This debate is acknowledged as one of the finest in the debating world; hence I have explained the stance of the presenter in detail and evaluated his speaking skills below.
Mehdi Hasan | Islam Is A Peaceful Religion | Oxford Union
Mehdi Hassan is a British political journalist, broadcaster, and author. He is famous for one of his debates at the oxford union, where he gave his argument for Islam being a peaceful religion. The debater is widely recognized and praised for his skills as he smoothly turned the tables and convinced the audience to take a positive stance towards the religion of Islam. This debate is acknowledged as one of the finest in the debating world; hence I have explained the stance of the presenter in detail and evaluated his speaking skills below.
What is the central argument (stance) of the presenter?
Mehdi Hassan’s central argument refutes the stance of ‘Islam being a violent religion’ and proposes how only a minority of extremists take the teachings of Islam out of context. He starts his speech by calling himself the ‘representative’ and the ‘ambassador’ of Islam, to emphasize how significant this debate is to him. Towards the end, he encourages the audience to look around and observe how peaceful the majority of Muslims are and stresses upon the stance of ‘Islam being a peaceful religion.’
The opposition uses the argument of Anti Semitism originating from the middle east. Therefore, Mehdi Hassan states how modern Anti Semitism in the middle east was imported from Christian Europe and further quotes Tom Friedman, an American Jewish columnist in New York times, to justify his argument, ‘if Muslims were running Europe in the 1940’s, six million extra Jews would still be alive.’ Therefore, indeed Islam is a peaceful religion and the opposition’s argument regarding Islam being a violent religion comparatively to Christianity does not hold any ground.
Mehdi Hassan uses Professors Robert pipe, a professor at the University of Chicago, one of the leading terrorism expert studied every single suicide bombing cases between 1980 and 2005. So to justify his argument of Islam not being a violent religion, he quotes this study that stated, ” there is a little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism “.. ” nearly all suicide attacks have in common are specific secular and strategic goals ..not religious goals.”
Likewise, Mehdi supports his argument of Muslims being non-violent by referring to Gallup polls. He mentions how Gallup carried out one of the most prominent polls of Muslims around the world, 50,000 Muslims in 35 countries 93% of Muslims rejected 9/11 and suicide attacks, and the 7% who did not reject, cited political reasons, not religious reasons.
Evaluating the presenter on his speaking skills
Mehdi Hassan walks a tightrope when it comes to delivering a speech as, at times, his tone is humorous and condescending and, it might come across as if he is attacking the other party and making mockery out of their viewpoint, but he supports every single stance of his by quoting influential individuals, facts and figures. Moreover, he handles counter-arguments irrefutably. There is also a repetition of phrases to grab the attention of the audience that gets his point across. By the end of his speech, he raises rhetorical questions in a way that evoke emotions and sympathy in the heart of listeners. His non-verbal communication is strong, as well.
Effect of Mehdi’s speech on the audience
Furthermore, all these aforementioned skills can be evaluated by analyzing the effect of his speech on the audience.
For instance, he starts with condescendingly agreeing to the statements made by the other party, to establish how astonishing their statements were. He proves this by stating how such significant individuals, as the conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, had to come out and label the opposition’s stance as “anathema.”
He further highlights personal incentives the opposition could have to debate on this topic, and this might be considered as a personal attack by multiple listeners. Still, as it can be inferred from the laughter, the audience sitting in the chamber found it to be amusing; therefore, in a way, this keeps the audience entertained.
Moreover, he uses phrases such as “Finish the sentence,” “moving swiftly on,” “ the irony is ” to keep the audience engaged.
He also uses humor to get his point across, for example, to state only a minority of Muslims take the teachings of Islam out of context and uses violence, he compares them to the opposition who, likewise, cherry-picked verses of Quran, generalized and stereotyped the entire population of Muslims. He also provides a visual of Usama Bin Ladin nodding along with the opposition to comedically highlight how the real message of Islam is misunderstood.
Mehdi’s Reaction to Counter-arguments
In addition to his tone, when he is presented with counter-arguments he uses phrases such as ” I agree with you,” “I agree with you one hundred and ten percent,” “that is also my point,” ” It is a very good point” to acknowledge the other side and then further goes on to defend his stance in a way the opposition cannot entirely refute as Mehdi Hassan does not necessarily disagree with the counter-argument but just defending his stance.
Furthermore, Mehdi Hassan repeats himself at times to keep the audience attentive for instance he stated he does not follow a religion that introduces his God to him as “a god of war, like a Greek god of wrath, as a god of hate and injustice,” he says the same phrase differently in order to get his point across.
How did Mehdi End his Speech
Towards the end of his speech, he raises rhetorical questions asking the audience why is there only a minority of Muslims that are violent and why are not the rest of the population interpreting their religion the way the opposition claims it to be, to draw an acknowledgment from the audience. He tends to evoke emotions by using terms such as ‘urge,’ ‘beg’ Islam is the ‘source of identity,’ ‘source of fulfillment and hope’ for Muslims that would favor him in getting votes.
In addition to Verbal communication, Mehdi Hassan has secure non Verbal communication as well. His hand gestures are controlled, his facial expressions are monotonous that help him avoid any sign of nervousness, his tone of voice is loud and clear, there is also a variation in his tone that captures the attention of the listener throughout the speech, he also has a strong eye contact with the audience and does not fixate his eyes in one direction. Similarly, he has an authoritative posture that grabs the listeners’ attention.
