When people discuss Islam within Europe, they often forget that it is hardly a novelty in that part of the world. Some years ago, when the EU constitution was under consideration, there was much talk about the “Judeo-Christian roots of Europe”; the religious wishing to ignore the influence not only of the Enlightenment but of Islam too.

In her article in this issue on the murder of Salmaan Taseer, the Governor of Punjab, Raheel Raza looks at the impact of the appalling rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan.

On Tuesday, January 11, around 5pm, I was arrested along with my driver and a photographer in front of a bank in Uyo Akwa State in Southern Nigeria. I arrived in Akwa Ibom on Sunday, January 9 to rescue two alleged witch children abused and abandoned by their families. One of the kids, eight year old Esther Obot Moses, was living with a mad man who had raped her several times.

The Association for Secular Humanism (ASH) launched a campaign to secure the release of all prisoners convicted of being witches and serving sentences in Malawi prisons. It is estimated that there are about 50 Malawians convicted of being witches in our prisons. Many are serving prison sentences ranging from one to six years. They are mainly women, senile, with some over 70 years old.

(Following several gruesome murders of alleged witchcraft practitioners in the last few months in India, Humanist organisations in South India joined hands to launch a fight against black magic so that the lives of several vulnerable persons may be saved.

The saddest aspect of the recent ruthless murder of Salman Taseer, Governor of Punjab, was not so much the viciousness of the killing but the vicious celebration of his death. Taseer was shot dead on January 4, 2011 by Mumtaz Qadri, a member of the governor's special security squad.

‘The present Pope and his predecessor were well aware of the scale of the priestly child sex abuse crisis. Despite claims to the contrary, there is strong evidence in two recently uncovered letters from the Vatican.

Almost 40 years after I said farewell to my Christian faith – after having been a Christian preacher in my younger days – I sat in my room in the guest hotel at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. I had just ordered a cup of coffee in my room. In a couple of hours I was expected to give a lecture on Humanism to students and teachers at the Institute for Philosophy.

In the presence of over 300 Humanists, including the well known scientist Dr. P.M. Bhargava, and accompanied by applause from kindred atheist, rationalist, secularist and Humanist groups, IHEU member organisation Manava Vikasa Vedika (MVV) inaugurated its first HUMANIST CENTER in Hyderabad, India, on Christmas Day.

The Human Rights Council is an intergovernmental body created by the UN General Assembly in March 2006 “with the main purpose of addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them”. The Council has forty seven member states, each elected for three years from among the member states of the UN. The Council meets in Geneva in March, June and September each year.