A reformist Muslim conference took place in London over the weekend featuring the teacher at the centre of a row over pro LGBT teaching in Birmingham schools.
The British Islam Conference, organised by New Horizons in British Islam, invited Andrew Moffat to address delegates.
Moffat, whose pro LGBT “No Outsiders” programme has provoked the ire of Muslim parents in Birmingham, said communities could only move forward through dialogue.
“It’s all about dialogue for me,” he said. “How do we move forward? People have seen protests outside my school about No Outsiders. What do you do with that? Do you retreat and hide or do you keep going or find opportunities to talk to people who you may disagree with?
“That’s what living in the UK is all about. We are all different but we can find common ground and we can have respect for each other; we can disagree sometimes but we can get along. That’s what living in the UK is all about and that’s what No Outsiders is about as well.”
This year’s conference also featured the Zionist Laura Marks, ex Quilliam employee Rashad Ali and Government Islamophobia advisor Qari Asim.
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Previous conferences have featured Zionists, ex-Muslims, secularists, pro-army speakers, radical feminists and pro-LGBT speakers.
The British Islam conference promotes itself as “a weekend promoting collaboration and thinking around the idea of a British Islam and encouraging the development of British Muslim thought, identity and culture; as well as creating a space for the development of networks and partnerships.”
New Horizons says its work is funded by the Aziz Foundation, The British Council, the Joseph Rounder Charitable Trust, the Open Society Foundation, among others.
However, a social media site called WOKE, which was outed as a Home Office counter-extremism initiative last year, has said it is partnered with New Horizons.
On its now inactive Facebook page, WOKE says “WOKE is partnered with the organisation New Horizons. New Horizons is a forward looking organisation that engages in critical discussions around Muslim identity, tradition and reform to provide a positive vision of what it means to be Muslim today.”
