The City Circle is having a debate this Friday evening on whether Islam is incompatible with liberalism:
The motion: "This House believes that Islam is incompatible with liberalism".
[...] Proposing the motion will be Alice Kneen, research student, Magdalene College, Cambridge University. Opposing the motion wil be Dr Richard Stone, Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia.
Alice Kneen looks likely to stir up controversy this summer when she makes her media debut in a new Radio 4 debate series called Hecklers. She’ll be explaining why she believes that Islam is incompatible with liberalism. The City Circle offers you the chance to hear this highly provocative speaker first.
Ms Kneen graduated with a first class honours degree in Social and Political Science from Magadalene College, Cambridge. She is currently in the final year of a PhD on multiculturalism from a feminist perspective, based on extensive fieldwork amongst Muslim and non-Muslim residents in Oldham. She claims that "the Islamic belief of possession of absolute truth is in contradiction to the uncertainty that characterises liberalism. Islam opposes freedom of conscience, action and belief. This is inherently opposed to the Western liberal aims of increasing human happiness, freedom and development."
Dr Richard Stone - who will oppose the motion - has extensive experience in the field of multiculturalism and in building greater understanding between different faith groups. He is Chair of the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, founder co-chair of Alif-Aleph UK: British Muslims & British Jews, President of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality and a Patron of the Runnymede Trust. He also served as an adviser to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.
The debate is to be held tomorrow (Friday 2 June 2006) from 6.45pm. The venue is 45 Crawford Place, London W1, which is just off Edgware Road (Streetmap link). Nearest tubes are: Edgware Road (Hammersmith & City, Circle and District Lines); Marble Arch (Central Line), and then a walk or bus up Edgware Road towards Marylebone. (To those of you who know Edgware Road quite well: Crawford Place is close to the Mawar Malaysian restaurent.)
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This debate is flawed in the way that its framed. Too many Muslims are struggling to try to reconcile their Islam with some modern political construct.
Posted by: Doodpathi | June 01, 2006 at 05:35 PM
Anyone go to this debate and want to do a write-up on it? I'd be interested to hear how the audience responded.
Posted by: Sunny | June 02, 2006 at 05:53 PM
Sunny,
I went. I'll be doing a write up soon.
Posted by: thabet | June 03, 2006 at 01:59 PM