Islamabad (AsiaNews) – Arshed Masih, 38, is still fighting for his life in Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, a city not far from Pakistan’s capital. With the help of police, Muslim extremists last Friday set him on fire for refusing to convert to Islam and raped his wife, local sources told AsiaNews. The incident occurred in front of a local police station. [Source]

A UK man tied a camera he bought from eBay to a balloon and sent it up in the air expecting to see shots of the UK. After the balloon popped, the camera lands back to Earth 30 minutes later. The photos taken by the camera asounded him. They will astound you too. [Watch Video]

[This article was originally published by The Melbourne Atheist Examiner, February 2010 Edition.]

Many atheists come from Christian backgrounds. They more or less struggled through similar experiences. Therefore, it is rare to hear the stories and opinions of those who have come from non-Christian backgrounds. So, it's great to feature an article written by Mr. Ali Sayed. It is refreshing to read the opinions of someone who used to practice Islam about their former religion.

I hope you also find it refreshing and eye-opening. Mr. Sayed must be applauded for his courage and acknowledge his right to express his views and declare once more that Australia is a secular, democratic country that needs freedom of speech.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, From Shock to Perplexity, I noticed quite a number of stories covered by blogs and interest websites that are not covered by the mainstream media.

If these stories are true, they present serious problems for which we need solutions.The first step however, is to identify these stories, and find out which of them are corroborated by independent sources.

Therefore, I will be posting many articles now and in the future about horrific and shocking things that people do to each other in the name of their religions. I want to get an understanding of how many of these stories are covered by big news organisations. With the stories that are not covered by big news organisations, we would eventually want to get an understanding of why they have not been reported.

It is not a task for one man and it is not a task for a day, a week or a month. It's going to be a joint effort, sustained until we bring these issues at the forefront of news, discussion and decision-making. I'll need your support.

Thank you

Marquez