Islam does not accept criticism by tradition - really?

Anyone who thinks that the religion of Islam does not accept criticism by tradition should read this article:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/islamic-history-is-full-of-free-thinkers--but-recent-attempts-to-suppress-critical-thought-are-verging-on-the-absurd-9993777.html

I have met lots of Muslims in the the course of my work and my family have Muslim friends. All of them are horrified at what happened to the French journalists and Jewish people who were killed in the recent attacks in Paris.

Some of my Muslim friends are not Muslims at all as they are atheists or agnostics but they are reluctant to admit this to their families. I have worked with apostate Muslim colleagues who ignore Ramadan: in the UK and Western Europe they have the perfect right to do so. This right must be defended. Equally the right to worship and to hold the belief in a faith must be defended too.

Only a secular society can defend everyone's  right to have freedom of conscience. The opponents of a secular society would do well to consider this. There has been terrible religious repression in Western Europe throughout history; even Christians have been at each others throats. Western European society has had a terrible history and bigots of all kinds have murdered Jews, Muslims and non-believers with equal vigour. Nazism was a kind of religious fervour  - Adolf Hitler was impressed by mysticism.

To achieve peace there is a trade off: the religious must accept the rights of the non-religious to criticise belief in a God and religious worship. Murdering people who do not have the same beliefs as you is totally unacceptable and the secular society must be defended at all costs to protect the rights of everyone.

Richest 1% to own more than rest of world by 2016

According to a report by Oxfam the richest 1 % of the world's population will own 50% of the world's wealth by 2016. This figure is probably not totally accurate but I am willing to bet that it is close to the mark.

A good proportion of the world's population live in a democracy. I wonder if anyone read in the manifesto of a political party that it was policy to allow such a small proportion of people to possess so much of the world's wealth. Would anyone have voted for such a policy?

I wonder if the economists, businessmen and politicians at the 2015 Davos conference believe that it is economically sustainable for so few people to possess so much of the world's wealth and income.

Perhaps there will come a time when almost no-one can afford to buy the goods and services being produced by the global economy. If that happens we would all be in trouble both rich and poor.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30875633