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United Kingdom premieres Faith Without Fear

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, Announcements on Jan 22, 2008

Q & A at the London launch of my film (Photo: Jessica Dean)

‘Why do Muslims revere a book that says it’s ok to sleep with animals?’

‘You’re clearly angry and you hate men. Tell us a bit about your background.’

I’m paraphrasing. Hence the single quotation marks. But — and I swear on the book that supposedly tells Muslims to get intimate with goats — these were the first two questions posed to me on Monday night.

The Frontline Club, a locus of independent journalism in London, joined the European Foundation for Democracy in hosting the British debut of Faith Without Fear. An energetic Q & A followed. I was up past midnight engaging with various people both in the theater and, after we got kicked out, in the café.

As I explained to the packed house at the start of the event, my film is about transcending fears of various kinds — the fear of of being ostracized (or worse) by your community; the fear of offending minorities in a multicultural world; and, above all, the fear of asking questions out loud.

Questions are the life-blood of open societies. We can’t stop posing them. But one can still hope that the questions I receive at my film’s next screening will be much more mature.

And where will that next screening be? At the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Some would argue that in the bastion of dogma that is SOAS, mature questions will be trumped by strident statements. Let’s find out together. It’s a public event. Join me at 3 pm this Friday. Here’s more info.