Centre for Social Cohesion win major debate on Islam

Douglas Murray and Ayaan Hirsi Ali defeat opponents in major debate in New York

Report from Centre for Social Cohesion

Centre for Social Cohesion Director Douglas Murray and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Dutch politician and renowned author, won a major debate in New York organised by Intelligence Squared. They were arguing against the motion that ‘Islam is a religion of peace’. Arguing for the motion were Maajid Nawaz, former member of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Zeba Khan, a writer and advocate for Muslim-American civic engagement.

Before the debate, Murray’s side only had 25% of the vote, against 41% who disagreed with them and 34% who were undecided. However, following the debate, Murray and Hirsi Ali more than doubled their share of the vote, with 55% of the audience agreeing with them. Those arguing for the motion lost votes – dropping to 36% – and 9% remained undecided.

Zeba Khan argued that the minority of Muslims who perform violent acts were motivated by politics, and not religion, and that Islamist terrorists did not speak for true Islam. Hirsi Ali responded by arguing that Islam’s history of militarism and the legacy of empire were proof that Islam was not only a religion of peace. Nawaz called for a new 'paradigm', arguing that a handful of extremists should not be allowed to hijack an entire faith.

Murray said in his speech:

“I wish that Zeba and Maajid were the spokespeople of Islam. It would be lovely. But we are where we are…But you've got the largest Sunni state of Saudi Arabia, the most important Sunni state in the world, the most extraordinary closed prison of a society... The Shiite republic of Iran is what it is, led by the people it's led by. That is not an accident. It's not a detail. The thing that worries me is that although tonight we hear from the panelists here about how Islam is a religion of peace, the fact is that the people who are making the decisions in the religion, the people who are preaching the religion, the heads of that religion, people like Sheikh Qaradawi who broadcasts anti-Semitic -- the most appalling filth every week on the main network, that is the faith that is speaking for you guys. I wish that Zeba, you were on every week on Al Jazeera, but you are not. Qaradawi is.

 Let's not have a debate about Islam and whether or not Islam is a religion of peace without talking about the facts to do with Islam…The fact is that Islam is many things, many, many things. But to say it's a religion of peace is nonsense. It's to ignore reality. It's to ignore very difficult but necessary facts, not paradigms, but facts.

To say that Islam is a religion of peace is to say something based entirely on hope. It's to elevate a hope into truth. And I hope, as you will note, history teaches us that's a very bad thing to do.”

The debate can be watched online in full here.

Notes:

1. A transcript of the event is available here.
2. Full results were as follows: