NEW HUMANIST VOLUME 122 No5 Tel 0207 436 1151 Fax 0207 079 3588 Email info@newhumanist.org.uk Editorial Offices 1 Gower Street, London WC1E 6HD

Editor Caspar Melville Commissioning Editor Laurie Taylor Associate Editor Sally Feldman Editorial Assistant Paul Sims Designer Nick McKay Cover, illustrations Martin Rowson Cartoons Judy Walker Subscription manager Judith Walker Subscription enquiries judith.walker@newhumanist.org.uk Tel 0207 436 1171 Advertising jamie@cabbell.co.uk Website www.newhumanist.org.uk ISSN 0306-512X

Published by the Rationalist Association RA President Jonathan Miller Vice presidents Baroness Susan Greenfi eld, Paul Kurtz, Laurie Taylor Honorary associates David Aaronovitch, Peter Atkins, Lord Birt, Harold Blackham, Colin Blakemore, Alan Brownjohn, Colin Campbell, Philip Campbell, Noam Chomsky, Bernard Crick, Helena Cronin, Richard Dawkins, Sanal Edamaruku, Paul Edwards, Ekow Eshun, Winston Fletcher, Michael Foot, AC Grayling, Stuart Hall, Tony Harrison, Simon Heff er, James Hemming, Christopher Hitchens, Eric Hobsbawm, Richard Hoggart, Ted Honderich, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Sir Ludovic Kennedy, Richard Leakey, Sir Michael Levey, Sir John Maddox, Haydn Mason, Edwin Mullins, Conor Cruise O’Brien, John Postgate, Claire Rayner, Amartya Sen, David Starkey, Ralph Steadman, DJ Stewart, Ian Stewart, Claire Tomalin, David Tribe, Baroness Turner of Camden, Arnold Wesker, Francis Wheen, Lewis Wolpert

4 New Humanist

18

24

30

REGULARS 3] Editorial The perils of partition 6] Parish news 8 ] Yours sceptically Readers’ letters 28] The whiting on the wall Chris Maslanka’s quiz

46] Endgame Laurie Taylor is faking it

FEATURES 12] Only joking Jonathan Miller and guests on how humour makes us human

18] Forced Labour Slavery is on the rise in Britain, says Rahila Gupta

20] Ban the bombers? Should we be worried about radical Islam on campus? asks Paul Sims 24] Out of this world Why is fantasy taking over our TV screens? Natalie Haynes unravels a mystery 26] When worlds collide Scientists must not indulge mysticism, argues Yves Gingras 30] Virtue rewarded Virgins of the world unite, says Sally Feldman. You have nothing to lose 34] God slot Thought for the Day should open up to humanists, says David Hendy 36] Secrets and lies Survivors of abuse in religious schools are finally making their case, reports Francis Beckett

20 SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2007

10] The hills are alive Maruf Khwaja warns of Pakistan’s deepening crisis

38] Native son Murray Pittock asks if Walter Scott was an enemy of the Scottish Enlightenment

COLUMNS 7] Diary Lucy Mangan is lacking put-downs for the pious 16] Opinion Why Christopher Brookmyre’s new novel is dedicated to the debunkers of pseudo-science 29] Thinkers Nina Power on Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach

BOOK REVIEWS 40] Rev’d Dr Giles Fraser on why you should read the Bible 41] Stan Cohen reviews Coetzee’s latest 42] Stephen Howe is bored with apathy 43] Stuart Sim admires the art of listening 44] Sami Zubaida questions Islamic democracy 45] Keith Kahn-Harris on a Jewish photographic history 45] Poem Snow by Louis MacNeice

CONTRIBUTORS

Lucy Mangan‘s diary appears on page 7. She is a columnist and features writer for the Guardian and author of Hopscotch & Handbags; the Essential Guide to Being a Girl (Headline Review)

Crime writer Christoper Brookmyre has published several bestsellers and was winner of the 2006 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. His new novel, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, is dedicated to James Randi and Richard Dawkins. He explains why on page 16.

Campaigner and journalist Rahila Gupta has written radio drama and is the editor of From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers: Southall Black Sisters. Her article on page 18 is inspired by her latest book Enslaved: The New British Slavery.

David Hendy writes about Thought for the Day on page 34. He is a Reader in Media History at the University of Westminster and author of Life on Air: a History of Radio Four, published in September by Oxford University Press.

Nina Power’s profile of the philosopher Ludwig von Feurbach appears on page 29. She is a regular contributor to New Humanist and her PhD was on humanism and anti-humanism in post-war French philosophy.

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2007 New Humanist 5