Sign Petition: Ex-Muslim Atheists Face Death in Pakistan by Taliban on Tuesday 5th August. Home Office: Cancel Deportation. Allow Asylum.
August 1, 2014 by Chris Street
Filed under Atheism, Islam, Pakistan
Two ex-muslim atheists are about to be deported to Pakistan on Tuesday 5th August 2014. They have lived in UK for 5 years. I visited them this week in prison. They have failed to get asylum as atheists and are desperate to escape deportation. If they return to Pakistan this Tuesday they face near certain death by family, apostate killers or the Taliban.
Sign the Change.org Petition NOW!
The Home Office must cancel the deportations on humanitarian protection and human rights grounds. Today!
Chris Street, President, Atheism UK
Where do Atheists in the UK live?
The Guardian links to a data mapping application which utilises the Census data to visually represent the most godless places in the UK. The bluer the map, the higher the godless population!
What are the numbers like where you live?
Petition – Free Mubarak Bala
Please sign this Change.org petition –
Mubarak Bala is a highly educated chemical engineer. He was about to continue his studies in petroleum engineering in London, England, before he was abruptly committed to a secure psychiatric ward.
He has been beaten by his family, drugged and confined to the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, in the Shariah state of Kano in Nigeria. This has been done because he renounced Islam and has openly declared himself to be an atheist.
His father, a politically powerful figure has declared atheism to be a mental illness and is holding Mubarak in a secure ward behind tight security.
A human Rights lawyer has tried to gain access to Mubarak, but has been denied entry.
We need to get the Human Rights Organisations to take action and free Mubarak Bala from false imprisonment and forced medication.
The situation is beyond dire, as Mubarak’s family has already threatened to move him to a secret location which Mubarak feels could indicate the possibility of an honour killing. The doctor also indicated that his condition is worsening, due to the drug treatments and not being able to eat.
Atheism UK at the Cambridge Union
Chris Street, one of Atheism UK’s Council Members took part in a debate at The Cambridge Union Society on 25th April 2014.
Chris was the first speaker opposing the motion that ‘This House Believes That The Catholic Church Is A Force For Good’
View the debate on youtube in which Chris speaks from 16 minutes. Read the Press Release.
The motion failed to carry:- Ayes 82, Noes 85, Abstentions 65. Cambridge Union Society does NOT believe that the Catholic Church is a force for good!
Call for End to Saudi Anti-Atheist Laws
From our friends and colleagues at the Atheist Alliance International:
New laws were recently annoucend by the government of Saudi Arabia that strengthens the criminalization of atheists in the country, including any communication with other known atheists or using the Internet to post or read about atheism. The laws further allow the government to prosecute atheists under the state’s anti-terrorism statutes, including the death penalty – simply for being an atheist!
This is even more outragous coming from a country that was recently elected to the UN Human Rights Commission!
Atheist Alliance International has recently obtained “consultative status” with the United Nations and will now be participating as an NGO in the UN Human Rights Council and other UN and human-rights agencies to address this outrage. We will be contacting heads of state and their UN ambassadors to encourage a denouncement of these actions by the Saudi government and to seek protection for those who are now subject to arrest as terrorists simply for their religious unbelief. We are also providing legal funds to defend those who have already been arrested as well as to challenge the new laws.
Atheism UK on the Secular World Podcast
If I may be self indulgent for a moment…
Rich Honess of Atheism UK joins host Jake Farr-Wharton and AAI President Stuart Bechman in discussing the top religion stories from 2013 on the Secular World Podcast.
http://www.atheistalliance.org/secular-world/podcast
AAI Receives UN Special Consultative Status
AAI Receives UN Special Consultative Status Read more
Contribution of Humanists & Atheists – House of Lords Debate – Part 2
July 28, 2013 by Chris Street
Filed under News
Baroness Warnock & Royall, Lord Soley & Warner ‘challenging religious faith’ (Atheism UK strapline) in a House of Lords debate. Read more
Contribution of Humanists & Atheists – House of Lords Debate – Part 1
July 28, 2013 by Chris Street
Filed under News
Lord Maxton & Morgan & Baroness Flather ‘challenging religious faith’ (Atheism UK strapline). For 150 minutes on 25th July 2013 the House of Lords debated, in 20,000 words, how atheists and humanists had made contributions to British society.
AAI – Urgent Appeal: CTSE
The Atheist Alliance International are supporting the Critical Thinking and Secular Ethics programme in Cambodia, run by the Cambodian Children’s Trust. Its aims are to provide vulnerable children a secualr education and teach them critical thinking skills within a culture that is saturated with supernaturalism, ghosts, gods, spirits and sorcerers.
From the funding appeal site:
Our mission is to teach children not what to think, but how to think.
If we teach children everything we know, their knowledge is limited to ours. If we teach children to think, their knowledge is limitless.
At The Cambodian Children’s Trust (CCT) we strive to give vulnerable Cambodian children the best chance at leading a happy, fulfilling, and successful life. Succeeding in life depends on our ability to solve the problems we encounter along the way.
Theravada Buddhism is (supposedly) practiced by around 95% of the Cambodian population. In reality however, behind the doors of Khmer Temples there lies belief in superstitions, with rituals, spirits, ghosts, gods, and sorcerers, which, it can be argued, injects immeasurable stress and fear into the lives of most Cambodians. In a country where corruption is widespread and 40% of the population live below the poverty line, it is vital that Cambodia’s children, its future leaders learn how to think for themselves, how to reason and how to be ethical and moral citizens. The future of Cambodia depends on it.
We will teach them to question. We will show them how to work out what is ethical or unethical (or somewhere in between). We will teach them to be able to identify flaws in arguments. We will educate them about the major religions and, with the skills they develop in this course, enable them to make up their own minds.
Studying ethics and philosophy will give children skills to use good thinking as the guide by which they live their lives.
You can find out more about the project and to keep up with what we’re doing, including the latest blog posts, on the website at welearn2think.org
However the project needs funds so AAI have set up a crowd sourceing intiative with “Startsomegood.com, but we are short $900 with only 6 days to go (at time of writing)! If the funding minmum is not reached in time none of the money gets paid to the project.