The greatest and most consequential innovations in human history have never resulted from an abundance of religious piety. The progress that improves lives comes as a result of scientific inquiry and a spirit of rationality.
Thousand-year-old religious texts cannot provide meaningful insight into the material nature of our world, nor does orthodoxy tend to respect free inquiry. Today in the Islamic world, many states enforce anti-science laws as a direct result of their non-secular nature. Meanwhile, distrust for naturalistic explanations of the world is a problem that runs through religious communities of all stripes.
Scientific facts nearly always begin as heresies. It is only by recognizing this that we can hope to understand ourselves and the world we live in.
This Week: Blasphemy, Power & Secrecy
From journalists to judges, The Unbelief Brief explores how no one is safe from Pakistan’s blasphemy vigilantes. But a new court order might be the first step toward dismantling these extremist networks. Meanwhile, in honor of Black History Month, EXMNA Insights takes a closer look at the Nation of Islam—its origins, its controversial teachings, and its place within the broader Islamic world.
The Unbelief Brief
Welcome to This Edition of the Unbelief Brief
This week, in The Unbelief Brief, we examine a heartbreaking case of honor violence. In the UK, a man has been convicted under a law that increasingly resembles a de-facto blasphemy law, raising concerns about free speech. In EXMNA Insights we dive into a critical yet often overlooked discussion: the deep historical ties between Islam and the transatlantic slave trade.
The Unbelief Brief
Your Weekly Dispatch Has Arrived
Welcome back! This week’s Unbelief Brief takes us to the unusual suspects of Sweden, Quebec, and New York. We share our thoughts about Miraj in EXMNA Insights and share a recent case from Pakistan in The Persecution Tracker.
The Unbelief Brief
Welcome Back to This Week’s Insights
This week’s Unbelief Brief takes us from Bangladesh’s unsettling proposal to remove secularism as a guiding principle of the state, to Spain’s encouraging steps toward repealing its outdated blasphemy law, and finally to the murky complexities of a Sri Lankan monk’s imprisonment over incendiary anti-Muslim rhetoric. Finally, in EXMNA Insights we explore what Religious Freedom Day means to us.
Unbelief Brief
Your Weekly Dispatch Awaits
Welcome back! This week’s Unbelief Brief brings the good news of Mubarak Bala’s release from prison. In EXMNA Insights, we reflect on the lasting importance of Charlie Hebdo’s work, 10 years after the tragic attack, and discuss Meta’s latest change. Finally, explore Mubarak Bala’s story in our Persecution Tracker Update, and don’t miss the newly released 2024 Persecution Tracker Report.
Unbelief Brief
Dissent Dispatch: Current Perspectives
This week we discuss Syria in The Unbelief Brief while EXMNA Insights questions if the Quran can coexist with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Unbelief Brief
Back for more? This Week’s Dispatch Has Arrived
Welcome back. This week our Unbelief Brief brings up an issue of hate speech persecuted as blasphemy, along with staggering new statistics on blasphemy-related arrests and imprisonments in Pakistan.
Welcome Back to Dissent Dispatch
This week’s Unbelief Brief examines the rescue of a Yazidi woman trafficked to Gaza, Bibles in Oklahoma public schools and atheists outnumbering theists in the UK.
Dissent Dispatch: Your Weekly Update
In this week’s Unbelief Brief, we look at charges against an Iranian actress for dancing in public and Erdogan’s vow to purge military officials for supporting a secular democracy.