Srebrenica

September's Manchester meeting was lead by Ms Heather Fletcher, the Co-Chair of The Muslim Jewish Forum.  She provided the group with an outline of what she learned about Srebrenica during her trip to former Yugoslavia in 2015.  She made the trip with a group called Women of Faith.

Bosnia was part of the Ottoman Empire between c.1459 CE and 1878 CE.  The Ottomans encouraged local people to nominally convert to Islam.  In 1908 Bosnia was formally incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  This caused widespread resentment in neighbouring Serbia which had designs on incorporating it into a Greater Serbia. This led to the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand in the summer of 1914 in Sarajevo.  After the First World War Bosnia (and Serbia) were incorporated into the new state of Yugoslavia. During the Second World War the only effective resistance to German occupation was provided by Marshall Tito's communists.  After the War Tito became the ruler of Yugoslavia. Ms Fletcher was of the view that Tito formed one of the most successful Socialist states ever and it was not uncommon to have a Church, a Mosque and a Synagogue existing peacefully on the same street in Sarajevo.  In Tito's Yugoslavia coexistence, inter-marriage and toleration were normal. After the death of Tito the state began to break up into the smaller national entities and a new wave of nationalism and religious bigotry swept the Balkans. The Serbian idea of Greater Serbia re-emerged.  Ms Fletcher's party visited a medical centre which treated women who had been raped during the conflict.  It is said that between 50,000 and 100,000 rapes were carried out during the conflict and many of the attackers were former neighbours, school friends and/or work colleagues. The purpose of rape was to change their ethnic identity or to spoil these women for future husbands.

Ms Fletcher explained that Srebrenica was once a thriving town which has now largely been abandoned. Over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by the Bosnian Serb army there during the massacre in 1995.  Around 6,000 have known graves and the process of identifying the remains is still ongoing.  On 11 July every year a mass funeral takes place for the remains identified in the past year.  Ms Fletcher’s group met with a woman who had lost both of her sons and her husband.  She attended a war crimes tribunal where she met a former Serbian fighter who apologised to her for his part in the massacre.  This woman was not bitter and resentful and gave the fighter her forgiveness as she believed life was too short and it was evil to bear grudges.  Ms Fletcher ended her presentation by saying that their guide during their trip, Rashid, had friends from all the different identities in Bosnia and for this reason he was hopeful for the country’s future. Suggested Further Reading on the Topic: Little, A: Silber, L & Ciric, A: The Death of Yugoslavia.  A book to accompany the TV series and a very good introduction to the disintegration of Yugoslavia.  Clark, C: The Sleepwalkers.  A book about the origins of World War One. It gives a good account of the Serbian angle.  Goldhagen, D : Hitler's Willing Executioners. Along with Browning, C: Ordinary Men. This is a book which shows that normal people do horrific things and relates to events in Poland and Germany.

Writing "The Einstein Code"

At the September Stockport meeting Joanne Welch, author of The Einstein Code, talked about how she came to write the book. She began with the influences on her early life including the schoolteacher who suggested to her parents that she should go to a private Grammar school. This was achieved with the aid of a bursary and a second-hand uniform.

Ever questioning, the Evangelical Christians with whom she worshipped said she was not a proper Christian, so she went to St Paul’s where she became the first girl to become a server.

It was at Wadham College Oxford when she really began to question the existence of God. She was introduced to Richard Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene and Hawking's A Brief History of Time. 
She had a career for a time but then found herself caring for her children and a parent with dementia. Needing something to use her brain, she wrote The Einstein code. When an early version was not published she went on a writing course. Malory Blackman taught her to write to please herself, to read and to rewrite. A novel must have a passionate theme and a good plot structure. Normality should first be established then there must be a trigger point after which the hero/heroine embarks on a perilous journey. There must be a Quest with a few surprises and, of course, a climax. Barry Cunningham’s advice was to start with something dramatic, a “car going over a cliff” moment. Val McDermid said that to write better books one should first read bad books. A recipe for a successful character is a little bit of yourself and a little bit of those you love.  Armed with all this advice she did rewrite and received two offers in 9 weeks.

The book is aimed at children and includes messages in code. Joanne talked about the Caesar code used in the book which is a kind of substitution cipher in which each letter is “shifted” a certain number of places up or down the alphabet. Joanne provided a number of messages in code for the audience to decipher.

She also discussed book codes where both sender and recipient have to use the same page of the same book to encrypt and decrypt the messages.

Other books planned are: The Darwin Code and The Quantum Code

What Is The Meaning of Life

Derek McComiskey spoke to the August Stockport meeting.  He used numerous quotes as a backbone to his talk.  Many people seem happy to opine on The Meaning of Life (or, more realistically, How to Create Meaning in Life) and these opinions are sometimes sensible, sometimes amusing.  After initially stating that the answer is 42, he then suggested that Meaning can be analysed in two ways:
Comprehension (making sense of your life, of the world, and how you fit into it) and 
Purpose (long term goals that motivate you).

He then used quotes to illustrate four “Meaning Landscapes” 
1) where God-given meaning rains down from above
2) a desert devoid of meaning 
3) a rabbit-farm where the only (evolutionary) purpose is to procreate, and 
4) a mature tree of meaning growing out of our lives.

We owe a debt of gratitude to thinkers of the past who have forged our contemporary attitude to meaning: notably Nietzche and the Existentialists.

The idea of being in touch with Something Bigger Than Ourselves is common in this area of thought.  People often cite Relationships to be most important.  Also Roles (including jobs), Ideas (including politics, science and art) and Nature.  One role these things might serve is as a distraction that stops us becoming self-absorbed.  He then introduced the idea that “meaning is already in the culture and community” (Jennifer Michael Hecht).

Viktor Frankl was a neurologist and psychiatrist who had established a new form of psychotherapy (“Logotherapy”) founded on the idea that Meaning In Life is the most powerful human motivating force.  He then spent three years in concentration camps where his parents, brother and wife died.  This gave him an insight into whether Meaning can survive in these tragic circumstances.

Derek then mentioned studies that had been carried out by psychologists.   Roy Baumeister led a team studying the differences between a happy life and a meaningful life.   Martin Binder found that people working for non-profit organisations were happier with their life in general than for-profit workers.

The Philosopher Susan Wolf writes extensively about Meaning In Life.  She particularly explores what makes some things meaningful and some things not and relies on “communal intuitions about what's valuable and what isn't”.

To reflect upon how meaningful your life is - imagine you have half an hour of lucid calm before you die.  You can think back on your life and realistically assess the difference you have made.  Wouldn't it be fantastic to be able to look back and be sure that you had made a positive impact?  Things were better, rather than worse, because you had been.

Preventing Extremism

The July Stockport meeting was addressed by Yousef Dar a Muslim ex-Police Inspector who spoke to us on the theme of preventing terrorism.  He began by talking about where the threat of terrorism in this country come from, including: Daesh (ISIS), the Real IRA, the far right, the left wing, and some single stranded entities.

He tried to minimise the threat from Muslim extremists by giving some figures comparing the relatively small number of people killed By Muslim extremists with the total number of murders and rapes, and also with the huge numbers of Muslims killed in Iraq and Afghanistan by western forces.  In 2014, 50% of all shootings in Europe took place in Northern Ireland.

Some of the issues relating to causes of terrorism include: foreign policy; isolation (e.g. ghettoization of Muslims and the small numbers of the Far Right); a ‘them and us’ mentality, ideology, and disenfranchisement. Terrorism is the highest level of criminality.  There is an issue over hate preachers but they are not all Muslims. There is no basis in fact that most terrorists are nurtured through the community until they kill. Many are not particularly well briefed in the Islamic religion they purport to believe in.

The government’s PREVENT strategy is costly with questionable outcomes. There was no consultation with Muslims. Because of some of the problems David Cameron put it back on the shelf. Dar believes solutions must be community based.  The extremist organisations in this country include: the EDL, Britain First, BNP, and Daesh. There have been four times recently when attacks have been very close. Weapons and Ricin have been recovered from the Far Right.

Dar believes there are racial issues at work. Muslims tend to be charged with terrorist offences whereas the equivalent whites are charged with criminal behaviour. Something like 0.032% of the population are terrorists and MI5 know who they are.  Dar himself will not wear an England shirt because he has been challenged in the past on his right to wear it, in spite of the fact he was born here, plays squash for his county and indulges in Fly Fishing.

He believes in the right to criticise, the right to challenge ideas and the right to demonstrate outside parliament. These are the good British values of Free Speech. If these avenues are closed the situation could blow up in our faces.

There are a number of Hate sights on the internet which are dangerous –witness Jo Cox’s murder.

We need mentors from the community to speak to some of these people and bring them back on board.

The Intelligence services are concerned about Islamists from Syria arriving with the refugees. There is also the possibility of people being radicalised in prison.

The perpetrators of 9/11 knew little about Islam and indulged in drugs, prostitution and crime (Not very Islamic). 90% of people joining Daesh in Syria were not radicalised by mosques but by Friends and family. The murderer of Lee Rigby was new to Islam and the words he shouted were out of the bible rather than the Koran. Dar did not understand why Jo Cox’s murder was not also considered a terrorist act.

Much work needs to be done in the community, and we need to build a society with British values.

After the break we started on the usual Q and A session but it was far from normal. Instead of the good natured sessions we have come to expect, there was a list of rather nasty comments about Islam with very few remarks addressing the subject of the evening. This is unacceptable in a Humanist group who are supposed to believe in freedom of religion as well as freedom from religion. We are supposed to tolerate other peoples’ sincerely held beliefs even though we don’t agree with them. Robust questioning is one thing, abuse is another. 

An official apology has been sent to the speaker on behalf of the group.

Helping Refugees on Lesvos

Rebecca Harman came to the Stockport June meeting to talk about helping refugees in Lesvos. She chatted to us informally while letting pictures of her time on Lesvos play on the screen.  She and a group of friends were moved by the picture of the dead toddler washed up on the beach that was widely reported in late 2015.  They started to collect clothes and equipment and to raise money.  They held a ceilidh and an art auction among other things.

Rebecca got the chance to actually go out to help when she found herself between jobs, with a supportive husband who could provide childcare.  She encountered understanding staff at the airport who found a way to not charge for excess luggage - despite the huge bags of goods she had.

There was a well-organised United Nations camp based in an old barracks.  It was run very strictly (and unsympathetically) by local police, and would only admit Syrians.  Surrounding the perimeter of the barracks was an informal camp for everyone else - sometimes called Afghan Hill.  This wasn't being organised and run by anyone!  This is where Rebecca was helping.

Boats arrived at night, and bedraggled people would arrive at the camp where the volunteers would do their best to provide food and clothing.  Much of the clothing was too big.  Those of us in the affluent West obviously measure our affluence by our waistline.  In general people would only stay a few days; they underwent some rudimentary processing and were then given permission to travel on when they would get the ferry.

Since she was there the situation has changed.  Migrants are now being shipped back to Turkey in a rather controversial EU/Turkey deal.  If we want to help now we need to look at camps in Turkey.  Her advice was that it is generally better to send money than goods as many things are much cheaper locally - for example nappies and socks.  It doesn't make sense to buy these in the UK and ship them out.  Sleeping bags is one of the main exceptions.

We had a long question and answer session and explored the range of motivations for people arriving in Europe, and whether the perceived open German border was acting as a pull-factor for people.

Brains and Brain Modelling

In May Professor Mark Humphries from Manchester University

spoke to Greater Manchester Humanists on the subject of Brains and Brain Modelling.  With a gentle introduction to the topic, Mark introduced us to a multiply-appendaged soft toy called Ben.  Ben is a neuron, and one of 87 billion in any human brain.  Mark explained that Ben sends electric spikes to other neurons and that these control all bodily functions.  At the present time neuroscience has not mapped all these connections so we cannot understand the cause and effect of each spike.  Here lies the reason for brain modelling which in Mark’s view is one of the toughest jobs in the world as it focuses on understanding how the brain works.  Mark advised that through continued brain modelling all the spikes in a brain will have been mapped in 5 to 10 years!

Mark talked about one of the contributing figures in the early world of neuroscience - Walter Pitts who was born into a disadvantaged background.  He was bright and at the age of 12 he spent three days reading Principia Mathematica in a library.  He then wrote a letter to Bertrand Russell pointing out some mistakes in it.  He decided that he was interested in neuroscience and took on a role as a janitor at the University of Chicago.  Warren McCullock, an expert in the field of neuroscience at the University, recognised Walter’s talent and hired him.  They worked together and in 1943 provided the foundation for the first brain theories showing that the neuron was the basic logic unit of the brain.  Their model continues to be the standard reference in the field of neural networks.  

Mark went on to talk about some known’s.  Before any muscle action there is increased neuron activity or spikes and during the action there is less; the phenomena of blind sight where people who cannot consciously see have an awareness that would normally be attributable to sight, for example they can catch a ball; and the independent consciousness of the right and left sides of the brain and how they talk to each other and fill in gaps for the other side.  

Mark took a number of questions from the audience.  In reply to a question whether computers could be conscious he answered no because computers cannot have sensations.  Another question led Mark to talk about how learning associated with brain functions was being applied by Google and Apple in their artificial intelligence products or programmes.   

Republic

In May, Ray Evans, co-ordinator of Republic in the North West, came to Stockport to talk about electing our head of state. He began by introducing the organisation Republic which is a national campaign group, with local groups, not aligned to any political party. It has only one full time and two part time staff members, the rest of the work being carried out by volunteers. It is a fast growing group which gets many new members and supporters at times of royal events.

Many aspects of Republic are in tune with Humanist thinking: Separation of Church and State, Political Equality for all from birth, Opposition of prejudice against any group, Promotion of Free Thinking. They believe in the three P’s: Monarchy is wrong in Principle, in Practice and for our Politics.

The British Monarch is a huge organisation with 18 working royals plus support staff, security, aides, footmen, Lords Lieutenants etc. Charles employs 150 on his own. The Monarch still has immense political power even though much has been transferred to the Government under Royal Prerogative. A bizarre association with the armed forces reinforces the notion that patriotism is synonymous with support for the Monarchy.

There is a myth that the bloodline goes back to William the conqueror, but there were usurpers in the 1400s and William of Orange was imported to avoid a Catholic succession. George I was a distant cousin from Germany who didn’t speak English. A few years ago, the “Real King of England” was found in Australia.

Wrong in principle. The Monarchy is undeniably undemocratic in a country that prides itself on democratic principles. David Cameron called the new laws, allowing females to inherit ahead of younger males, a victory for Human Rights but the institution discriminates against everyone not born into the house of Windsor. The Coronation Ceremony has a core religious message that the Monarch is appointed by God through the Archbishop of Canterbury. The concept of a State Religion is incompatible with a Republican Democracy.

Wrong in Practice. Charles Bradlaugh MP refused to take the religious oath but was re-elected four times. The New Oaths Act (1888) resulted in MPs being able to affirm but the oath to the Queen still exists. The Royal Family cannot be openly criticised in Parliament. Price Andrew’s dodgy dealings in his overseas trade role cannot be discussed, four years after he was effectively sacked. Prince Charles has a continual involvement in politics.  After the Guardian successfully campaigned for the release of Charles’ 26 spider letters to government departments, the law changed in 2010 to exclude Royals from the Freedom of Information Act (FOI). Royal Consent is required before any Bill is presented which affects the Queen or Charles private interests as heads of the two duchies. This has affected twelve Bills between 2005 and 2011, but we are not allowed to know what changes were made. The Queen has defined the role of the monarch because she has been there so long and people are comfortable with it. Charles will redefine it.

Wrong for our politics. Royal prerogative gives more power to politicians without them being held to account. The Queen is said not to interfere but she made comments on the Scottish referendum. The weekly meeting with the PM is not just a formality and the Privy Council is not a ceremonial. These are influential, undemocratic Parts of our constitution.

The Alternative. Republic are not seeking an executive model like USA or France and feels that the Republic of Ireland has an excellent model which has thrown up excellent presidents.

The way forward.  In reality there will be no change while the Queen is still there. Much of the support for the Monarchy is centred on her personally. She has avoided controversy by saying little. Charles is a man of strong opinions. Republic would like to see a referendum ahead of a coronation. In the meantime they would like to take steps to end the monarchy’s exemption from the FOI, change the oath of allegiance to one for the nation not the Monarch, give MPs the right to criticise the Royals, end Royal political interference, end the State Opening of Parliament and end the lavish expenditure.

This won’t be easy. They are up against a huge PR machine and there are plenty of vested interests.