by Heather Hastie | Mar 7, 2015 | Democracy, Human Rights, Middle East, Religion, Women
Most of you have probably see the video below of Maajid Nawaz trying to get some of his fellow Muslims admit that some of the punishments in Sharia are inhumane. For whatever reason, they simply won’t say that punishments like stoning to death are wrong....
by Heather Hastie | Feb 7, 2015 | Democracy, Freedom of Speech, International Politics, Religion, Terrorism, US Politics, USA
In the United States there is a growing rift between Democrats and Republicans on how to describe the terrorism in the Middle East and northern Nigeria. (As if politics in America needed any more rifts!) The Obama administration will not use the word...
by Heather Hastie | Feb 6, 2015 | Democracy, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, International Politics, Religion
I wrote about the need to repeal New Zealand’s blasphemy law back in January, ending my post with the words, “Not only should we repeal our blasphemy law, New Zealand should become part of a call of all free nations to see them repealed worldwide.” I...
by Heather Hastie | Jan 8, 2015 | Democracy, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, International Politics, New Zealand, Religion
Well, we knew it would happen. In my last article on this I said: I hope this revolting act will help those who decry any criticism of Islam as Islamophobia recognize just what a problem it has the potential to be. Any belief system that includes an invocation to kill...
by Heather Hastie | Jan 7, 2015 | Democracy, Freedom of Speech, Great Britain & Europe, Human Rights, Religion
Warning: If you find images of Muhammad, prophet of Islam, offensive, don’t read this article. If you decide to read it anyway, don’t blame me. By now you will have heard of the appalling event at the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie...
by Heather Hastie | Sep 23, 2014 | Democracy, NZ Politics
On 20 September, New Zealand re-elected prime minister John Key to a third term in office, and gave his centre-right party enough votes to govern alone, which is virtually unheard of in a proportional representation system like ours. The main reason for his success is...
