International Freedom of Religion or Belief in a polarising world
With Knox Thames, Qari Asim and Nazila Ghanea
6.30pm, 28th January 2025
LSE Lecture Theatre, Centre Building
In the last decade, international freedom of religion or belief has become more prominent in the policy agendas of governments around the world. But many continue to perceive it as more of a cause of the political right than the left, and there is further division about how it is promoted inclusively in practice. This panel brings together global experts to discuss the meaning, promotion and future of religious freedom in a polarising world.
This event will be hybrid and it is open to the public. Click here to sign up.
Knox Thames
Knox Thames is a Senior Fellow at Pepperdine University, and an international human rights lawyer, advocate, and author who has dedicated his career to promoting human rights, defending religious minorities, and combatting persecution. Over his 20 years of service in the U.S. government, Knox held several key positions advocating for freedom of religion or belief, including at the State Department and two different U.S. government foreign policy commissions.
Known for his nonpartisan approach to advocacy, both the Obama and Trump administrations appointed Knox as the Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South / Central Asia at the State Department. Knox has been a vocal advocate for human rights and the persecuted throughout his career. A recognized expert, Knox was a finalist to serve as the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. He has spoken before the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, the European Parliament, the Organization of American States, the OSCE, the Atlantic Council, Wilton Park, the Foreign Service Institute, and U.S. military war colleges
Nazila Ghanea
On 1 August 2022, Ms. Nazila Ghanea assumed her mandate as Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. She is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Director of the MSc in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford. Her academic work has often connected with multilateral practice in international human rights law. She has contributed actively to networks interested in freedom of religion or belief and its interrelationship with other human rights and has advised numerous states and other stakeholders. She has researched and published widely in international human rights law. She was the founding editor of the international journal of Religion and Human Rights and now serves on the Editorial Board for the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion and the Cambridge Ecclesiastical Law Journal.
Qari Asim
Qari Asim MBE is senior Imam at Makkah Mosque in Leeds and a Legal Director at a global law firm, DLA Piper. Qari is Chair of Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board and senior editor of ImamsOnline.
Qari is a trustee of British Future, Peace Matters and Hope not Hate, and he is a member of ITV Yorkshire’s Diversity Group, on the advisory panel of Oxfam and on the regional leadership board of Mosaic. Qari is passionate about fostering relations between communities and is a trustee of Christian Muslim Forum, a director of Forum for Promoting Peace (London) and one of the faith advisors to Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Near Neighbours programme.
Religion, nationalism, conflict and community: Rory Stewart in conversation with Mukulika Banerjee and James Walters
6.30pm - 8.00pm
Wednesday 2nd October 2024
LSE Campus
While religion continues to be perceived as of diminishing significance by many in Western Europe, religious nationalisms are on the rise around the world and the religious dimensions of many conflicts are becoming more pronounced. While the early Twenty-First Century focused on political Islam, we now see new political formations across all the world’s faith traditions, as well as new faith-based initiatives to engage more constructively with global issues such as conflict and climate change. Rory Stewart – academic, podcaster and former politician – will share his perspectives on why this happening and what can be done about it, in conversation with LSE expert on Indian democracy, Mukulika Banerjee, and James Walters, founding director of LSE Faith Centre.
This event is now over. A podcast of this event is available on LSE Player, or click here to watch the discussion on YouTube.
Climate breakdown: Is religion the antidote to the poison?
A symposium with Bishop Rowan Williams
1.00pm - 5.30pm
Wednesday 23rd October 2024
Ten years ago, the LSE Faith Centre opened with a dialogue between Bishop Rowan Williams and the late French philosopher Bruno Latour on religion and the environment. In the decade that has past, political and scientific solutions to the climate emergency have seemed ever more elusive, while faith communities have become increasingly engaged in the task of challenging what Pope Francis describes as “the dominant technocratic paradigm” underlying the crisis. Responding to Latour’s challenge to provide “the antidote to the poison”, LSE Faith Centre now runs a religion and climate change module in its leadership programme, and has conducted research into emerging climate discourses among Christian and Muslim communities in Egypt and Jordan.
Using Latour’s posthumously published If we lose the Earth, we lose our souls as a springboard for discussion, this symposium will welcome Bishop Rowan back to LSE, alongside contributors from a range of faith traditions, to reflect on the nature of the task we are facing, the resources religion brings, and the significance of the legacy Latour has left us.
Watch on YouTube here, or listen as a podcast here.