All posts tagged: refuse

Charity hosts preacher who said men can hit wives who refuse sex

Charity hosts preacher who said men can hit wives who refuse sex

Published by skeptic

An Islamic charity issued regulatory “advice and guidance” last year over misogynistic sermons has since hosted a preacher who has said men can hit their wives if they refuse to have sex with them. Green Lane Masjid and Community Centre in Birmingham recently published videos featuring sermons by Mahamed AbdurRazaq (pictured). In a separate sermon recorded last year at An-Noor Masjid and Community Centre, AbdurRazaq said a man is “allowed to hit” his wife if she refuses “intercourse”. The National Secular Society reported An-Noor Masjid, also in Birmingham, to the Charity Commission over concerns the sermon condoned marital rape. The Charity Commission subsequently gave An-Noor Masjid “advice and guidance”. According to The Times, the commission said the charity has suspended AbdurRazaq from further speaking engagements. The Charity Commission also said: “Anyone who advocates violence against women has absolutely no place in charity and we will not hesitate to act in such cases”. But it has since emerged Green Lane Masjid has published at least nine videos within the past four months of lectures by AbdurRazaq, …

Gen-X Parents Like Me Refuse To Praise Their Kids For Anything Less Than 100%

Gen-X Parents Like Me Refuse To Praise Their Kids For Anything Less Than 100%

Published by skeptic

Let me start by saying that I am extremely proud of my children. I’m proud of their manners, kind hearts, and willingness to share with other children and not act like complete monsters. I’m proud of their beauty, on the inside and the outside. I’m proud of their intelligent minds and sense of humor. I’m also proud of their talents. They both excel in different sports and have amazing artistic abilities. My daughter was playing the piano well at the age of three. My son could draw a good Ninja Turtle by memory at the age of four. They’ve both been blessed with natural gifts that cause my husband and me to beam with pride. RELATED: The Fallout Of Traumatized Gen-Xers Like Me — ‘Our Parents Needed Help More Than They Needed Children’ Yes, I’ve seen my children shine in many things. But some things don’t come naturally to them, and I’ve cheered them on as they worked their butts off to achieve goals, both academically and athletically. I’ve also watched them slack and become …

NOAA scientists refuse to link warming weather to climate change

NOAA scientists refuse to link warming weather to climate change

Published by skeptic

Extreme weather, including hurricanes, has increased with climate change MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) presents a briefing summarising the global climate each month – and in the first of these calls under the Trump administration, NOAA researchers avoided making any link between January’s record high global temperatures and climate change caused by human greenhouse gas emissions. “It’s not great for science. It’s not great for truth,” says David Ho at the University… Source link

Muslim Americans face a tough choice, but we have to refuse to empower Trump

Muslim Americans face a tough choice, but we have to refuse to empower Trump

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — Determined after the horrors of the first Trump presidency not to see another, in 2020 I gathered a diverse team of Muslim Americans from around New Jersey to form NJ Muslims for Biden. In the 2020 election cycle, we made more than 136,000 calls in partnership with the Muslim political organizing group Emgage Action, helping to turn out more than 50,000 Muslim voters in Pennsylvania. We were part of a broad coalition that was the margin of victory in that election.  I never imagined then that four years later our Muslim American community would be confronted with such a difficult choice. Many Muslims view Harris as simply an extension of Biden, a president who has seemingly heartlessly funded a war and with American bombs enabled catastrophic harm to our Palestinian and Lebanese siblings and children.  A longtime progressive Muslim American Democrat, I understand this anti-Biden sentiment. Like my community, I feel abandoned and betrayed by a party that has stood silently by as civilian men, women and children have been targeted en masse …

‘We refuse to disappear’: the Hong Kong 47 facing life in jail after crackdown | Hong Kong

‘We refuse to disappear’: the Hong Kong 47 facing life in jail after crackdown | Hong Kong

Published by skeptic

The verdict wasn’t surprising but outside room no 2 of the West Kowloon courthouse, people still wept. The panel of Hong Kong national security judges had set down two days for the hearing but dispensed with the core business in about 15 minutes. In the city’s largest ever national security trial – involving the prosecution of pro-democracy campaigners and activists from a group known as the “Hong Kong 47” – almost all the defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to commit subversion. Their crime was trying to win an election, holding unofficial primaries in 2020 attended by an estimated 600,000 residents. The plan was devised by organiser and academic Benny Tai, who had previously been jailed over his involvement in the 2014 “umbrella movement”, and whom Beijing has labelled a “vicious traitor”. Tai’s plan began with primaries to select the best candidates to win a legislative majority. They would then block government budgets to potentially force a dissolution and the resignation of the chief executive, Carrie Lam, in an effort to have the government answer …

Flight attendant on trick to punish passengers who refuse to swap seats

Flight attendant on trick to punish passengers who refuse to swap seats

Published by Sam

In a fascinating revelation, a flight attendant has shared her clever tactic for dealing with passengers who are reluctant to switch seats. This seemingly perennial issue sparks constant debate among travellers – some impassioned individuals maintain that once you’ve purchased a specific seat, no one should presume to demand a swap. However, others counter that in certain situations, accommodating a seat change request, especially for those who might genuinely require it, proves the wiser, kinder approach, reports the Mirror. But an airline hostess may just have a solution… She’s revealed her unique strategy to persuade unyielding passengers to exchange their seats, particularly when faced with parents flying with young kids – and she confidently declares this tactic unfailingly effective. READ MORE Baby suffers heart attack at Legoland Windsor with woman arrested Mitra Amirzadeh, an Orlando-based flight attendant, spoke to The Wall Street Journal about her approach. Mitra, who also holds the position of union representative at an airline which levies fees for advanced seat selection, disclosed: “I have said before, ‘OK, so you’re going to …

Chaos Erupts At UCLA After Pro-Gaza Activists Refuse Entry To Non-Allied Students

Chaos Erupts At UCLA After Pro-Gaza Activists Refuse Entry To Non-Allied Students

Published by skeptic

It’s like the Seattle CHAZ encampment all over again.  Far-left activists have declared the UCLA campus a “liberated zone” and are refusing entry for many students not affiliated with the pro-Gaza protests.  They have erected barriers and placed guards, creating makeshift checkpoints which require a special wrist band in order to gain passage. Wristbands are being used to identify anti-Israel students at @UCLA so that they are allowed to enter Royce Quad, Royce Hall, and Powell Library. Some students are allowed in and out, others are kept out. This is ILLEGAL and UCLA is not just tolerating it but facilitating it. pic.twitter.com/CbdodKLK53 — Sia Kordestani (@SiaKordestani) April 30, 2024 In other words, if you aren’t an “ally” then you don’t get to attend classes, or, if you’re lucky you are allowed to take a longer route around the barricades.  Keep in mind, this is not a protected form of protest or free speech, which explains why many college campuses have chosen to have protesters removed by police.  UCLA so far appears to be supporting the …

My partner hates my pubic hair but I refuse to shave. What now? | Life and style

My partner hates my pubic hair but I refuse to shave. What now? | Life and style

Published by skeptic

My partner does not like going down on me. He says it tastes quite bitter and that my pubic hair leaves an unpleasant sensation. Unlike some women, however, I am not willing to shave. I did when I was much younger, but I didn’t like it. This relationship is a serious one and we both want to fix this. I have suggested that we just keep trying but when we do he gets anxious, tense and stressed and eventually gives up. This upsets me and he knows this. When we discuss this, he expresses a lot of shame and embarrassment. How can we overcome this? I have been with other guys as a hairy person and it has never been a problem for them. I know that no one’s genitals are a bed of roses and every body is different. My partner accepts that I won’t change or compromise, as deciding not to shave is taking charge of my sexuality and body. I’m happier this way. A person who is made to feel anxious, tense …

DOJ Continues To Refuse Handing Over Audio Recording Of Special Counsel’s Interview With Biden

DOJ Continues To Refuse Handing Over Audio Recording Of Special Counsel’s Interview With Biden

Published by skeptic

Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times, The Department of Justice (DOJ) stands its ground on its refusal to surrender the audio recording of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden to the House Oversight Committee. Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.), chairmen of the House Judiciary and Oversight Accountability committees, warned Attorney General Merrick Garland that he would hold him in contempt of Congress unless he handed over the recording of Mr. Hur’s interview stemming from a probe into President Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified information. In the letter, signed on April 25, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte told Mr. Jordan and Mr. Comer that despite the committees’ threats of contempt proceedings, the DOJ has adequately responded and sees no reason to give the audio to the committees. “We have repeatedly invited the Committees to identify how these audio recordings from law enforcement files would serve the purposes for which you say you want them,” the letter stated. “We have also repeatedly urged the Committees to avoid unnecessary …

Troubled Thames Water seeks way forward as shareholders refuse to pump in more cash

Troubled Thames Water seeks way forward as shareholders refuse to pump in more cash

Published by skeptic

Troubles at Thames Water, the UK’s largest water company, are continuing after investors said they would not give the company £500 million of extra cash by the end of this month. The company, which serves 15 million customers in Swindon and Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and London, has over £18 billion in debt and needs huge investment to improve its ageing infrastructure as well as to pay fines. READ MORE: Thames Water secures £750 million cash injection from shareholders Thames wants Ofwat to agree to putting up customers’ water bills over the next five years amid the company’s turnaround plan, but reportedly, the regulator is not prepared to do that. On Thursday, it emerged that shareholders, which include large pension funds and Chinese and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds, are worried that conditions imposed by Ofwat had made Thames Water “uninvestible” and are withholding a first payment of £500 million due at the end of March – part of a commitment made last summer to pump £750 million this year into the beleaguered company. The …