reform

Last one before Christmas. Wish best wishes to all our readers!


Discussion (38)¬

  1. Fred+Flintstone says:

    Interesting variant on the ‘no true scotsman’ 😉

  2. Nassar+Ben+Houdja says:

    Infidel kaffirs should not give a dam
    About the violent ravings of islam
    The qur’an is fulfilling
    Saying who needs a killing
    And tossing manure into the fan.

  3. PK says:

    “Not invented here.” A common syndrome, not even only by the superstitionist primitives and primitivists.

  4. PK says:

    And, even more importantly: In a rational world view, everything needs to be checked and nothing is permanently sure. In a superstitinionist world view, the final and absolute truth was revealed by a primitive lunatic and that is it.

  5. David+Amies says:

    Muslims hold that God’s final message was delivered by the Prophet Muhammad, who in turn got it through the Angel Gabriel.
    Surely then, reform is not possible for it would imply re-writing God’s message.
    Sounds blasphemous to me and you know what happens to blasphemers.

  6. So very apt, on a day when zealots are wishing death and torture on Maajid Nawaz. See #DuaAgainstMaajidNawaz on Twitter.

  7. HaggisForBrains says:

    Brilliant, Author, and well done again, NBH.

  8. usmagrad87 says:

    Author have a happy holiday and see you next year. I have just completed reading all of your cartoons and find them incredibly funny and appreciate the links to you script ‘writers’. I am fairly new to the secular movement and as a former christian appreciate the ridicule that you provide to those who believe in superstitions.

  9. Brilliant, yet again, Author. I feel I appreciated it more having read the notification you sent out to subscribers. So, for those who don’t subscribe, here’s what you sent to us:

    “This is the last one before Xmas, and it goes out to Muslim reformers: Maajid
    Nawaz, Irshad Manji, Usama Hassan, Ed Hussain et al. They’ve got a lot of work
    to do. Encouraging fundamentalists to practise a more moderate version of their
    religion is a bit like telling a drug addict to “smoke less crack” – but it’s a
    step in the right direction.”

    Cheers and Merry Christmas to all. It seems my friends at the C&B, the Internet’s best local, have become an important part of my life.

  10. Michael says:

    Excellent, Author. Thank you.

  11. Actually, according to Islam, Jesus was a Muslim! He’s considered to be the Greatest Islamic Prophet. Mohammed just happened to be the last one.
    And when you realise that, then you would realise that Jesus and Mohammed sitting together is definitely correct according to Islamic belief. Each with 72 virgins on their sides.
    Yes. Jesus is a Jew, the first Christian and a Muslim! Very interesting concept to realise… 🙂

  12. Mahatma+Coat says:

    Off topic and I ask this with some trepidation. There have been no posts for some time from Acolyte, Fenchurch and Mary 2. Can I be reassured that all is well?
    Best wishes to all for an enjoyable celebration of the summer solstice (well that’s what it is where I am).

  13. pink+squirrel says:

    it could be argued that Daesh is Islam reformed

    the difference being that while xian reformation looked up and forward
    the reformation of islam looks backwards and down

    PS reforming islam anagrams to Malis

  14. pink+squirrel says:

    As for Mo being the ‘last ever prophet’

    to claim such surely puts limitations /restrictions on ‘god’

    ‘god’ being ‘god’ can do anything it likes on the slightest whim

    including changing its mind about not having another prophet

  15. pink+squirrel says:

    I prophecy that if Islam does not reform it will go the same way as all the other religions that failed to adapt to social change

  16. extro24 says:

    I do not think Islam will ever reform. What will happen is that the fundamentalists will die in violent and spectacular ways, suicide bombing being one of them. The final test for any irrational belief is the literal survival of the believer. In the case of David Koresh and the Rev Jim Jones we all know what the outcome proved. Exactly the same will happen to the Islamic State.

  17. John+43 says:

    I have never understood, how believers of any of the Abraham religions, could accept that “God” turned up in the Middle East, less than three thousand years ago, whilst ignoring the humans who were colonising the Americas, Australasia and everything in between, from 30,000 years earlier or in the case of Africa, over 1 million years previous.
    What made this self-selecting Middle East mob so special? Ah, maybe therein lies the clue.
    Abraham religions- a competition to see who can win the God franchise. (was it John McCarthy who said that?)

  18. bath humbug says:

    Merry Christmas, and a happy, peaceful and prosperous new year to Author and all.

    I never thought I would ever say this but, for the first time ever, I am in complete agreement with something Mo’ said and he is utterly, totally, undoubtedly and absolutely correct.

    Islam does NOT need to be changed, amended, reformed, dulled down, civilised or altered in any way, shape or form, not one single line of it nor one single practice or dogma. Not now, not in the past, not ever.
    It does not need to be changed at all …



    … it needs to be eradicated from the universe. 🙂

    Now, a question … what is that bright thing in my sky? I’m sure I’ve seen one of them before but it’s been a while. 🙂

  19. Jim Loving says:

    For those interested in the topic, I recommend the white paper from Steve McIntosh at the Institute for Cultural Evolution. See: http://www.culturalevolution.org/political-campaigns/fostering-evolution-in-islamic-culture/

  20. Grumpy says:

    Best wishes Author another cracker.

  21. steeve says:

    Merry Christmas to all. And, just to keep a balance, Merry Momas too!

  22. pink+squirrel says:

    bright thing in sky ?
    what it is depends on whether you are seeing it during the day or during the night

  23. Happy Yule to you all ! (it’s a bit odd to wish a happy X-mas on this site 🙂 !)
    Remember : next Jan. 7th, 2016 : Charlie Hebdo day ! If you have a website or blog, don’t be a coward and post a Mohamed cartoon on that day !
    And I agree with bath humbug : Islam, and all religion for that matter, should be eradicated from the earth !

  24. pink+squirrel says:

    Islam, and all religion for that matter, should be eradicated from the earth !

    Amen to that

    can we pursue the goal religiously?

  25. No, we should do it conscientiously, scrupulously, diligently, zealously, busily, industriously, studiously, but NOT religiously. How could we ? We KNOW what we’re talking about ! (with thanks to Google Translation :-))

  26. Robert,+not+Bob says:

    extro24, while you’re probably right in the long run, US idiocy will undoubtedly strengthen ISIS in the near term. And Saudi, being extremely unsustainable, will eventually collapse, at which point ISIS will either absorb it or be reborn there.

  27. pink+squirrel says:

    Aya Hijab Cartoon
    clearly has the rare gift of needing a translator for what they themselves are saying

  28. pink+squirrel says:

    Given the gullible and superstitious tendencies innate to human nature I suspect that to eradicate religion from the world would require the eradication of humans
    Da’esh clearly has the same goal

  29. pink+squirrel : my need for Google Translation is based on the fact that English is not my native language, which is Dutch. And who are “they” that you are referring to ? I don’t quite agree with you last comment. I’ld say : save humanity, destroy religion ! The need to belief has to be replaced by the thirst for science and facts !

  30. Paddy says:

    @Aya,

    Welcome to the forum! In my humble opinion, while there are positive trends in places* **, I would reckon that we’re all going to have to spend our entire lives sharing our planet, countries, workplaces etc. with those who believe differently to us. We aren’t ever going to eradicate superstitious beliefs, or the cultural institutions born on the backs of them, no matter how ridiculous we think them.

    And it’s not really all that life or death, most of the time. The vast majority of believers of all major religions have a wonderful sort of cognitive dissonance whereby they’re quite happy to believe in most science in the here-and-now kind of way of going to see a doctor when they’re sick, or wanting their children to be able to do basic maths. Where doubt is sown by people with an agenda to sow doubt, be it regarding evolution or climate change or alt med, some will lap that up, certainly, and a preference for superstition over hard evidence probably doesn’t help in deciding what opinion to form on such matters, but it’s doubtful they’ll hold out forever. And a lot of very religious people are on the side of science on all three of the issues above. Like I said, cognitive dissonance is a wonderful thing.

    What is a life or death issue is the matter of religious tolerance. That we build respectful and trusting relationships with those who believe differently to us, so that we can all carry on peacefully in our own ways, deal with each other fairly and support each other when necessarily. The alternative is, literally, death; bombs on planes, or dropped from planes, or in mosques, churches, temples and synagogues. By bloody-minded people too keen to pick a fight on any and all sides of the issue.

    —–

    * The USA, for instance is at last becoming a bit less ubiquitously religious, with the share of the population saying they have no religion rising from 10% in 2005 to 17% in 2015 http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx

    ** The UK too has had a welcome rise from 14% in 2001 to 25% in 2011 in the share of people who’d describe themselves as having no religion.

  31. Paddy says:

    I should add that more recent surveys in the UK continue the trend towards no religion shown in the Census: https://humanism.org.uk/campaigns/religion-and-belief-some-surveys-and-statistics/

  32. @Paddy
    First maybe I should point out to you that Aya Hijab Cartoon is a CARTOON (https://ayahijabcartoon.wordpress.com/) and I am the cartoonist, a white male of about 60 living in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium.
    Secondly, although having got rid of my catholic religion for about 40 years, I too was of the opinion that we all “should live together and respect each others conviction”. But that was before I read David Silverman’s new book “Fighting God”, in which he makes the case for “firebrand atheism”. I actually agree with him : atheists should make more of a fuzz and have NO respect for any religion, because religion is WRONG ! It’s wrong, stupid and infantile. It denies scientific facts and is morally backward. I suggest every member of this site should read this book and act upon it !

  33. European says:

    Veel dank Ayla cartoonist, will look at the book you recommended (and enjoyed your cartoons, though not agreeing with all…)

  34. European says:

    Aya not Ayla (edit function?)

  35. pink+squirrel says:

    yes I fully agree – we should destroy religion and preserve humans

    however studies have shown that tendency to belief and pareidolia are innate to the human brain

    thus to rid the planet of religion would require ridding it of humans too

  36. pink squirrel : your premises are right (yes, humans have the innate tendency to look for patterns even when there aren’t any), but I don’t agree with your conclusion. I think we can get rid of religion by replacing it by a scientific mindset… I’m not saying this will be overnight, but we have to start somewhere. Why not here and now ?

  37. KenMackenzie says:

    The irony is that the Islamic reformation is Wahabist and Salafist. They want to restore Islam to its scriptural purity. The warriors of Wahabism are ISIS.

  38. bath humbug says:

    Hmm, people are agreeing with me? I must be doing something wrong. Maybe I didn’t express myself forcefully enough? Perhaps I was too ambiguous? Not ambitious enough? 🙂

    Islam is a lie and it must die.
    Christianity, too.
    We must life this one and only life
    for this is all that is true.

    Happy new year, everyone. Kiss-kiss and lots of hugs.

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