The conference was very good, shame the turnout wasn't as great this year. Apparently last year there was a bigger turn out.
Alom Shaha's speech was very good I think, and it's sad he had to defend his position over and over again in relation to the Guardian article. GING, I didn't realise you felt like that about his talk, I actully thought he was quite empowering. He also did acknowledge that it is easier for him as his parents are no longer around.
Yeah, him saying that ex-Muslims should be more vocal and not afraid to come out made a lot more sense when he told us about his mum being dead and the rest of his family being atheists. But I don't think he realiseses how difficult it is for some people from more religious families to be openly ex-Muslims. The strong bond we have with our Muslim families stop us from coming out because we love them and don't want to either hurt them or face rejection from them. He didn't have to deal with that side of things, and I think he underestimates how much of a barrier that is.
Out of interest, did Maryam come to the pub later? Funnily enough thats the thing I was really looking forward too about going, along with you guys/girls, supping a pint with her. Dunno why, it would have been weird but an experience all the same.
Also what do you think we can do about improving attendence next year. We really need more people to come to these events.
We need to have a famous old white male atheist appear at the conference, such as Dawkins.