The conference on Sharia Law, Apostasy and Secularism on February 7th 2015, was intended as a celebration. Clear and decisive victories are rare in the work of our emerging coalition. Forcing two major professional bodies Universities UK and the Law Society to rescind bad advice (permitting gender segregation and promoting so called sharia-compliant wills ) were clear wins for secular principles. The withdrawal of their guidance in both cases was a sign that extremism can be checked by invoking human rights, rather than by suspending them.
At the Secularism Conference in October 2014, Caroline Fourest had described the struggles of a small magazine called Charlie Hebdo that had reprinted the Danish cartoons. The international press who came to interview the journalists and cartoonists were frequently unsympathetic. British journalists, she said, were invariably the worst.
By February 7th, it had become a tragic necessity to combine our celebration with a tribute to Charlie Hebdo and all the many people who had lost their lives in defense of freedom of conscience and the right to offend. Maryam Namazie spoke eloquently - showing cartoon after cartoon from Middle Eastern artists.
