Well, in three weeks time in front of a live audience and a BBC viewership of 70 million, I will be arguing against the hypothesis that God and His Prophets should be protected against insult at the Intelligence Sqaured Debate in Sydney on the 7th of November.
To be honest, it is a slighty scary prospect, mostly because...
1. This is a pretty nuanced issue, and can be pretty well misconstrued;
2. I imagine many in the Muslim community feel that in fact God and His Prophets should be protected against insult and will see my taking this position as an insult to Islam (!)
3. It is probably the largest audience I have had the humbling honour of speaking to!!!
At the end of the day, I am no Islamic scholar and speak about this issue as purely an interested individual and a Muslim woman who feels a sense of shame every time there are riots and people are killed because of a set of cartoons or an amateur video. We should be better than this!
I feel I should mention that my taking this position does not mean I do not feel that Allah and his beloved Prophet Mohammed (SAW) are not sacred and revered. This is about our actions in this world rather than debating the sanctity of who we worship per se...
Alas! I am getting ahead of myself. I am working on my angle at the moment, and would love to hear your thoughts on the matter... what do YOU think?
Maybe you can watch it?