Click to Listen to the Conference

 

American Freedom Alliance

in cooperation with

the Barnabas Fund, Center for Security Policy (Washington D.C) , Center for Social Cohesion (U.K.), Henry Jackson Society (U.K.), Jean Jacques Rousseau Institute (France)

presents

its first International Conference of the Air

Should Western Democracies
Build Barriers to Sharia Law?

featuring a panel of experts drawn from around the world

               
        

Eugene Volokh (UCLA Law School); Kent Greenwalt ( Columbia University) : Michael Helfand (Pepperdine University); David Yerushalmi (Center for Security Policy); Marion Boyd (former Attorney General Ontario, Canada); Douglas Murray ( Center for Social Cohesion, U.K.); Robin Shepherd ( Henry Jackson Society, U.K.); Christine Brim (Center for Security Policy, Washington D.C.); Lewis Moore, (Oklahoma State Assembly), Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch ) Anne Elisabeth Moutet (Jean Jacques Rousseau Institute, France), Patrick Sookhdeo, and Shaykh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi

Sunday, December 12, 2010
10:30 am - 12:30 pm (PDT); 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm (EDT)

Streamed live on the Internet and then archived.
Log in from anywhere in the world and listen at any time

at:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/WesternWordRadio

On November 2, 2010 the citizens of the State of Oklahoma passed a historic amendment to their constitution, enjoining Oklahoma state courts from considering either Sharia Law or international law when rendering judicial decisions. Join moderator Avi Davis in a important discussion between jurists, journalists, attorneys and commentators drawn from around the world as they examine whether Western societies can or should ban Sharia law from any application in Western jurisprudence.

 

BIOGRAPHIES:

Marion Boyd is a former Canadian politician, who represented the riding of London Centre in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1999 as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party.Ms.Boyd was promoted to Attorney General of Ontario on February 3, 1993, the first woman to hold that position as well as the first non-lawyer. Ms. Boyd currently works as an environmental business consultant and mediator. In December 2004, she released a controversial study that recommended that the Ontario government leave the 1991 Arbitration Act in place, which allows for the use of religious law in civil law arbitrations. According to the report's recommendations, any arbitration would have to be consensual and would have to follow the Charter of Rights and Canadian Law, the founding of the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice (IIJC) in 2004, was aimed solely at creating sharia tribunals, in accordance with this act, for Muslims who wished to secure Islamic arbitration in family and inheritance matters.

Christine Brim is the Chief Operating Officer at the Center for Security Policy in Washington D.C and has worked in the information technology, telecommunications, publishing, and defense industries for over two decades. Her publication topics include knowledge management, distance education and logistics transformation and interoperability, as well as conflict-of-laws issues. She has provided market and patent research to US and international clients on a wide range of defense platforms and technologies.

Stephen Coughlin is an attorney with a background in international law and international business. He is also a former consultant to the Intelligence Directorate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In January, 2008, Mr. Coughlin, who has an expertise in the sources of Islamic terror and uses of Islamic law, was not renewed to his position at the Department of Defense. While no one in his chain of command disputed the veracity, accuracy or balance of his lectures and briefings, it is widely believed that Mr. Coughlin was compelled to leave his position because his views were considered politically unacceptable. Mr. Coughlin currently serves as a United States Army Reserve Major specializing in military intelligence.

Kent Greenwalt is the editor-in-chief, of the Columbia Law Review. Before joining the Columbia faculty in 1965, Professor Kent was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice John M. Harlan and subsequently spent part of a summer as an attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in Jackson, Mississippi. From 1966 to 1969, he served on the Civil Rights Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Member of the Due Process Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union, 1969-71. He was Deputy U.S. solicitor general, from 1971-72 and Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. Visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge, 1972-73. In 1979 he was Visiting fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, 1979. From 1991-93 he was the President of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy. His main interests are in constitutional law and jurisprudence, with special emphasis on church and state, freedom of speech, legal interpretation and criminal responsibility.

Michael A. Helfand is an associate professor at Pepperdine University School of Law and associate director of Pepperdine Universty's Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies. Professor Helfand received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University in 2009. Professor Helfand's scholarship focuses on law and religion, arbitration, constitutional law, and contracts. Prior to joining the Pepperdine Law faculty, Professor Helfand was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, where his practice focused on complex commercial litigation. Before entering private practice, Professor Helfand clerked for the Honorable Julia Smith Gibbons of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In addition, Professor Helfand continues to consult for the Beth Din (rabbinical court) of America and represents clients seeking enforcement of religious arbitration awards in U.S. courts.

Lewis Mooreof Edmond, Oklahoma is the current Representative of House District 96 in the State of Oklahoma's State legislature. Mr. Lewis, along with former Rep. Rex Duncan was the cosponsor of State Question 755 which sought to enjoin the Oklahoma judiciary from considering sharia law or international law in rendering judicial decisions.

Anne-Elisabeth Moutet is a Paris-based journalist and political commentator. Her articles appear in the Daily Telegraph as well as in the Weekly Standard in Washington D.C,. She often offers commentary on the news on the BBC, al-Jazeera and France 24. Her blog contains stories she has written for these, as well as for The European, The Sunday Times, Tatler, Prospect, the Chicago Sun-Times, and more.

Douglas Murray is a bestselling author and commentator based in the UK . His most recent book is the critically acclaimed Neoconservatism: Why We Need It. His articles have appeared across the international media. He also appears regularly in the broad cast media and lectures around the world. He is Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion in London.

Robin Shepherd is the Director of International Affairs at the Henry Jackson Society in London and , has held senior fellowships at some of the world’s most prestigious public policy institutes, including as Moscow Bureau Chief for The Times of London. Mr. Shepherd’s key areas of expertise are transatlantic relations, American foreign policy, Middle Eastern(particularly Israeli) relations with the West, Russia, central and eastern Europe, NATO and the European Union. His recent book “A State Beyond the Pale, Europe’s Problem with Israel” looks at the reasons for widespread hostility to Israel in Europe among the continent’s opinion makers.

Shaykh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi is a barrister under English and Welsh law, and as such is a member of the Lincoln's Inn in London, U.K He founded London's Muslim Arbitration Tribunal in 2007 to deal with the issue of forced marriages within the Muslim community. Today he practises commercial and conflict law. Shaykh Siddiqi was involved in a debate in London in February 2008 entitled KINGDOM OF GOD: the Archbishop, the Sharia and the Law of the Land in response to a speech by Archbishop Rowan Williams, in which Shaykh Siddiqi defended and advocated the use of Islamic Family Law in the UK and showed hope that in the future a more educated and spiritual Muslim community in Britain would be able to live with all aspects of Sharia Law.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and the author of ten books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Truth About Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) (both Regnery). Along with his weekly columns, Spencer has completed a weekly Qur'an commentary at Jihad Watch, Blogging the Qur'an, which has been translated into Czech, Danish, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. He is a contributing writer to the Investigative Project on Terrorism. His articles on Islam and other topics have appeared in the New York Post, the Washington Times, the Dallas Morning News, the UK's Guardian, Canada's National Post, Middle East Quarterly, WorldNet Daily, First Things, Insight in the News, National Review Online, and many other journals.

Patrick Sookhdeo is the director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity and International Director of the Barnabas Fund. Mr.Sookhdeo is an outspoken advocate for persecuted Christian minorities around the world. He has made many media appearances in Great Britain and is an advocate for human rights and freedom of religion. Mr.Sookhdeo is a commentator on jihadist ideology, and has lectured British and NATO military officers on radical Islam.


Eugene Volokh is Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where he specializes in First Amendment law. He is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (3d ed. 2008), The Religion Clauses and Related Statutes (2005), and Academic Legal Writing (4th ed. 2010), as well as over 60 law review articles and over 80 op-eds, http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/. He also blogs at http://volokh.com (The Volokh Conspiracy); many of his blog posts have discussed the interaction between Islam and American law.

David Yerushalmi is the Center for Security Policy's General Counsel, has been at the forefront of the legal battle against the embrace of sharia by the American legal system. He is a lawyer specializing in litigation and risk analysis, especially as it relates to geo-strategic policy, national security, international business relations, securities law, disclosure and due diligence requirements for domestic and international concerns. Mr. Yerushalmi has been involved in international legal and constitutional matters for over 25 years, and is today considered an expert on Islamic law and its intersection with Islamic terrorism and national security. He is a co-author of the Team B II Report, Shariah: The Threat to America. Mr. Yerushalmi is also the co-author of a major empirical research project investigating the links between shariah-adherence in U.S. mosques and jihad advocacy, soon to be published in a leading peer-review professional-academic journal.

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