Continuing from yesterday’s post, our most adventurous freethinkers found themselves in Tulsa on a bleary-eyed Sunday morning, groping around for coffee and bacon. After morning ablutions and quickly reviewing last night’s partially-remembered instant messages, they staggered once again into the artfully decorated convention hall to have some knowledge dropped upon them.
First up was Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, an Iraqi-born secular activist who lives in D.C. He joked a bit about how he is treated with suspicion at airports, and went on to discuss the problems with Islam becoming ever more politicized in the Middle East. He also talked about his issues with certain far-left liberals getting defensive about criticism of Islam and often shrugging it off as racism or Islamophobia. This resulted in a bit of an intellectual sparring match during the Q&A, as certain far-left liberals (other FreeOK speakers, mostly) took issue with some of his characterizations. This was, of course, awesome. Freethinkers, by definition, love to have our ideas challenged.
Next up was Conor Robinson, whom you may well have heard about before. He also joked about how he has been treated in airports, though it is hard to see why.
Conor talked about how we can put humanism to work in the world via international service, and what he has been doing to make that happen. It was an uplifting and challenging message, you can find out more about what they are doing at the Pathfinders Project website.
Anchoring the speaking lineup was Fred Edwords, a man who has been at the forefront of secular activism ever since I was a toddler. Even after all those years, he still has that fire-in-the-belly, as you can plainly see here:
I seriously need to ask him the secret to avoiding activist burnout, but that is a conversation for another day. Fred’s talk was about the work that the Coalition of Reason does in helping to bring local groups together and the value of loudly proclaiming our irreligious identity to the world. Like this, or this. You get the idea. The United Coalition of Reason also put on a workshop about “How to Market Yourself and Your Group” which I really ought to have attended, because I hate doing marketing.
I’d like to thank all the speakers for coming out, and thank the organizers for their tireless efforts in putting this event together.
Naturally, I’m looking forward to next year. Comments, corrections, and snide remarks are welcome below.
