This Tuesday November 20, 13.00-14.30 Maryam Namazie will be speaking on a panel entitled: ISLAM, REIGIOUS DIVERSITY AND UNIVERSAL RIGHTS IN MULTI ETHNIC DEMOCRACIES in Stockholm, Sweden.

In 2005, the British parliament was very close to passing a law against “religious hatred”. In the spring of 2006 the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning “defamation of religion” and the member states where requested to ban materials that could lead to hostility towards religious groups. Meanwhile, secular grass root organisations like The Council of Ex-Muslims have been founded in several European countries. Must modern democracies limit the diversity of opinions in order to maintain religious diversity? Or is it the other way around; that religion in the public sphere, being the instrument of power that it is, must be allowed to be examined without limitations? Participants: Sadiq J.Al-Azm, emeritus professor of mordern European philosophy at the University of Damascus, Maryam Namazie, Iranian-born women’s rights activist, Anne-Sofie Roald, associate professor at the college of higher learning in Malmö, Suad Mohamed, Sweden’s first female iman. Moderator: Arne Ruth.

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