Comedian Aziz Ansari mocked Rupert Murdoch for the anti-Muslim comments he made after the Charlie Hedbo attacks. Image from The Young Turks.
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On this episode we discuss terrorism, Islamophobia, free speech and Charlie Hedbo. We discuss the way Rupert Murdoch was mocked by comedian Aziz Ansari and writer JK Rowling (and so many others!) for the anti-Muslim comments he made after the Charlie Hedbo attacks. We also read comedian Aaamer Rahman’s great article ‘Fears escalate as more young Australians enlist in overseas terror campaign’, which flips the roles in discussions around terrorism and who has to condemn it. For more on these issues, check out Nick’s article ‘When Will Moderate Whites Condemn the NAACP Bombing?’.
We also mention Aamer Rahman’s criticisms of Iggy Azalea and have a discussion on her hip hop, analysed through the lens of race, gender and class. Other stuff covered on the episode is: our 2014 Annual WordPress Report, New Internationalist’s 2015 diary, the market vs the environment (in cartoon form!), terrorism and increasing state powers, and criticisms of the I’ll Ride With You campaign.
If you like what you hear, please support the show!
Clips:
Less than Jake ‘All My Best Friends are Metal Heads’, Aziz Ansari ‘Are White People Psyched All The Time?’, Atheists being Dicks, Austin Powers, Legally Brown ‘The Brown Radio Shock Jock’, The Smith Street Band ‘Wipe That Shit Eating Grin Off Your Punchable Face’.
You can listen to a short (8 minute) version of this episode, which features our opening discussion on terrorism, Islamophobia, free speech and Charlie Hedbo, below. You can subscribe to these short versions of our episodes through Omny.
progressivepodcastaustralia 
Good episode. It makes re-evaluate my position on topics.
Thanks Rod, nice to hear you got something out of it!
Nick
Thank you both for another very good episode. It was as ever passionate, informative and thought-provoking.
Re your comments on sexism within the Atheist movement, I wished you had done a more in-depth analysis. There is a small but vocal atheist anti-feminist element (mostly on YouTube), but for the most part it is progressive, pro equal rights, and anti-discrimination. Please have a look at the speaker list for Skepticon 7 (a popular sceptic/atheist convention) to get an idea of where the movement is going – covering transgender murders in the US, online harassment, and coming out as a (female) atheist to your Muslim family.
The subject of how to have a productive and rational discussion about Islam in the media is a difficult one. I would love it if you would cover it in a future episode: Are we stopping ourselves from criticising the inherent misogyny, anti-LGBTQ and cruelty of the Quran because it will be seen as denigrating the close beliefs of the Muslim community; a community which is already discriminated against?
Keep up the good work.
Cheers!
Hey Angelo, great to hear you enjoyed the episode and thanks for your thoughtful feedback on it.
I definitely agree with a lot of what you have to say here – particularly that we were too dismissive of the atheist movement as a whole, which is giving too much weight to some of the louder, sexist voices in the movement. I think this was partly caused by the short amount of time we gave to the subject, which didn’t allow for these nuances to be explored, and also due to our limited experiences in the movement (we went to the 2010 atheist convention and that’s about it). However, even in that experience, while there was a white, male dominance (which is certainly not limited to the atheist movement, the punk scene and many other subcultures have this same issue), the people there were mostly really cool and progressive in our experience.
I was aware of people in the atheist movement opposing sexism and other forms of discrimination but again, we probably didn’t give enough weight to these voices, and it’s great that at that conference you referred to, the speakers were raising important issues in a progressive way. If there is a particular section of these talks (perhaps a few minutes) that you think we should play on the show, please let us know and we might be able to do that.
I feel strongly about atheism and certainly do not believe that religion should be free from criticism. I agree that discussing Islam and the Quran in the context of Islamophobia and racism is something we should cover in more detail on the show – I’ll make sure we do this. If you’d like to come on the show to discuss this, or have someone you’d recommend we contact to speak to about this, please let me know, if not, I’m sure we’ll both have lots to say on this as we do about most issues!
Thanks again,
Nick
Cheers for the quick reply, Nick. I’ve decided to put my money where my ear is and have just donated to your podcast.
Thanks for the offer to be interviewed but I’m better with my hands as a cartoonist than speaking, so I will decline. Please have a look at my cartoons critical of religion/xenophobia here: http://madridtoons.tumblr.com/
Keep up the good work!
Angelo
Thanks a lot for the donation Angelo!
I like the cartoons and we’ll be sure to give the site a plug when we mention your membership 🙂
I like the Bible Literalist one about the virgin daughters – had heard that “moral” story from the Bible before – very horrible and definitely needs to be called out in terms of the Bible supposedly promoting moral values blah blah blah.
Thanks again,
Nick
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