It is widely believed that Muslim ‘martyrs’ enjoy rich sensual rewards on reaching paradise. A new study suggests they may be disappointed. Virgins? What virgins? | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited. Actually, it’s not a new study – the report is from 2002 – but maybe the Islamist terrorists who are currently active haven’t heard of it, or don’t understand German. According to a scholar called Christoph Luxenberg, whose book ‘Die Syro-Aramaische Lesart des Koran’ was published in German in 2001, there are no virgins waiting to reward Muslim martyrs in Paradise.

Up to 40,000 Sherpas who live at the base of the Himalayas face devastation if vast new lakes formed by the melted ice burst and send a torrent of millions of tons of water down the slopes. Mr Hillary, who has himself twice reached Everest’s summit, said: “Climate change is happening. This is a fact. Base camp used to sit at 5,320 metres. This year it was at 5,280 metres because the ice is melting from the top and side.

E-mail: mail@suffolkhumanists.org.uk Event description: The mill is open to visitors today but we’re not going. We may go in September instead. Further info: http://www.windmillworld.com/millid/2383.htm

I attended the Forum of Faiths meeting on 5 July at Suffolk College. The purpose of the meeting was to offer local faith groups an opportunity to feed into the “creating a cohesive county” element of Suffolk Strategic Partnership’s “Shaping the Future of Suffolk” community strategy. Our aim was to ensure the humanist perspective was reflected in the dialogue. The discussion centred on Suffolk in 20 years time. What are the issues that will face the county?

Can the rest of us have our planet back? Marcus Brigstocke has a go at not one, not two, but all three Abrahamic religions in the latest edition of BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show. Highly amusing, and really quite reasonably put. Reposted from RichardDawkins.net. Download the MP3 here.

In just over a week I’m flying out to Cambodia, the land of the ancient Khmer empire, scrawny cows, and orange-robed monks on the back of motorbikes. Cambodia has one of the poorest health positions in the world, with HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis amongst other diseases. The education and health systems are in poor shape. There are serious problems with drug addiction, children living and begging on the streets, domestic violence and child sex abuse.

Sacred cows? Bring them on. Demolishing ridiculous ideas is a columnist’s job, even if the beasts in question are usually metaphorical. As a rule, the only culling I advocate is of sloppy thinking, which is why I’m taking this opportunity to warn readers of a nervous disposition about my views on Shambo, the black Friesian bull that has become the subject of a ferocious row between the Welsh Assembly and a Hindu temple.

Six out of ten senior Church of England bishops could boycott next year’s Lambeth Conference of more than 800 Anglican bishops and archbishops from around the world because of the row over gays. Such a boycott would be unprecedented in the history of the Anglican Church and would be an indication of how deep the divisions go, in England as well as in the rest of the communion. The fifth most senior bishop in the mother church of the Anglican Communion warns today that a majority of English diocesan bishops could consider a boycott if the US does not row back on its pro-gay agenda.

From the National Secular Society – the nominations for the Secularist of the Year are in and the preliminary round of discussion has whittled down the shortlist to nine possibles. The final decision on who is the winner of this year’s Irwin Prize will be taken by the end of this month. Johann Hari Columnist on the Independent for his consistent and vigorous approach to secular issues. Oliver Kamm Journalist and commentator.

An email received 21/7/07 from: London School of Islamics An Educational Trust 63 Margery Park Road London E7 9LD Email: info@londonschoolofislamics.org.uk www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk Tel/Fax: 0208 555 2733 / 07817 112 667 Building Bridges The unrest among British Muslims both young and old is not only due the British policies abroad but also due the policies at home for the last fifty years. Anti-immigration was the norm during 60s & 70s and the British society and the Establishment just closed its eyes and even state schools tried to hide all physical and verbal abuse of Muslim children and teachers under the carpet.

France has proposed practical measures to ensure the country’s Muslim prayer leaders speak French and understand France’s way of life. In a newspaper interview, Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said that from September, future imams must study law, civics and history. BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Study planned for France’s imams. Since there are similar concerns about the language skills and competence of British imams, of whom 9 out of 10 are from overseas, with poor English, is there a case for following France’s example?

The Conservative party has commissioned a report about national security. One of the findings is that the Government is wrong to communicate with people from ethnic minorities as though they were members of groups rather than individual citizens. (Read related BBC Story here) The NSS has been saying this for years. The Blair Government created these group categories – mostly based on religion – to define whole swathes of the population.

In its submission on Combating Defamation of Religions to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva IHEU has damned the current process at the UN as “unnecessary, flawed and morally wrong”. In the submission, IHEU affirms that each individual should be absolutely free to form, hold or change his or her beliefs and condemns any attempts at stereotyping of religions, racial profiling of individuals, and any and all calls for violence in the name of religion or God.

A friend recently asked,xml:namespace prefix ="" o /  If you absolutely believe that there is no god, does that make you a fundamentalist? I would say that some non-believers are more fundamentalist in their views than many so-called believers. Similarly, perhaps people like Dawkins could be considered to be ‘non-religious extremists’. Is there a term for a fervent non-believer? (fundamentalist atheist?) It’s true that some agnostic Humanists (including the late Sir Hermann Bondi, past president of the BHA) assert that it’s arrogant to say there is no god.