Book Discussion: Freedom from Religion by Amos Guiora

We are very pleased to host for the next three days a discussion of Amos Guiora’s new book, Freedom from Religion: Rights and National Security(Oxford 2009).  Amos is probably well known to many readers of this blog, a professor at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law and a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Israel Defense Forces Judge Advocate General’s Corps, Amos is a frequent writer and commentator on issues of national security and the law of armed conflict. He was also a regular blogger at National Security Advisors.

Amos’ new book has been getting much attention for its provocative argument concerning the interrelationship of religious freedom and national security policy. Between the controversies over the construction of an Islamic cultural center near the Ground Zero site and the proposed burning of the Koran by a conservative Christian pastor, it is hard to think of a more timely or more contentious topic. I will leave to Amos the explication of his argument.  Unlike some corners of the blogosphere and cable outlets, we make a real effort at shedding more light than heat and so we have put together a group of thoughtful commentators to guest with us for this symposium.

Joining us for this discussion are Paul Cliteur, a professor of jurisprudence at the University of Leiden and the author of the recent book The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism (Wiley 2010),  as well as Peggy’s and my colleague Mark Movsesian, the Frederick A. Whitney Professor of Contract Law st St. Johns Law School and the founding director of the Law School’s Center for Law and Religion. Mark contributes the the blog Law, Religion, and Ethics: A Multifaith Dialogue. We also hope to be joined by the Rev. Dr. John C. Lentz, the pastor of the Forrest Hill Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. We are fortunate to have such a group of experts guest blogging with us on such an important issue.

We encourage our readers to comment and look forward to what promises to be a lively discussion.