Silence of the teachers; secularism in Tunisia; Rushdie
Freethought update, 30 July - 19 Aug

Dear reader,

We had expected August to be a relatively quiet month at the Freethinker. Then, last Friday, came the attack on Salman Rushdie. This has brought to the fore many questions about free speech and its relationship to religion, particularly Islam. To mark this event and show solidarity with Rushdie and other victims of religious oppression, we have published a round-up of our previous articles on related topics, as well as a 'Rush-die' cartoon. We hope to be presenting further reflections on the attack and its implications in the next few weeks.

Our leading article this week is a personal account by a secondary school teacher of what happened in his east London school when some of his students started to wear orthodox Islamic dress, and then to segregate themselves, leave lessons to pray, and otherwise not participate in school life according to the rules. When he raised the matter with colleagues, the response was a deafening silence.

We also have an article on Tunisia by Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, a Pakistani political journalist and regular contributor to the Freethinker. He presents a detailed analysis of the country's steps towards secularisation since the Arab Spring, and its seeming regression under Kais Saied, president since 2019.

New articles
- Silence of the teachers, by a secondary school teacher in England
- What the Muslim world can learn from Tunisia, by Kunwar Khuldune Shahid
- The Satanic Verses; free speech in the Freethinker, editorial

Freethought around the world
We're delighted to be receiving submissions from contributors from Iran to Myanmar. The practice of thinking and speaking freely, clearly, and without being clouded by emotion or bias, which we at the Freethinker try to cultivate, is an essential element of human progress everywhere. If you like what we publish, please help us to share it as widely as possible.

Best wishes,

Emma Park
Editor, The Freethinker
editor@freethinker.co.uk
freethinker.co.uk