The Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue, Woolf Institute – Cambridge and the Muhammad Bin Hamad Al-Thani Centre for Muslim Contribution to Civilisation at Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS) are jointly holding a public lecture today by Lord Rowan Williams on “Secularity: Good or Bad; Religious Perspective” from 6.30pm to 8pm at the QFIS building auditorium.
The Lord Williams of Oystermouth was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012 and now serves as the Master of Magdalene College at Cambridge University.
An established theologian, poet and a scholar who speaks on a variety of social and religious issues, he is known for treading a “middle path” that encourages dialogue between competing religious viewpoints.
Lord Williams is known for warning against excluding religious voices from the public arena in debates on social and moral issues but also cautions religious communities not to expect to have a casting vote on such issues in a liberal society and to accept that their role is to contribute to a wider debate rather than to determine its outcome.
According to him, a society committed to law and rights ought to be a society profoundly interested in the welfare of religious communities and one that realises that it needs religious insights.