The Faith evening on 5th February was our best yet. It helped that we had a terrific panel. The former Bishop of Rochester, Bishop Michael Nazir Ali; Rabbi David Mason from the Muswell Hill synagogue; Dr Hisham Hellyer Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (UK); the Journalist and Writer Jack Thompson (at one time the BBC Cairo correspondent) and chaired by the wonderful Dr. Elisabeth Kendall, Senior Research Fellow in Arabic at Pembroke College Oxford who kept a firm hand on proceedings.
Dr. Hellyer came in at the last minute, after the original speaker was required elsewhere but he talked Dr. Hellyer into replacing him which was our good fortune. He started proceedings with slides, the first specially designed for the evening, which helped proceedings along.
Every speaker was enthralling in their own way and to give you a flavour I attach the contribution from Jack Thompson, the only speaker to send us a copy of his talk.
The Q and A was extremely lively, just what you need for an occasion like this.
The photographs, including those taken at the Private dinner for the speakers afterwards, were taken by the redoubtable Jean Aziz. The evening itself was sponsored by the remarkable Dr Ahmed El Mokadem who thought up and instigated these amazing evenings. We owe him a lot. He is considering another one next year and it will be hard to find a panel to match this one.
