Will Science Be the New Religion in the Post-pandemic World?

Join His Excellency Omar Ghobash and journalist Lesley Hazleton in the latest debate in the ‘Literary Conversations Across Borders’ series

United Arab Emirates –  08June 2020:  The impact of the pandemic on faith and belief systems will be the subject of a frank discussion between His Excellency Omar Ghobash Assistant Minister, Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy in the UAE and  award-wining journalist and author Lesley Hazleton on Saturday 13 June at 21:00 hours UAE.

The debate is the third in the Literary Conversations Across Borders series which uses a digital platform to host Emirati writers and commentators in live discussions with high profile experts from around the world on a variety of critical topics. 

The speakers will consider whether the current battle between some religious elements and science-led policy-makers over dealing with Covid 19 is being politically, and cynically, manipulated and whether the two stances are inherently incompatible.

Omar Saif Ghobash is the author of Letters to a Young Muslim.  Currently serving the United Arab Emirates as Assistant Minister, Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy, he previously served as Ambassador to France (2017-2018) and Ambassador to Russia (2008-2017). 
Lesley Hazleton reported on the Middle East from Jerusalem for more than a dozen years, and has written for Time, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and Harper’s, among other publications. Her books include The First Muslim and After the Prophet, was a finalist for the PEN-USA Book Award. Her latest book, Agnostic, gives voice to the case for agnosticism. 

The inaugural event in the ‘Literary Conversations Across Borders’ series saw more than 3,500 people from 46 countries register and able to tune  in to the live event with Indian politician Shashi Tharoor and His Excellency Zaki Nusseibeh Minister of State: Office of  Public and Cultural Diplomacy, in a  debate  on how the events of 2020 will change the course of history. 

The second session looked at the the impact the pandemic and lock-down measures have had on our lives. Celebrated environmentalist Dr. Jane Goodall and Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Al Mheiri Minister of State for Food Security looked  at how this might influence the ways forward  in making a more sustainable world in terms of the global food supply challenges and the natural world.

The ‘Literary Conversations Across Borders’ project is a new initiative to promote international cultural understanding through the power of books and words  launched by the UAE Office of Public and Cultural Diplomacy and the Emirates Literature Foundation. 

There will be eight sessions in this first Literary Conversations Across Borders series. Further details and more authors will be announced shortly.