Why the “Honour Killings” talk should have gone ahead
On the Festival of Dangerous Ideas controversy
Like many other Australians, I was shocked when opening the 2014 program of Festival of Dangerous Ideas to see a talk entitled “Honour Killings are Morally Justified”.
So I read the text:
And I looked up Uthman Badar and Hizb ut-Tahrir.
I thought to myself what an interesting — albeit provocative — way to reflect on difference: “by taking a particular cultural view of honour, some are condemned whilst others are celebrated. In turn the act becomes a symbol of everything that is allegedly wrong with the other culture”. I made a note to book a seat.
Meanwhile, a media storm was raging and before the day was out the talk had been pulled by the Opera House. Ironically, it was deemed too dangerous to proceed.
It is a pity because true social dialogue, as Dr Chris Falzon suggests,
“is ‘dangerous perhaps’, an open, risky endeavour … It is not merely a matter of tolerating the other, of leaving the other alone, but rather of exposing oneself and one’s culture to the possibility of being challenged and even transformed by the other in concrete dialogue.”
We have silenced a good opportunity for such dialogue.
