Islam and the Future of Tolerance - a film digest
The goal of this film was to encourage conversation on the topic of Islam, and that it definitely did.
Discussion of Islam is fraught. Writing a work of fiction gets you a fatwa (like Salman Rushdie), making a film gets you killed (like Theo Van Gogh), those that advocate reform live with round the clock security (like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Maajid Nawaz), and no who you are, you will get called a racist Islamophobe.
This conversation has a massive vacuum that will be filled, and likely by the people you least want to fill it.
Few things before you go through the resources:
- The resources are an attempt to provide all the different angles, opinions, perspectives on this topic, however, the resources are by no means comprehensive.
- If you are short for time, the film and the Debates/discussions that are related to (or referenced in) the film are a good short cut.
- This is a joint meet up between fans of the IDW and PhiloSophia.
- It is in the library (all the study rooms are booked), you have to go through security which means no food or fluid of any kind, and big bags have to be left in the lockers. The study rooms are below ground, down the stairs from the entrance, through security and then down the stairs again.
- This is a conversation I have been active in/engaged in for some time now (even before I was an IDW fan), I therefore have had a lot of time to read and research and basically have formed the view that the problems we see manifesting over the various centuries (be it the invasion of India, the Ottoman Empire, or Islamist terrorism today) are essentially doctrinal. So I have my biases, but I am trying to encourage people with very different perspectives to show up for the discussion.
Google doc version of the resources here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kTDP-bOc56s7bL2cxr6BvfIIwyfKh4DwFX0K8pPEcf8/edit?usp=sharing
