Johann Hari interviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali

This is cool and is wonderful kick to the knackers of multiculturalism and those Western liberals who gush perpetual torrents of gooey awe over "people of other faiths" and "ancient cultures". Its incredibly disconcerting that she has now been embraced by US wingnuts and is mouthing their vacuous racisms, Johann does well to separate these newly espoused beliefs from Ayaan's previousl humanist position. I recommend his links at the end to articles on the absurdity of the demographic invasion argument.

As this well drafted piece reveals, however, Islam is not the only of the Abrahamic religions to specifically endorse misogyny.

Global Marshall Plan

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This sounded like a really good idea when I first read about it. There's a Wikipedia article on it which states Al Gore's 5 strategic goals "to save the global environment". Unfortunately I am vastly sceptical that the first of his goals is at all achievable before the global environment is permanently damaged. Yes, I'm back onto overpopulation again.

People discussing overpopulation generally make assume that if global population can be stabilised civilisation will follow suit and we will skip merrily into utopia. Before any discussion of the benefits of ending runaway population growth, and even depopulation (anyone care to point out the difference to society between a global population of 6 billion and one of 1 billion?) you must first address the likelihood of achieving such a goal, otherwise you are just wasting hot air. Compare this to a discussion on the best way to expend 3 wishes.

My points are:

• The global economy is driven by the cheap labour produced by high birth rates in developing countries
• Virtually all religion abhors the concept of antinatalism
• The same high birth rates that keep the economy functioning allow more repressive cultures to demographically assault more liberal ones via "the wombs of our women".

So in light of the negative population growth in many Western societies, the above-replacement birth rates in many Eastern communities and the failure of certain culture (I'm talking about Muslims here but the argument could be applied to Chinese or Russian expat communities) to integrate and adopt the secular democracy of their host societies, how are we to ensure the preservation of our enlightenment values?

The obvious answer would be to adopt an ethical foreign policy a la Robin Cook that might allow immigrants to respect the UK and Europe as a Nation. A brief review of the various policies of the past half-dozen governments of this country shows how unlikely this is. So, if a passive policy has no chance of success one must begin to consider active policies which might encourage immigrants to embrace the enlightenment ideals of our society in preference for their own misogynist, racist and religious values.

Unfortunately I cannot begin to imagine a way of doing this that does no betray the very philosophy it seeks to promote.

Which religion is worse, Christianity or Islam?

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TRICK QUESTION! They're both as bad as each other!

Alarming report from Johann Hari about Wahhabi Islam here.

Equally disturbing study of Cristo-fascism here.

And because I do not want to show bias towards any particular bunch of religious sociopaths here is an alarming study of Judaism's genocidal, expansionist drive- backed by the Shrub Administration- to create a Greater Israel.

The common theme throughout all of these movements is a warped interpretation of religion that justifies the inherent racism or exceptionalism of each movement. This is why people of declared religious beliefs should be prohibited from public office; they cannot be relied upon to treat all people equally. Although it is a human construct, religion is profoundly inhuman in nature.