QED are especially proud that Maryam has agreed to join us for the weekend. Having researched her background for this blog it's only possible to conclude that she mustn't ever sleep. She is a tireless campaigner for human rights and a standard bearer for secularism. The issues of importance to Maryam should be those close to the heart of any skeptic who cares about the world. For those who think religion is a benign force for good, or think its adherents hold a few dotty but harmless beliefs, a cursory glance at Maryam's campaigns will very quickly disabuse them of the notion that faith is all about warm notions such as love and compassion. Hitchens said that religion poisons everything, Maryam Namazie is meticulously and angrily cataloguing those poisons and if she can't cure them she's sure as hell going to warn everyone about them. And she will not be silenced.
It would not be possible in this short entry to properly do justice to Maryam's work (and justice is very much at the forefront of her campaigns) but it is worth highlighting some. Just to pick her most recent activity:
You may have heard about Hamza Kashgari, a 23 year old Saudi columnist who was forced to flee his home country following comments he made on Twitter that the clerics claimed 'insulted' the prophet. He was hoping to get to New Zealand where he was to claim asylum, a well founded claim if ever there was one. He unfortunately stopped over in Malaysia and was promptly deported home amid widespread calls by Islamists for his execution. Interpol may well have been complicit in the arrangements. There is a Facebook page, that currently is liked by around 22,500 people calling for retribution for Hamza's crime. A page that incidentally, Facebook seems completely comfortable with. In Saudi Arabia, blasphemy is punishable by death.
Here's Maryam's take on it:
Theocratic regimes like Saudi Arabia will not tolerate the most basic freedom of thought and expression. We defend the right of everyone in the world to freely express their views, including to criticise religion. We condemn the Malaysian government for detaining Kashgari who had fled the country and handing him over to the Saudi authorities. We are also concerned to learn of reports that INTERPOL may have promulgated a Saudi government warrant for his arrest. The implications of this mean that no asylum seeker or refugee is free from persecution even after having fled.
We demand that the Saudi authorities immediately and unconditionally release Kashgari. He has not committed any crime.
To support the campaign, please sign the petition.
Maryam was also instrumental in organising the 11th February rally in London in support of free expression. Incensed by a perfect storm of recent religious attacks on freedom of speech in both the UK and abroad she gathered a formidable list of speakers (any of whom QED would be proud to have as future guests). To name but a few; Richard Dawkins, A C Grayling, Anne Marie Waters, Kenan Malik, Nick Cohen, Rhys Morgan, Keith Porteous Wood, as well as a message from the Author of the Jesus and Mo cartoon.
Other campaigns she has worked on include preventing stonings and executions in Islamist societies, speaking out against sexual apartheid, and women's rights violations, opposing the veiling of children, opposing Sharia or religious laws, defending the banning of religious symbols from schools and public institutions, opposing the incitement to religious hatred bill in the UK and calling for secularism and the de-religionisation of society not only in Iran but in Britain and elsewhere.
Maryam is clearly not one to keep her skepticism in the pub. QED will be enriched for her attendance.