Enemies of the State: Religious Freedom and the New Repression

Today, the Christian owners of a Northern Ireland bakery lost their appeal against a ruling that their refusal to make a ‘gay cake’ was discriminatory. Is this right? Should equality legislation trump individuals’ freedom of conscience? Or this is a righteous blow against bigotry? To debate this and more, we would like to invite you to our upcoming conference,  Enemies of the state: religious freedom and the new repression.

The conference is on Wednesday 16 November 2016 from 12 to 5pm at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL.

Over the past few years, religious freedom has faced numerous challenges. From the harassment of Christian cake bakers to the censorship of religious speech deemed ‘offensive’, freedom of conscience seems to be under attack.

Should state forces really have the right to draw the line between what is acceptable and unacceptable in the realm of speech? Do European equality directives and laws against hate speech help or hinder society? How does the state’s ethos of ‘non-discrimination’ impact on the freedom of people to believe, speak and organise as they see fit?

These are a few of the questions we will be exploring in this half-day conference on the state of religious freedom today.  Across three sessions with fantastic speakers, this conference will examine the new threats to freedom of conscience and freedom of speech, and explore what can be done to repair liberty of thought and expression for the 21st century.