Proposing the motion - Alice Kneen, research student, Magdalene College, Cambridge; Opposing the motion - 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.
