This article is an example of the way religiously-driven laws can go wrong in Muslim countries, but when the government makes religious doctrine the law of the land, the potential for injustice is certainly not limited to any particular faith group.

Dubai seems to be a country at war with itself. It thrives on international tourism (and the vice, greed, and money that accompanies large scale development and tourism) but things like this still happen.

A UK women visiting Dubai was charged for having sex outside of marriage after she reported being raped by a stranger.  Her fiance, who she was traveling with, and the alleged rapist have also been charged with having sex outside marriage but it is unclear if the rape allegation is being investigated.  According to the news article, the woman has been told she will only be allowed to leave the country if she drops the rape charge and marries her fiance immediately.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,582660,00.html?test=latestnews

Kathleen Johnson

Yesterday, a Federal Judge in Kansas dismissed Dustin Chalker’s lawsuit against the Department of Defense on the grounds that he did not exhaust all possible internal remedies before filing his lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and it’s unclear, what, if any, action can be taken next.  Dustin took over as plaintiff for the suit when Jeremy Hall, the original petitioner, left the service.  Both petitioners are Atheists and filed suit after experiencing incidents of discrimination and harassment while on active duty with the US Army.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1670238.html

Kathleen Johnson

Registration now on-line

The 36th National Convention of
AMERICAN ATHEISTS
APRIL 2-4, 2010 NEWARK/NEW YORK CITY

REGISTER NOW

AMERICAN ATHEISTS will hold its 36th National Convention April 2-4, 2010 in Newark, NJ — right across the river from The Big Apple, New York! We gather at one of the premier meeting sites on the East Coast — the Newark Liberty Renaissance Hotel at Newark International Airport. Fly in, grab your bags and take the shuttle to one of the most luxurious convention site in the area — easily convenient to New York City!

* SPEAKERS: We’ll have a blockbuster line-up! Confirmed so far are, in alphabetical order:

CECIL BOTHWELL – Atheist assemblyman from NC whose position is being challenged by religious bigots
JEFF SHARLET, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
DAN BARKER, Freedom From, Religion Foundation
PAUL KURTZ, Philosopher, author, founder of the Council for Secular Humanism
MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI, Author, philosopher, noted advocate for science

READ MORE

Why is Google Blocking “Islam Is” Search Recommendations?

Notice when you start typing in the Google search field that it shows recommendations below the field? The recommendations are based on popular searches and a rather nifty algorithm that tries to determine what it is you are searching for.

But Google is intentionally blocking these recommendations for “Islam is…”

Try it for yourself. First, establish exactly what Google should be doing.

In the search field type “Christianity is” and you will see recommendations of “bullsh*t, not a religion, a lie, false, a cult, wrong, fake, dying, Jewish, and not a religion t-shirt.”

In the search field type “Hinduism is” and you will see recommendations of “monotheistic, false, polytheistic, the majority religion of, the oldest religion, not a religion, fake, most commonly found, characterized by, and wrong.”

In the search field type “Buddhism is” and you will see recommendations of “not a religion, wrong, not what you think, bullsh*t, polytheistic, a religion, false, based on what concepts, the best religion, and atheism.”

In the search field type “Judaism is” and you will see recommendations of “false, not a race, not a religion, a race, a religion of the book, not Jewish, a gutter religion, monotheistic, a cult, and a religion.”

Try typing “Atheism is” and you will see recommendations of “a religion, dead, not a religion, wrong, the new fundamentalism, growing, a non-prophet organization, so senseless, illogical, a religion supreme court.” Clearly they are not holding back on the Atheists.

Now, let’s try Islam. Type in “Islam is” and you will see…

Absolutely nothing. That’s correct. Google makes no recommendations based on searches of “Islam Is.”

Why is Google blocking search recommendations for “Islam is?”

Oddly enough, the two other religions I found that did not have recommendations were Asatru and Jainism. That may be because of their obscurity (after all, it’s been a while since Pascal tried to convert his friends to Jainism with his Wager).  Obscurity or lack of searches does not explain why “Islam is” does not break down on Google.

So why is Google blocking the search recommendations? Are they afraid of offending Muslims who will likely retaliate against Google? Or is it as one person suggested on Facebook, an attempt by Google to simply ignore Islam?

Thanks to Alex Wilhelm at The Next Web for making this public and everyone at Atheism @ sub-Reddit for identifying the issue in the first place.

See an image of the results here.

Posted by Blair Scott

For the First Time in Its History, Mayor Invites ‘Nonbelievers’ to Interfaith Breakfast

Cites ‘Diversity’ of New York’s Population, Calls for Tolerance

New York (Dec.31,2009)—For the first time in its history, New York City’s Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg invited a group of Atheists to attend his annual Interfaith Breakfast, held on the day before the New Year.

In his opening statements, the Mayor recognized the new group in attendance, saying “I also want to welcome for the first time those who don’t profess a faith but who do love our city.”

He went on, in apparently off-the cuff remarks, to cite the diversity of philosophies in the City, saying that New Yorkers should have tolerance for all sorts of viewpoints because the City is a vast mixture of ethnicities, religious beliefs and views.

Sitting together at a table among the hundreds of representatives from various religious groups at the Interfaith Breakfast in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library this morning were six representatives of the New York City Atheists, Inc. (NYCA), who had been formally invited by the Mayor’s Commissioner of Community Affairs, Nazli Parvizi.

NYC Atheists