Anne-Marie Waters | Islam Is Not A Peaceful Religion | Oxford Union — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:13well good evening everyone thank you for
2. 0:17having me I hope everyone can hear me
3. 0:21how to respond to a lot of this first of
4. 0:27all under the bar you said you admitted
5. 0:30yourself that the bar had been set quite
6. 0:32high I would suggest though that the
7. 0:35burden of proof is on the proposer
8. 0:37rather than or not it's quite clearly
9. 0:39says Islam is a religion of peace
10. 0:41I suggest you you prove it I've also
11. 0:47been told we've also been told here
12. 0:50tonight when we opened that we need this
13. 0:52debate must take place in the real world
14. 0:54well absolutely yes it must it must take
15. 0:57place in the real world and I will
16. 1:00describe what Islam is doing in the real
17. 1:03world we can sit and we can debate
18. 1:06theocracy day in day out we will never
19. 1:09agree we can debate is there a god isn't
20. 1:12there a god is the Quran real isn't it
21. 1:14none of it actually matters it's what
22. 1:16matters is what happens in the real
23. 1:18world as my opponent quite rightly said
24. 1:21and my side of the argument is regularly
25. 1:24told that we are we've heard it again
26. 1:26tonight we were described somewhat as
27. 1:28hate we were told that we are demonizing
28. 1:31Islam whipping up the fear of Islam not
29. 1:36the first time I've been accused of this
30. 1:38probably won't be the last but let me
31. 1:41just say and let's take this into the
32. 1:43real world as we've been advised to do
33. 1:45let me tell you what actually whips up
34. 1:48fears of Islam we take it from the top
35. 1:529/11 the London Underground bombings
36. 1:54Madrid Mumbai Mali
37. 1:56Bali northern Nigeria Sudan Afghanistan
38. 1:59Saudi Arabia Iran Yemen Pakistan death
39. 2:04for apostasy death for blasphemy death
40. 2:06for adultery death for homosexuality
41. 2:08gender segregation gender discrimination
42. 2:11unequal testimony between men and women
43. 2:14in in legal proceedings child marriage
44. 2:19amputations beheadings imprisonment for
45. 2:21being raped anti-semitism Brokers
46. 2:25execution as I've said for this death
47. 2:28and the other the slaughter of they are
48. 2:29engulfed on the streets of Amsterdam
49. 2:31death threats on the streets of London
50. 2:33butcher those who insult Islam Muslim
51. 2:36patrols in East London telling people
52. 2:39they are entering Sharia control zones
53. 2:41polygamous marriages marriage not
54. 2:43requiring the consent of the bride this
55. 2:46is what causes fear of Islam it is not
56. 2:51me it is not my my colleagues on this
57. 2:54side and Muslims are responsible for the
58. 3:01Muslim but I'm not I'm not I'm not no
59. 3:04I'm not let me let me speak on but the
60. 3:07point is that it is not I all my fellow
61. 3:10debaters on this side who are causing
62. 3:12fear of Islam it is the actions of
63. 3:15Muslims that are causing fear of Islam
64. 3:18that is the real world that is where we
65. 3:20actually live there will be told that
66. 3:23this is just the extreme fringe of Islam
67. 3:27well let me have a look at Saudi Arabia
68. 3:31Saudi Arabia the birthplace of Islam the
69. 3:34custodian of its holy sites in Saudi
70. 3:37Arabia a woman is not allowed to drive
71. 3:40she is not allowed to leave the house
72. 3:42without a Muharram she is not allowed to
73. 3:45vote although they've been incredibly
74. 3:47generous by allowing some votes in the
75. 3:50next elections
76. 3:51you know this is apparently the extreme
77. 3:56fringe of you know people aren't
78. 3:58executed for blasphemy as executed for
79. 4:01apostasy in in Saudi Arabia the
80. 4:04birthplace of Islam will be told that's
81. 4:06the extreme fringe of Islam no it is not
82. 4:08caryl in Saudi Arabia the extreme fringe
83. 4:11of Islam is like calling the Vatican the
84. 4:13extreme fringe of Catholicism sorry it
85. 4:15just doesn't work then we'll be told
86. 4:19that it's we've misunderstood violent
87. 4:22Muslims have misunderstood this Saudi
88. 4:25Arabia has misunderstood Iran which
89. 4:28stones people to death for adultery has
90. 4:30misunderstood Yemen which marries
91. 4:32children at the age of nine has
92. 4:34misunderstood has there ever been a more
93. 4:37spectacularly misunderstood religion
94. 4:40than Islam it seems that everyone these
95. 4:43nations who apply it as their large
96. 4:45nations which have the Koran as their
97. 4:47constitution you enumerable innumerable
98. 4:51nations where there is no free speech
99. 4:53where there was no freedom of religion
100. 4:55they've all got it wrong they've all got
101. 4:58it wrong it's quite a spectacularly
102. 5:00misunderstood religion and you know it
103. 5:06it's just it's just so much that you
104. 5:09know I'm constantly told as well that I
105. 5:11I need to respect Islam I've never quite
106. 5:15given a good enough reason why I know
107. 5:19I'd oh I am under no greater obligation
108. 5:21to respect Islam than I am and than I am
109. 5:24any other beliefs I'm under no more
110. 5:27obligation to respect a woman oppressed
111. 5:30under the in the name of Islam than if
112. 5:32she is oppressed by the BMP or anyone
113. 5:34else I am under no obligation to make to
114. 5:39make compromises with an ideology I
115. 5:41simply don't see as peaceful why don't I
116. 5:45see it as peaceful because of the
117. 5:47evidence if I look around the world and
118. 5:49I see the countries where Islam calls
119. 5:50the shots all I see is brutality and
120. 5:55violence imposed by the state someone
121. 5:58someone thought we were told that peace
122. 6:01is not just the absence of violence with
123. 6:03the presence of justice absolutely I do
124. 6:06not see how in a nation where as the
125. 6:09only woman here as the only woman here I
126. 6:11have some particular issues with the way
127. 6:14women are treated in Islamic states now
128. 6:17you can argue that they've got it wrong
129. 6:19it's tell them that because they seem to
130. 6:22think that's what it is yes I mean
131. 6:27they're so it's just so much to say
132. 6:29about it but either is there a peaceful
133. 6:32Islam yes there is it's in the hearts of
134. 6:34peaceful Muslims
135. 6:35unfortunately though there's also a
136. 6:36rather more objective Islam and peaceful
137. 6:39Muslims have to do some really rather
138. 6:41creative interpretation like the command
139. 6:45to beat her I've seen Muslim women I
140. 6:48didn't stand up for you I knew this
141. 6:54would happen I knew this would happen by
142. 6:56the way I'm saying what I'm saying is
143. 7:00completely controversial and will be
144. 7:02booed and shouted down and I have no
145. 7:04doubt my colleagues the same I knew this
146. 7:05would happen you say anything negative
147. 7:07you'll get the boos I am I'm actually
148. 7:09going to leave it there and but I will
149. 7:12so we'll finish just by saying this
150. 7:13there are hundreds of millions of
151. 7:16peaceful Muslims that is a fact but that
152. 7:19does not mean that Islam itself is
153. 7:21peaceful people peaceful Muslims
154. 7:25interpret verses of the Koran so almost
155. 7:29beyond recognition it's reinterpreted
156. 7:31like the command to beat her it's there
157. 7:35in the Koran and I've seen Muslim women
158. 7:37try to dance around it they put words in
159. 7:40there that simply aren't there that's
160. 7:42what it says it says beat her and in the
161. 7:44countries where the Koran calls the
162. 7:46shots that is exactly what they do this
163. 7:49is not peace this is not justice if
164. 7:54Islam is not a religion of peace as the
165. 7:57evidence shows us thank you
166. 8:14you