ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape, Rukmini Callimachi, 2015-08-13 Claiming the Quran’s support, the Islamic State codifies sex slavery in conquered regions of Iraq and Syria and uses the practice as a recruiting tool. […] The systematic rape of women…

Top European court upholds France’s headscarf ban, Deutsche Welle, 2015-11-26 The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favor of a hospital in France, which had enforced a ban on headscarves at work. The court said the ban did…

Senegal to ban the burqa, Ed Adamczyk, United Press International, 2015-11-18 Senegal announced plans this week to ban women from wearing the burqa to stop Islamic terrorists from using the full-face veil as a disguise. The heavily Muslim country follows…

A wide variety of organizations and individuals has issued a joint statement calling on the Canadian government to provide humanitarian assistance to embattled secularists in Bangladesh. The effort was initiated by CFI Canada and joined by various atheist, secularist, humanist…

Secular publisher hacked to death in latest Bangladesh attacks, Associated Press, 2015-10-31 A publisher of secular books has been hacked to death in the Bangladeshi capital, police have said. In a separate attack in Dhaka, police said two other writers…

Turkey election: President Erdogan tightens his grip on power in surprise landslide victory, Patrick Cockburn Independent, 2015-11-02 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won a decisive victory in the Turkish parliamentary election, with his Justice and Development Party (AKP) winning a…

Church presence at Montreal high school raises questions, CBC News, 2015-10-28 A religious group is offering a little extra help to a Montreal public school, but one expert says the volunteer work raises questions about religious neutrality. The église du…

Reading Past the Headlines When the Middle East Monitor announced (2015-10-08) that Egypt plans to prevent niqab-wearing women from voting in Egypt’s parliamentary election scheduled to be held in two phases Oct. 18-19 Nov. 22-23, Canadian secularists cheered. The inevitable…

AQNAL (Quebec Association of North Africans for Secularism) denounces the folly of Françoise David Nadia El-Mabrouk, for AQNAL NOTE: AQNAL is a participant organization of the Rassemblement pour la laïcité (RPL or Alliance for Secularism), as is our organization LPA.…

Anger after Saudi Arabia ‘chosen to head key UN human rights panel’, Tom Brooks-Pollock, The Independent, 2015-09-20 The United Nations is coming under fire for handing Saudi Arabia a key human rights role even though the Kingdom has “arguably the…

Hearing, Mouvement laïque québécois (Quebec Secular Movement) (vidéo in French), represented by Lucie Jobin, Daniel Baril and Michel Lincourt, 2015-09-22, National Assembly, Quebec City (2:00) We have serious misgivings about the raison d’être and the true scope of this draft…

Hearing, Rassemblement pour la laïcité (Alliance for secularism) (vidéo in French), represented by André Lamoureux and Leila Bensalem, 2015-09-22, National Assembly, Quebec City (1:45) We dissociate ourselves from the proposal to police and punish hate speech and speech inciting violence.…

Canadians of all stripes oppose face coverings at citizenship ceremonies: Vote Compass, CBC News, 2015-09-22 Canadians right across the political spectrum are opposed to immigrants being allowed to wear facial coverings during the citizenship ceremony, according to the latest results…

MUN prof refuses to wear device for hearing disabled student, cites religious reasons, Todd O’Brien and Geoff Bartlett, CBC News, 2015-09-16 A Memorial University student with a hearing disability is upset that one of his professors refused to wear a…

The Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom MONTREAL, Sept.11, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ – Today the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom was officially launched by friends and family. The Foundation is named after the blogger, who is imprisoned since 2012. Raif Badawi…

Niqab ban at citizenship ceremonies unlawful, as Ottawa loses appeal, CBC News, 2015-09-15 The federal government has lost its appeal of a lower court ruling that struck down a ban on wearing niqabs at citizenship ceremonies. Three justices on the…

FFRF condemns N.Y. Health Board’s decision OK’ing unrestricted ritual circumcision, 2015-09-14 The New York City Board of Health last week recklessly decided to abandon the only inadequate restriction it had over controversial ritual Jewish circumcision. The board […] voted last…

Madame Fatima Houda-Pépin denounces Bill 59 which would criminalize so-called “hate speech.” Presentation of Madame Fatima Houda-Pépin, on Draft Bill 59 (in French), at hearings of the Commission des institutions, 2015-09-14. Madame Minister, what this draft bill does is to…

Femen stages topless protest at Muslim women’s fair , RFI English (Radio France internationale), 2015-09-14. Two members of the Femen feminist group staged a topless protest at a Muslim women’s fair near Paris this weekend. Earlier a petition had called…

Click to view full size Twenty-two weeks after the Supreme Court of Canada decision that members of municipal councils must cease reciting a prayer in the municipal council chamber, some Peterborough residents gathered in the park in front of Peterborough…

At a recent symposium on media coverage of religious symbols based on international law, held in Lille, France, Abdulmajeed Al-Omari, director for external relations at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, called for international efforts to criminalize vilification of religious symbols…

Niloy Neel – Fourth atheist activist murdered in a year in Bangladesh Niloy Chowdhury Neel, an online activist and secularist protester, has been found dead in his home, according to early reports. He was decapitated and his hands had been…

UAE makes ‘offending God’ illegal, National Secular Society (UK), 2015-08-05 The United Arab Emirates has passed an ‘anti-hatred’ law which it has claimed will help tackle discrimination, but which outlaws ‘insulting’ religion. The Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh…

#SaveKanoNine: 9 sentenced to death for ‘blasphemy’ in Kano sparks anger, 2015-07-01 The case of a recent judgment by an Upper Sharia Court, Rijiyar Lemo, in Kano state, which passed death sentences on nine persons for blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed…

Web page promoting atheism blocked because it “insults believers” A web page promoting atheism was blocked on the most popular Russian social network “Vkontakte” because, according to a court in Chechnya, it insulted the feelings of Orthodox Christians. Chechnya is…