Adelaide Mustang; Renae Barker on Sikh kirpans; Indian religious violence

Published: Thu, 08/10/23

RSA Daily

For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Rationale, the magazine of the Rationalist Society of Australia

Good morning ,

So why was I in Adelaide yesterday? Answer: to pick up this - a one-owner, meticulously kept, 2012, 5 litre, V8 Mustang. I know, I know, it's not environmentally friendly (though we did manage a very respectable 8.4 l/100 km fuel consumption on the long road back to Melbourne yesterday), but my other car is an i3s, which is fully electric and costs about $7 a week to run.

But in the future, my new partner and I intend to do a lot of touring and an i3s is somewhat limiting on Australian highways. And as we both love manual cars, and he loves convertibles (me not so much), and I used to work for Ford ... well, it all fell into place really.

Lead stories

Why a Queensland court overturned a ban on religious knives in schools

Not only did the Queensland law prohibit the freedom of religion of a small vulnerable minority, it…

Renae Barker from the University of WA is an expert in Australian secularism and, despite being a religionist (she's an Anglican), provides fair analysis of religious discrimination in this country. In this article, she examines the unreasonableness of the Qld ban on Sikhs wearing religiously symbolic knives at schools (something which, by the way, is specifically allowed in other states).

What's behind India's rampant religious violence? - DW - 08/10/2023

Hindu marches followed by clashes with Muslims have become a growing concern for nominally secular…

"A mob sets fire to a mosque and kills one of its leading imams .. the rioters also torched shops and vehicles in a mostly Muslim working-class part of the city .. the authorities responded by pulling down shops and makeshift structures owned by Muslims which they claimed had been built illegally." But Modi's govt says, "Nothing to see here". What's going on in India??