, Violence, Abuse & Gender Relations Research Unit, 1996

Bindel, J. "Violence, Abuse & Women's Citizenship: An International Conference, Brighton, UK, 10–15 November 1996" Press Pack, Leeds Metropolitan University Research Centre on Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations, Leeds Metropolitan University; Published by Research Centre on Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations, 1996

Kelly, L; Bindel, J; Burton, S; Butterworth, D; Cook, K; Regan, L. Domestic Violence Matters: An Evaluation of a Development Project, Home Office Information and Publications Group, 1996

Sex work

Bindel, J. Profitable Exploits: Lap Dancing in the UK, London, Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit of Metropolitan University, 2004

Bindel, J & Kelly, L. A Critical Examination of Responses to Prostitution in Four Countries: Victoria, Australia; Ireland; the Netherlands; and Sweden, Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit of London Metropolitan University, 2003

Bindel, J. 'Flushing the Johns' Trouble and Strife, No. 38, 1998, pp. 35–36

Bindel, J. 'Press for Change'; A guide for journalists reporting on the prostitution and trafficking of women, CATW, 2006

Bindel, J; Atkins, H. Big Brothel - a survey of the off-street sex industry in London, POPPY Project, 2008

Other works

Griffin, G. Feminist activism in the 1990s pgs 65-78, Taylor & Francis, 1995; ISBN 074840290X

Plante, R. Sexualities in context: a social perspective; Basic Books, 2006; ISBN 0813342937

Kinnell, H. Violence and Sex Work in Britain , Willan Publishing, 2008; ISBN 1843923505

Gupta, R. From homebreakers to jailbreakers: Southall Black Sisters; Zed Books, 2003; ISBN 1842774417

Marsh, I & Melville, G. Crime, Justice and the Media; Taylor & Francis, 2009, ISBN 041544490X

Anderson, I & Doherty, K. Accounting for Rape Psychology, Feminism and Discourse Analysis in the Study of Sexual Violence; Routledge, 2006; ISBN 0203087542

Jeffries, S. The Industrial Vagina: The Political Economy of the Global Sex Trade, Taylor & Francis, 2008; ISBN 0415412331

See also

Andrea Dworkin

Sheila Jeffreys

Lesbian feminism

Radical feminism

References

External links

Justice for Women (Official site)

Column archive at ''The Guardian''

Category:1962 births Category:Living people Category:British journalists Category:English women writers Category:LGBT people from England Category:LGBT writers from the United Kingdom Category:People from Crouch End Category:Lesbian writers Category:Feminist writers Category:Anti-pornography feminists Category:Anti-prostitution activists Category:Domestic violence Category:Rape victim advocates Category:LGBT feminists Category:British women's rights activists Category:English feminists

Coordinates	62°08′″N65°23′″N
name	Israr Ahmad
birth date	December 19, 1940
birth place	Mahuwara, Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
occupation	physicist, professor, fiction writer, editor
website	}}

Israr Ahmad (December 19, 1940 - April 2, 2010) was an Indian theoretical nuclear physicist and professor at Aligarh Muslim University since 1961. He was known for his work in quantum scattering theory.

He was an associate member of the International Center for Theoretical Physics located in Trieste (Italy), a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Indian Physics Association. He was Founding Director of the Center for Promotion of Science at the Aligarh Muslim University from its inception in 1985 to 1991, and Chairman of its Department of Physics from 1988 to 1991. He was editor of the monthly Urdu journal ''Tahzibul Akhlaq'' of Aligarh Muslim University from June 1986 to 1990. In addition, he had served as professor at King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia. He was married to Mahe Laka (daughter of Dr. Qammrudeen).

Centre for Promotion of Science (CPS)

Apart from his scientific work, Ahmad was keen in spreading the message of Islamic reformer Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. He was one of the strong supporters of the Aligarh Movement and revived the mission of Sir Syed to promote modern education, especially science, among oriental students and seminaries. To achieve this, with the support of Dr. Abdus Salam, he established the Centre for Promotion of Science (CPS) at AMU Aligarh in 1985, and was appointed as Founder Director of the center.

The center played a key role as a bridge between the Madrasah and a modern institution. It organized several refresher courses, seminars, series of lectures for Madrasah students and seminaries. In these, Ahmad organized a number of conferences on 'Religious Seminaries and Science Education', and conducted several introductory science courses for the teachers of Muslim religious seminaries. He established an independent office of CPS next to the Department of Physics and Dean Faculty of Science. He served CPS until 1991 and handed over his post to his student Dr. Abdul Qayum.

''Tahzibul Akhlaq''

In 1864 Sir Syed Ahmed Khan started the Urdu journal ''Tahzibul Akhlaq'' to spread awareness of contemporary socio-economic and educational developments in the Muslim community. ''Tahzibul Akhlaq'' was discontinued in 1881, but 100 years later, his ardent supporter, the then Vice-Chancellor Syed Hamid, revived it in 1981. Ahmad took an interest in the project and its promotion and was appointed its editor in June 1986, taking over this position from Prof. Noorul Hasan Naqvi. He played a key role in making ''Tahzibul Akhlaq'' a viable journal. As a science fiction writer in Hindi, Urdu, and English, Ahmad wrote several articles in different journals. He served as the editor of ''Tahzibul Akhlaq'' until 1990, when he handed over the post to Prof. Kabir Ahmad Jaisi.

Death

Ahmad died on 2 April 2010 at Holy Family Hospital in New Delhi. His body was brought to Aligarh and was buried at the Aligarh Muslim University graveyard. He left behind a family which including his wife, sons Shahid Israr and Khalid Israr, and daughters Sabiha Alvi and Subia Wahid.

See also

List of physicists

List of theoretical physicists

String Theory

Theory of everything

Unified Field Theory

External links

Category:Aligarh Muslim University faculty Category:Theoretical physics Category:2010 deaths Category:1940 births