Thursday, June 26, 2014




Australia: 'Honour killings' talk cancelled

The Sydney Opera House has cancelled a controversial talk by Muslim writer and activist Uthman Badar titled "Honour killings are morally justified" after widespread condemnation of its inclusion in the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

In a statement the Opera House appeared to blame the talk's title for giving the "wrong impression", while announcing that it had decided not to proceed with the session.

"The Festival of Dangerous Ideas is intended to be a provocation to thought and discussion, rather than simply a provocation," the Opera House wrote on Facebook.

"It is always a matter of balance and judgement, and in this case a line has been crossed."

Mr Badar told Fairfax Media on Tuesday that the session's cancellation is revealing of the extent and influence of Islamophobia in Australia.

Honour killings are the murder of women deemed to have brought shame or dishonour on their family.

Uthman Badar was scheduled to argue that such acts are seized on by Westerners as a symbol of everything they dislike about another culture.

The announcement sparked condemnation and calls for a boycott on social media from those arguing the Opera House stage should not be used as a platform for such radical and confronting propositions.

"I think it's free speech and outrage for its own sake, not for the sake of seeking truth," Ms Gordon-Smith said. "If it's not hate speech, it's seriously ignorant speech."

Feminist author Eva Cox said the inclusion of Mr Badar's presentation was "tacky" and possibly unethical if the title turns out to misrepresent the extent of his argument. She said it carried the risk of further demonising Muslims in eyes of many Australians.

SOURCE

I think the talk should have gone ahead.  Eva is right.  It would have helped to show how disgusting Islam is.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Islam is stuck in the time of 1400 years or so ago. It is an evil religion of male dominance and denigration of females of all ages. The product of the deranged mind of a murderer, caravan robber, and pedophile.

Anonymous said...

The reactions by Ms. Gordon-Smith and Eva Cox indicate that they have a long way to go when it comes to understanding the true nature of Islam. Mr. Badar should have been allowed to make his case, perhaps then these women would have seen the light.

Perhaps not, as they are probably rose colored glass wearing lefties.

Anonymous said...


The reason the left is so enamored with Islam is because the true left right spectrum is that the far right is Anarchy (complete lack of government) while the far left is total control by the government.

Islam is a total control movement and is therefore a far left system so it feels comfortable to the left even though its individual practices are reprehensible to the same left.

Islam is in fact another example of how evil such a total control society turns out.

Anonymous said...

"left/right" becomes too vague and meaningless when it involves such different and often opposing ideologies, such as Communism, Socialism, Islam and even Nazism being regarded by some as all "leftist", though most of those can well be called "fascist", a term most people would regard as meaning "right wing" (rightly or not). So what does "right wing" actually mean? Conservative values might mean traditional, so might include fascist values, and libertarian values might amount to non-conservative and non-traditional.

Bird of Paradise said...

They call it honor killings its still Murder

Anonymous said...

I think it is ridiculous that in a Festival of Dangerous Ideas they managed to find an idea that is too dangerous to even be discussed in the Festival.
Did they not understand what the festival was supposed to be about?
A festival of uncontroversial and inoffensive ideas sound like a barrel of laughs.

Dman said...

"Uthman Badar was scheduled to argue that such acts are seized on by Westerners as a symbol of everything they dislike about another culture."

That's because such acts *are* a symbol of everything we dislike about your culture.

Go Away Bird said...

Anonn 11:17 I agree 100% islam is a backwards pagan relelgion that forces everyone to convert to their ways or face the sword