The 70th anniversary conference of the American Humanist Association has been held in the last few days. More that 450 people attended included representatives from the International Humanist and Ethical Union and the British Humanist Association.

IHEU speakers at the conference included: president Sonja Eggerickx, vice presidents Andrew Copson, Mel Lipman and Roar Johnson, and international representative Matt Cherry. There was a great deal of enthusiasm for the work of IHEU and several groups expressed interest in joining IHEU, including new groups in the Philippines and Colombia.

Sonja Eggerick’s conference presentation on IHEU and its current activities and goals is available here:http://www.iheu.org/president-explains-international-humanist-work

The AHA conference featured awards to many distinguished Humanists. Writer and professor of philosophy Rebecca Goldstein was named the 2011 Humanist of the Year. Goldstein, a recipient of the Montague Prize for Excellence in Philosophy, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur “Genius” Award, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005. She has written many books, ranging from novels to philosophical biographies, including, Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity, and most recently, Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction.

Several other distinguished Humanists also received awards. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computers, received the Isaac Asimov Science Award. Judy Norsigan, executive director and founder of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, received the Humanist Heroine Award. Candace Gingrich-Jones, the Youth and Campus Outreach Associate Director at the Human Rights Campaign, was given the LGBT Humanist Pride Award. And Bart Ehrman, Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be receiving the Religious Liberty Award.

Link: http://www.iheu.org/american-humanist-conference-success

Sonja Eggerickx, president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), was honoured by the Belgian government yesterday as part of the hundredth anniversary of International Women’s Day.

Sonja Eggerickx was honored for her outstanding service as a Humanist leader. Her volunteer activities include serving as president of Unie Vrijzinnige Verenigingen (UVV), the Flemish umbrella organization for Humanism in Belgium, as well as president of IHEU.

Sonja took part in a conference and ceremony in the Belgian Senate along with the other exceptional women. The honorees were each given a statuette in recognition of their pioneering work.

“They are pioneers who took their part in achieving more equality in Belgian society, who cleared the way for others or fought against discrimination” said Joelle Milquet, vice prime minister of Belgium and also minister for labour and equal opportunities.

Link: www.iheu.org/belgium-honours-iheu-president

The British Humanist Association is a member of IHEU.

Roy Brown, Main Representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), spoke to the UN Human Rights Council yesterday, protesting against slavery in states like Mauretania, and laws against “apostasy” in states like the Maldives.

We are deeply concerned by the continuation, with apparent impunity, of traditional forms of slavery in several States, despite laws prohibiting the practice. In particular, we urge the government of Mauretania, now that it has become a member of this Council, to ensure that its recently enacted laws against slavery are actually given effect and used to release the estimated 600,000 slaves still being held in bondage in that country.

We also continue to be dismayed by the state-sponsored, institutionalized hatred of non-believers in certain States. We note that at least three member States of this Council have laws in place that prescribe the death penalty for those who declare themselves to be non-believers. Those countries, sadly, include the Maldives, newly elected to this Council.

Two weeks ago, Mr Mohammed Nazim, a Maldivian, said in a public meeting that “although he had been taught about Islam he was unable to believe”. He is now in custody and facing calls for his death[ footnote: http://www.realcourage.org/2010/05/mohamed-nazim/ ]. We call on the government of the Maldives to release him immediately, and to allow him to seek asylum elsewhere, because his life is now definitely at risk.

http://www.iheu.org/slavery-and-non-belief

Mr Brown also spoke yesterday on the rights of women, including reproductive rights and maternal mortality.

http://www.iheu.org/women’s-right-life

The disgraceful problem of child witch hunts in Nigeria was addressed for the first time this week by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In a May 26 meeting with a large delegation of senior government representatives from Nigeria, the CRC raised a number of child rights issues, including birth registration, children in conflict with the law, adolescent health, adoption, child trafficking, street children, child marriage as well as witchcraft allegations against children.

Leo Igwe, IHEU’s representative in West Africa, whose work in Nigeria includes campaigning against witch hunts, welcomed the UN’s focus on this issue. “It is too easy for government to ignore these problems when they are hidden from view,” said Igwe. “We hope that by shining the international spotlight on these issues the UN will prompt serious government action in support of the work we are doing at the grassroots.”

The meeting at the UN was held to review the combined third and fourth periodic report of Nigeria on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Nigerian delegation was headed by Mrs Iyom Josephine Anenih, Minister for Women’s Affairs and Social Development, and also included representatives from the Ministries of Health, Education, Justice and Foreign Affairs, as well as delegates from NAPTIP, the Prison Service and the Police, and the Nigeria Children’s Parliament.

http://www.iheu.org/iheu-welcomes-un-focus-nigerian-witch-hunts

David Pollock discusses the varieties of humanist experience across Europe.

David Pollock, President of the European Humanist Federation

After nearly four years as President of the European Humanist Federation I suspect I have still not fully grasped how different are the approaches to Humanism and secularism in different countries.

Even the word ‘Humanism’ is difficult. Humanism in English is primarily now “our” Humanism – i.e., a positive, non-religious lifestance – and the churches struggle when they try to gain any ownership of the idea (“Christianity is the true Humanism – with  added God!”).  But in France humanisme and in Italy umanismo is still a broad concept close to Renaissance learning crossed with humanitarianism and is claimed by the church.

Not only that, but our colleagues there are highly suspicious of any attempt to develop non-religious beliefs – the idea of a non-religious ‘lifestance’ can be seen as a betrayal of their rejection of religion.

‘Secularism’ is another awkward word – after all, it is used with half a dozen meanings in English, from the political philosophy of separation of church and state to its pejorative use by church leaders to refer to a shallow consumerist attitude to life.

But in French laïcité is bound up with the very existence of the French Republic.  When the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) held its general assembly there in 2005, we were caught up in wall-to-wall celebration of the centenary of the 1905 law on separation of religion and the state – a separation that easily embraces a ban on Muslim schoolgirls wearing the veil and has led to strong public support for a legal ban on wearing the burqa – though even our secularist allies in France oppose that proposal.

Standing back, you can see a broad division between the Catholic south and the Protestant north.  In the former, with the need to challenge the domination of the Roman Catholic church and its interference in secular concerns, the emphasis is anti-clerical.

By contrast, in the northern countries not only has Protestantism resulted in a multiplicity of denominations with no single dominant church, so that religion bulks less large, but the emphasis on individual conscience has allowed the concept of a non-religious lifestance as an alternative to religion to emerge – specifically, the non-religious belief of Humanism.

But there is a significant division even in the north.  This emerges when we look at the question of what we mean by the political idea of secularism.

Broadly it is the difference between separation of church and state, or neutrality of the state as to religion or belief.

In the UK we tend to favour separation, reducing the churches to the status of any other non-governmental organisation.  The French think similarly but usually more ardently want a complete and total separation of church & state: French freethinkers deplore even any participation by religious organisations in public consultations.

But in the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Finland and parts of Germany the Government to a greater or lesser extent devolves functions that usually belong to the state to the main belief groups – typically the Catholic church, the Protestant church and the humanists.

The state remains neutral but it provides huge funds to the main ‘religion or belief’ bodies to provide services to the public – including straightforward religious worship and preaching!

This seems completely alien to us in the UK.

But the humanist organisations in the Netherlands (for example) are very happy to run some social services and community development, to have chaplains in the Armed services and hospitals, to run a university to train people to be humanist workers, to have a professional archive centre, and to dispense €70 or €80 m a year of public money in overseas aid.

However the result is that they are thoroughly incorporated into the state, where the churches remain the major players, and they seem to an outsider like me to have lost any wish to engage critically with religion.

Similarly in Belgium, where the humanists won a political battle in 1993 for equal recognition with the Catholics, other Christian denominations (mainly the Lutherans), Jews, and (since 1974) Muslims.

The result is that the two Belgian laïque organisations – one French, one Dutch speaking – have official recognition and (unlike in the Netherlands) direct government funding for their own organisations that provides premises and staff in every town, and radio and TV studios to produce programmes that are broadcast routinely on the national networks, and so on.

But the Government also pays for all the Roman Catholic  priests and their churches – and the division of funding in Belgium at the latest count was 86.4% to the Catholics and 7.8% to the laïques, with a total of 5.8% going to the Muslims, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews and Anglicans in that order.

This sort of arrangement – popularly known as a pillar constitution, where much is devolved to the main pillars of the community – is open in my eyes to severe criticism.

It gives overwhelming importance to religion or belief as a key personal characteristic – whereas we know from studies in England that here at least religion is a pretty unimportant factor in most people’s self-identification.

It assigns people to a very limited number of groups, which does not recognise the complexity of beliefs and almost forces them to act through these groups if they wish to pursue devolved activities – because they have the money & recognition.

And it therefore provides a life-support system for the churches long after their true support has – or would have – waned, as it has in the UK.

This is especially true where it carries over into religious education in schools: for example, in Belgium, parents opt for their children to get either Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish or Muslim religious instruction or a humanist ethical education.

However, it is comfortable for the humanist organisations in those countries, which are far richer than those elsewhere – and that helps the European Humanist Federation: our member organisations from countries with pillar arrangements provide the bulk of EHF resources!

Do not run away with the idea that it is only these countries with pillar constitutions that provide financial support to the churches, though.  Financial support is the rule rather than the exception across Europe and it is often provided on a massive scale.

David Pollock has been active in Humanism for nearly 50 years. He has been on the British Humanist Association board of trustees from 1966 to 1975 and again from 1997 to the present, and on the board of the Rationalist Association (New Humanist magazine) since 1989.  From 2006 he has been President of the European Humanist Federation.

Leo Igwe, of the Nigerian Humanist Movement and representing IHEU in Nigeria, discusses the current surge in violent clashes and massacres.

The Nigerian city of Jos once known for its peace and serenity has now become a scene of recurrent ethnoreligious bloodletting. Yesterday, at least 500 persons were reportedly killed in the latest out break of violence in the city. According to eye witnesses, a gang of men suspected to be islamic militants descended on the village of Dogo-Nahawa and attacked the people with matchetes. The militants shot in the air to bring people out of their houses and when they came out, they butchered and beheaded them. Most of the victims were mainly women and children. This latest killing is believed to be a reprisal attack by hausa-fulani muslims who suffered heavy casualties during the riots that broke out in January. In the past 10 years clashes between christian indigenes and muslim settlers have claimed thousands of lives. Attacks and counter attacks between christains and muslims in Jos have erupted several times in the past and are expected to continue in the near future due to the following reasons.

Islamic Imperialism

Islamists in Northern Nigeria want to exert and extend their power and influence by force if need be. Already, islamic theocrats have foisted their political agenda as codified in the sharia law on muslim majority states deepening the religious divide and the indigene-settler, muslim-christian dichotomy in the sharia states. Islamists want to extend their regime and influence to all states where muslims live or reside. And Plateau state falls within their sphere and remains one of their targets

Lack of Political Will

The recurrent cases of religious violence in Jos and in other parts of Northern Nigeria indicate a clear demonstration of lack of will to resolve this festering problem. This is because in Nigeria religion and politics mix. And in Northern Nigeria there is lack of separation of mosque and state. Islam is privileged. Anything islamic whether good or bad is the law or above the law. So violence perpetrated in the name of islam is not punished. Islamic militants are jihadists. And jihadists are treated as heroes, not criminals

Continues at: http://culturekitchen.com/leo_igwe/blog/why_religious_clashes_persist_in_jos

As part of a series of international conferences supported by the British Humanist Association last summer, IHEU (the International Humanist and Ethical Union) held an international conference on Untouchability, at which Lord Averbury announced plans for research into whether the problem of caste discrimination exists in Britain. The plans are now coming to fruition.

Discrimination on the grounds of caste – or historic social standing in Hindu and Sikh communities – may be happening in the UK, a government peer has said.

Ministers have previously said they did not think people from lower castes were treated unfairly in the workplace.

But Baroness Thornton said evidence may exist. … ”We have looked for evidence of caste discrimination and we now think that evidence may exist, which is why we have now commissioned the research,” she said.

“The proportionate thing is to take the power to deal with that discrimination if and when that evidence is produced.”

Lord Avebury, for the Liberal Democrats, who moved the amendment, said he believed the research would “conclusively prove that caste discrimination does occur in the fields covered by the [Equality] bill”.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8546661.stm

Greece has a new Humanist group. The Humanist Union of Greece (HUG) was launched this month, January 2010, and already has 65 members.

HUG aims to promote secularism and a humanist view of cultural, social and ethical values and to work for social and cultural progress. To achieve these aims, HUG:

“aims to to publish statements on specific issues related to its aims; to provide information to the public; to advocate before administrative and judicial authorities in order to promote the principles of secularism and the consequent individual and collective rights; to carry out educational, scientific and cultural action; to propose such legislation as is likely to facilitate the development and promotion of its aims; and to promote the place of voluntary organizations developing the same objectives.”

Story continues at http://www.iheu.org/greeks-launch-new-humanist-group

IHEU’s man at the UN reports on the formation of rules governing international behaviour in space.

Outer space has become a global commons. Around a thousand operational satellites, launched from more than forty countries, are now orbiting around the earth, and another eight dozen objects are launched into space each year. Space is also an increasingly busy and dangerous place. Today’s satellites are tomorrow’s space debris. About 300 satellites in orbit are no longer in use. More than 300,000 pieces of space junk travel aimlessly, risking collision with satellites in use, most recently in February last year, when a U.S. communication satellite collided with a nonfunctional Russian military satellite and generated a large amount of debris flying at high speeds.

Clearly, we need rules of the road.

Here on earth, we enjoy the benefits of space every day. Communication satellites enable broadcasting, telephone and television signals, provide internet linkages, and support financial transactions. When a communication satellite malfunctioned in 1998, thirty million pagers went silent, credit cards failed and some radio and television networks went off the air.

…

Since 1994, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) has developed standards that although not legally binding are of obvious interest to all countries. The United Nations is especially wary of military uses of outer space

http://www.iheu.org/report-un-rules-outer-space

IHEU has appealed to authorities in Nigeria to stop the police harrasment of Leo Igwe, IHEU Representative for West Africa. Igwe and members of his family have been subjected to a sustained campaign of harassment by local police involving multiple arrests on unsubstantiated charges since 2007. Most recently, Leo Igwe and his father, Oliver Igwe, were arrested on Tuesday, January 5.

Following complaints to Nigerian authorities by Humanists around the world, Oliver and Leo Igwe were released on bail. Then on January 8, Leo’s brother Uche Igwe was taken into custody by the State Security Service. He has now also been released.

The campaign of harassment against the Igwe family is a consequence of their work to bring to justice a powerful man in the area who allegedly raped a ten year old girl.

Leo Igwe’s father, who is a 77 year old diabetic in failing health, has been arrested six times on false charges since 2007. Two of Leo’s brothers have been detained three times each in connection with the same case.

http://www.iheu.org/nigeria-must-end-harassment-iheu-representative-leo-igwe

See previous stories:

• Leo Igwe arrested in Nigeria
• The tireless, courageous Humanism of Leo Igwe

Leo Igwe speaking on Nigerian caste discrimination at the IHEU "Untouchability" conference, Conway Hall, June 2009

As executive director of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) in West Africa and director of Centre for Inquiry Nigeria, Leo Igwe has often suffered for his tireless, humanist commitment to justice and the value of human life.

In 2009 he was assaulted by witch-hunters at an anti-witchcraft conference he organised, and then sued by the very church behind the attacks. (See a video of the “protest” against the conference. Note that most of the delegates remain calm and seated for some time while the church members riot through the building.)

Today, allegedly due to his calls for justice in the case of a man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl, Leo and his father have been arrested, purportedly in connection with a murder. According to a friendly local source:

Leo Igwe and his family have known no peace as several pettitions have been witten against them to intimidate them to submission and to abandon the struggle for justice. This latest one, they have been accused them of mudering an idividual who doctors provided a death certificate saying the man died of HIV and AIDS complication.

When the Calabar anti-witchcraft conference was invaded by members of Helen Ukpabio’s Liberty Foundation Gospel church in July last year, Josh Kutchinsky, a Trustee of the British Humanist Association, said, “Leo is a dear friend. He is knowledgeable, wise and courageous. … His intervention in individual cases of injustice, no doubt involve some personal risk.” Now, Leo’s friends and family locally fear that he and his father risk being tortured or murdered in police custody for their role in seeking for justice for the alleged rape victim, Ms Daberechi Anongam.

As well as organising and speaking at conferences on issues like witchcraft, Sharia and women’s rights, Leo has also worked with Amnesty International and Stepping Stones Nigeria. He writes and publishes on issues which, in the context of an often corrupt legal system and a culture saturated by ‘traditional’ values, are deemed controversial to the point of heresy. But he does not court danger for the sake of it. Here we collect some extracts from the writing of Leo Igwe which express principled stances on a number of issues. Even those who are conservative or ‘traditional’ enough to disagree with any of his sentiments must surely see that Leo’s position comes from a place of passionate concern for the well-being and flourishing of human life.

From Traditional African Practices and Islam:

Like the traditional African value system, most traditional African practices are fundamentally biased against women and gender-insensitive. Little wonder, then, it is upheld as a traditional practice in many parts of Africa for girls as young as seven to be married to men old enough to be their fathers, and in some cases, grandfathers.

…

The practice of female genital mutilation (fgm)-otherwise known as female circumcision-prevails as a tradition in Africa. This process entails the partial or total cutting away of the external female genitalia. Traditional healers, birth attendants, or elderly women usually carry out the practice. The procedure is often carried out in a septic environment with crude instruments such as knives, razor blades, and broken glasses, without anesthetics, or, at best, herbal medication to check bleeding and lessen pain. This crude and hazardous procedure is grounded in and surrounded by various myths, misconceptions, and superstitious nonsense. For instance, the ritual is performed as a rite of passage, for preparing young girls for womanhood and marriage. Many also believe that it prevents a woman from giving birth to a stillborn child. In some parts of western Nigeria, it is regarded as a taboo for the head of the child to touch the mother’s clitoris during delivery.

…

As a religious norm, Muslim women and girls are subjected to various forms of victimization and discrimination. They are not allowed to move about unveiled, nor are they allowed to vote, hold public office, or have social, political, or economic power. They are not given the freedom to choose their marriage partners. Their parents betroth them to the Mallams and the Alhajis in order to cultivate friendship, and to extend and cement bonds between families. For instance, in Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria, child marriages and arranged marriages are still commonplace. Consequently, the dreadful disease called vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) is widespread and endemic.

…

One of the most interesting and challenging experiences I have had as a humanist in the past couple of years has been trying to persuade my people to abandon these horrible and primitive customs. I have tried to persuade them to see the need for progress and improvement in our attitudes, value and society. We must openly examine the traditions we have held and accepted as sacrosanct. Many of these traditions are founded on traditional dogma, ignorance, and superstition.

From Towards a New Enlightenment:

So, for Europe, the 18th Century “Age of Light” was a true Enlightenment. But for Africa, it was not. Because, while Europe was glowing with the light of reason and science, Africa was groaning under the burden of European slavery, tyranny and imperialism. It could be rightly said that the European Enlightenment caused darkness in Africa. It dislodged Christian theocracy and expelled to the black continent the forces of unreason and superstition.

European Christian Missionaries invaded Africa in search of “believers” in what they self-styled a civilising mission “La mission civilatrice”. And European merchants thronged the continent in search of raw material to feed the industrial revolution. In actual fact, what Europe rejected and abandoned to get ‘enlightened’ was forced and foisted on Africans as a civilising or enlightening matrix.

As if that was not enough, as Christian crusaders were ravaging the continent, Arab jihadists were fighting, raiding, enslaving and killing their way to enlighten Africans on the basis of Islam and the Arab culture.

…

The real tragedy is not that Europeans and Arabs infiltrated and darkened the continent with their cultural myths and superstitions. After all, Africa has its own traditional myths and taboos, which have also undermined the process of African enlightenment and emancipation. But that Africans have at the end of the day – blindly embraced these alien dogmas and misconceptions at the expense of social peace, intellectual growth, moral progress, truth and originality.

…

In Nigeria, thousands of people have lost their lives to religious riots, and clashes since independence. Muslim fundamentalists have foisted Sharia law on the Islamic majority states in the North. Throughout the continent, religious fanatics are prosecuting an inquisition. They oppose the legalisaion of abortion and gay marriage, the abolition of the death penalty, female genital mutilation, child marriage and homophobia.

On The Osu Caste System:

Traditionally, there are two classes of people in Igboland – the Nwadiala and the Osu. The Nwadiala literally meaning ‘sons of the soil’ are the freeborn. They are the masters. While the Osu are the slaves, the strangers, the outcasts and the untouchables. Chinua Achebe in his well-known book, No Longer At Ease asks: What is this thing called Osu? He answers: “Our fathers in their darkness and ignorance called an innocent man Osu, a thing given to the idols, and thereafter he became an outcast, and his children, and his children’s children forever” The Osu are treated as inferior human beings in a state of permanent and irreversible disability. They are subjected to various forms of abuse and discrimination. The Osu are made to live separately from the freeborn. In most cases they reside very close to shrines and marketplaces. The Osu are not allowed to dance, drink, hold hands, associate or have sexual relations with Nwadiala. They are not allowed to break kola nuts at meetings. No Osu can pour libation or pray to God on behalf of a freeborn at any community gathering. It is believed that such prayers will bring calamity and misfortune.

On Sharia and Human Rights in Nigeria:

Indeed, the blood of “unbelievers”, the oppression of the poor, the exploitation of the weak and ignorant, the discrimination against women, the persecution of sexual minorities and the abuse of children have watered the tree of Islam in Northern Nigeria. And today, Sharia has become a potent tool in the hands of Islamic Jihadists for human rights violation, oppression and exploitation in the name of Allah.Sharia has become a weapon for islamic inquisition in Nigeria. There are no women among the Sharia court judges. Sharia does not recognize the rights of all individuals to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It has no place for equal rights of all human beings regardless of religion or belief. Sharia accords second-class status to non-Muslims. Some Sharia States in Nigeria have carried out amputations, and have flogged convicted offenders including Christians. Some years ago, international outcry saved the lives of Safiatu Hussein and Amina Lawal who were sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. Many people convicted under Sharia law- to be stoned or amputated – are languishing in jails across Northern Nigeria.

On “witchcraft” and Child Rights in Nigeria:

Child witchcraft is the superstitious belief that children can be witches and wizards or that infants can or do magically turn themselves into birds or insects to suck blood or mysteriously inflict harm. It is the belief that children have evil powers which they use or can use to destroy people, particularly their family or neighbours.

The effects of accusations of witchcraft on children take three forms: accusation, confession and persecution.

Children are accused of being witches and wizards. They are blamed for whatever goes wrong in their families. This could be death, disease, business failure, accidents or childbirth difficulties. Children are accused of witchcraft at home by parents and family members; in churches by ignorant and unscrupulous pastors; at shrines by primitive-minded traditional medicine men or witch doctors; or on the streets by mobs and gangs.

Children are forced to confess to being witches and wizards or to have taken part in witchcraft activities by family members or by mobs, in most cases through physical and mental torture.

Children alleged to be witches and wizards are persecuted through torture and inhuman and degrading treatment, which sometimes leads to their death. Such children are starved, chained, beaten, matcheted or even lynched. At the churches, pastors subject children alleged to be witches and wizards to torture in the name of exorcism. Witchdoctors force such children to drink potions (poison) or concoctions which can kill them or damage their health.

In Akwa Ibom State, superstition about child witchcraft is common and widespread. Most people in this state, as in other parts of Nigeria, believe that children can indeed be witches and wizards or that children can take part in witchcraft activities.

On The Need for Skepticism in Nigeria:

Nigeria is a very religious country with most of its population mired in superstition. This is not limited to the illiterate rural folks but is also applicable to the urban elite and literati. In Nigeria there is a strong and widespread belief in juju and charms, witchcraft, ghosts, astrology, divination, reincarnation, miracles, private revelation, fortunetelling, etc. These beliefs are fostered and reinforced by the many prophets and prophetesses, gurus, miracle workers, faith healers, and soothsayers that lurk in every nook and cranny of our cities and countryside.

These charlatans claim to have divine powers-the power to bilocate and predict the future, the ability to heal all diseases-even AIDS-and the power to make people rich or live longer.

All of this happens despite the fact that these beliefs and claims have not stood the test of time, science, and reason, and that contradictory evidence emerges every day. We have yet to see an organized and coordinated attempt to challenge and unmask these scientific pretensions and irrationalisms.

Instead, our schools, colleges, and universities as well as the local newspapers and film industry have continued to misinform the public by distorting science and packaging and presenting pseudoscientific beliefs as genuine science. In fact, some of our scholars have gone to the extent of defending these paranormal claims as “African Science,” taunting skeptics as Western apologists.

…

There is an urgent need to raise the level of critical thinking, scientific literacy, and understanding. African skeptics must see this as their primary responsibility. African skeptics must rise up to this great challenge now because all that is needed for superstition to thrive and triumph is for skeptics to do nothing.

Leo discusses the conference attack:

They then said the camera had broken and all of them pounced on me and started hitting me on the head and back. They snatched my bag containing my digital camera, conference papers and some cash. They smashed my glasses and made away with my mobile phone. Some friends who tried to rescue me from the mob were also beaten. The mob left with some of our conference banners and some anti-witchcraft T-shirts and caps, which we gave to participants.

For more on the work of Leo and the Nigerian Humanist Movement see IHEU’s articles on Nigeria.

You can also listen to Leo on the BBC World Service last year talking about the way that ‘tradition’ holds back the development of Africa.

Recently on his blog at culturekitchen.com, Leo speaks in broad terms about the many ways Africans are dying.

Africans are dying because most people in Africa are living false lives. People are afraid of being themselves, of living their own lives, and of asserting their own uniqueness and originality. Many people are living under illusions and deceptions. The real tragedy is that over the years, these lies and illusions have been institionalized and normalized to the extent that no one dares change them or challenge them. They have become a way of life.

When Leo spoke to the Central London Humanist Group in the summer, he seemed oddly cheerful, until Josh Kutchinsky, a long-time friend of Leo’s and chairing the discussion that evening, pointed out that Leo laughs in inverse proportion to the seriousness of what he is talking about. It’s not a cruel laugh, or a carefree laugh, of course. It’s like a bubble – his sense of the ridiculousness of it all – escaping from the boiling pot of his rational distaste for ignorance and injustice. Leo acknowledged the idiosyncrasy of his laughing in all the wrong places, and from that point on his delivery became more understandable, as well as more tragic. Because Leo laughs a lot when discussing the abuses and betrayals of Africans by Africans.

It’s the only defence mechanism of a man challenging all the “lies and illusions” in a country blood-drenched in prejudice and superstition.

Bob Churchill is Head of Membership and Promotion at the British Humanist Association

If the Organization of the Islamic Conference has its way, the UN will impose a global blasphemy law under the guise of combating “defamation of religions.”

Defined as disrespecting God, blasphemy may seem to be the ultimate victimless crime. But all too often the real victims of blasphemy laws are Humanists who dare to speak out. Just ask Dr. Younus Shaikh, the Humanist leader in Pakistan who spent more than three years on death row after being charged with blasphemy in 2000. Or Dr. Taslima Nasrin, the Humanist writer from Bangladesh who listened to a mob of 300,000 people demand that she be hanged for blasphemy. In response, her government issued an arrest warrant against her for “hurting religious feelings.”

In both cases, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) successfully campaigned to save the lives of these courageous Humanists. Yet both must still live in hiding, fearing for their lives, even in the West.

“Even in the West.” It’s a phrase I find myself using a lot these days to puncture a certain complacency among Humanists confident that secular progress will take care of itself. Progress never happens unless we work for it.

http://www.iheu.org/blasphemy-appeal-09

Humanism continues to take root and grow in the Southern African nation of Malawi. An inaugural conference in 2008 and a second national conference in 2009 were both funded by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). Now the Association of Secular Humanism (ASH) in Malawi is taking part in a high-profile debate—titled “Which is Good for Malawi: Christianity or Secular Humanism?”—which will be broadcast live on national radio on December 27.

http://www.iheu.org/malawi-debates-humanism-vs-christianity