Religions
17 October 2010
“Blair equates secularists with religious extremists” The EHF has written to each of the 27 EU Heads of Government asking them to oppose the candidacy of Tony Blair as permanent president of the EU Council of Ministers under the Lisbon Treaty because of his prejudice against non-religious beliefs and secularists. The letter quotes him as endorsing the Pope’s view that “humanism devoid of Faith [is an] ‘inhuman humanism’ ” and a recent speech in which… read more »
1 October 2010
Attacks on the Holy See The EHF was at the OSCE’s 2010 Review Conference (which this year replaced the usual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting) for the session on “freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief” on Friday October 1. In the plenary session, EHF President David Pollock attacked the “undiplomatic behaviour” of the Holy See. His remarks are reproduced below, with a link to the full version of his paper. Vera Pegna spoke (for the… read more »
1 July 2010
A case before the European Court of Human Rights that could have marked a milestone for secularism in Europe reached a sad end in March 2011 when an appeal by Italy to the Grand Chamber of the Court succeeded in reversing the Court’s original judgement in November 2009. The Court’s judgement argued that the display of the crucifix did not amount to “indoctrination” and was therefore permissible. A summary and detailed critique of the judgement… read more »
24 April 2010
The newly formed Humanist Union of Greece has filed a complaint against the the Bishop of Kalavryta and Aegialia Amvrosios and against the Greek State (equally liable as bishops are civil servants) alleging that an article by him “intentionally incites to actions that may cause discrimination, hatred or violence and expresses ideas that offend persons or groups of persons only because of their religion”. The bishop had written “When . . . there are Greeks… read more »
17 March 2010
The wording says: ‘Abortion for Polish women – introduced by Hitler – 9 March 1943′ Meeting of the EP Platform for Secularism in Politics The European Parliamentary Platform for Secularism in Politics held a well attended meeting on 17 March 2010 to hear speakers on the influence of the church in matters of abortion, divorce, family planning etc, with speakers from Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.Monika Karbowska told the meeting about the dire situation for… read more »
21 November 2009
A rally was organised by One Law for All in Hyde Park, London, on 21 November 2009 to protest at the iniquities of sharia (Islamic religious) law and its infiltration into European Muslim communities. Among many other speakers was David Pollock, president of the EHF: watch his speech on YouTube. He said: Why are we against sharia law? For the same reason that centuries ago our ancestors in Britain were against ecclesiastical courts intruding into secular… read more »
David Pollock was among the many speakers at a rally in Hyde Park, London, on 21 November 2009 protesting against the spread of sharia law. He picked out two reasons for opposing it: first, that it was undemocratic and unable to be revised; second, that the demand for it was based on the idea of group rights, which were hostile to individual human rights: in fact, sharia operated as a way to keep ordinary Muslims… read more »
7 June 2009
This is re-produced with permission directly from Ed’s Elite Blog. Darwin, Humanism and Science On Saturday I had the good fortune to be able to attend a conference entitled “Darwin, Humanism and Science”, held at London’s Conway Hall. For those not able to attend here is a short roundup of what happened: Richard Dawkins starts us off The conference kicked off with a quick introduction from BHA President Polly Toynbee, after which Professor Dawkins took… read more »
6 June 2009
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1E 6HD This conference was jointly sponsored by the EHF, the British Humanist Association (BHA), the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) the South Place Ethical Society (SPES) to celebrate ‘Darwin 200’ – the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of ‘On the Origin of Species’. See here an enthusiastic report on a blog about the conference. PROGRAMME 10.00 Welcome from… read more »
12 March 2009
The EHF wrote on 12 March 2009 to President Barroso expressing alarm at a draft resolution from Pakistan, backed by other members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, calling for so-called “defamation of relgiion” to be made a criminal offence. We asked the EU to ensure that there was a more vigorous response from its member states than hitherto: The European Humanist Federation therefore wishes to urge the EU and its Member States, in… read more »