New Humanist Update

The May/June issue of New Humanist is out now, and as always there's lots of great writing for you to get stuck into. In our cover story Paul Sims looks at how the government's counter-extremism policy has gone down in Blackburn, a town with a 20 per cent Muslim population, while Kenan Malik looks at the legacy of the Rushdie affair and argues that both the multiculturalists and Western chauvinists have got it wrong in their reactions to Islam.

Elsewhere in the issue Michael Neumann laments the death of English liberty, David Aaronovitch asks why we love conspiracy theories, Caspar Melville speaks to the editor of The Economist about the return of religion, Roger Davidson raises a glass to Tom Paine and much more.

You can access the full list of contents here.

Those of you in London may be interested in attending a couple of events we're hosting during the International Humanist and Ethical Union's world conference in early June.

On 4 June, 6.30pm at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, there's the preview of an exhibition of Judith Walker's paintings that's being held in association with New Humanist. If you'd like to attend please RSVP to art@judithwalker.co.uk. If you can't make the preview, the exhibition will continue in the Brockway Room at Conway Hall until 31 July (please phone ahead on 020 7242 8032 to check there is no meeting in the room).

Then on 8 June, 6pm at the Art Workers Guild, London, we're holding a book launch for the second edition of Jim Herrick's Humanism: An Introduction, which has just been released through our publishing arm, the Rationalist Press Association. If you're interested in attending please RSVP to editor@newhumanist.org.uk. The book is on sale now priced £9.99 through our book distributor Central Books – if you like to buy a copy call them on 0845 458 9911.

As you may know, science writer Simon Singh is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the British Chiropractic Association, who are suing him for libel after he wrote in the Guardian last year that "This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments".

A preliminary ruling on the meaning of "bogus treatments" passed by Justice Eady on 7 May means that the onus is now on Singh to prove that the BCA was being deliberately dishonest, not something he intended, he argues.

Singh's plight has attracted huge support from the general book, who have been joining online campaigns (such as this Facebook group) in their thousands to express their support for him and their opposition to Britain's staggeringly illiberal, plantiff-friendly libel laws. On Monday 18 May hundreds of people packed into a central London pub for a meeting in support of Singh, at which he announced that he hopes to appeal against the preliminary ruling, although he is not in a position to confirm this just yet. You can read a full report on this meeting at the New Humanist blog.

Keep checking in on the blog for updates on the case, and be sure to register your support by joining the Facebook group Support Simon Singh and Free Speech.

Make sure you get involved with two new additions to our online content – we've just started a Facebook page for New Humanist, which has already become a lively place for discussion as we post news from our blog and links to events that may be of interest. Join us.

Those of you on Twitter can also follow us there – we've accumulated over 1,200 followers in just a couple of months, and we're keen. Our tweeter-in-chief [or Chief Twit- Ed] updates several times a day, and he's more interesting than Stephen Fry [usually- Ed].

Do you read the New Humanist Blog? It's updated every day, and if you're not a regular visitor then just this month you've missed reports on Simon Singh's legal battle with the British Chiropractic Association, the failure of a book about Muhammad's child bride to find a UK publisher, our debate over the merits of, err, blogs, and the bizarre story of a celibate Polish priest and his brand new guide to great sex...