Week-end readings 1

But let's put aside what the United States does or doesn't do to women. Name me an Arab country, and I'll recite a litany of abuses fueled by a toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend. When more than 90 percent of ever-married women in Egypt -- including my mother and all but one of her six sisters -- have had their genitals cut in the name of modesty, then surely we must all blaspheme. When Egyptian women are subjected to humiliating "virginity tests" merely for speaking out, it's no time for silence. When an article in the Egyptian criminal code says that if a woman has been beaten by her husband "with good intentions" no punitive damages can be obtained, then to hell with political correctness.

MONA ELTAHAWY in The Foreign Policy.

The secular age, then, is characterized by the fact of pluralism—an irreducible pluralism of beliefs, values, commitments. Yet we secular moderns also give special primacy to freedom of religion. Freedom of religion is standardly presented as the archetypical liberal right. So the paradox is this: how (and why) do we protect freedom of religion in an age where religion is not special?

Cécile Laborde on the Immanent Frame.

The investigative website Mediapart published what it called"compelling new evidence" that the Libyan regime decided to help finance Sarkozy's successful election campaign in 2007. A document that it said was signed by Gaddafi's foreign intelligence chief, Moussa Koussa, stated that the regime had approved a payment of €50m (£40m). 

 Angelique Chrisafis in The Guardian.

When you look at America, you have to concede that we have failed. Most Americans today are worse off than they were fifteen years ago. A full-time worker in the US is worse off today than he or she was 44 years ago. That is astounding – half a century of stagnation. The economic system is not delivering. It does not matter whether a few people at the top benefitted tremendously – when the majority of citizens are not better off, the economic system is not working. We also have to ask of the German system whether it has been delivering. I haven’t studied all the data, but my impression is no. I don’t want to talk about GDPanymore, I want to talk about what is happening to most citizens.

 Joseph Stieglitz in The European.