Dealing with Difference:Jews, Muslims and the British Left Today

Dr. Brian Klug  University of Oxford, UK Generally speaking, the British left has been on the side of the disadvantaged and the oppressed. Forthis reason, socialists,radicals and liberals have instinctively rallied to the cause of newcomers in an increasingly multicultural society. But circumstances have changed and the waters now are muddied.  This lecture will explore the reasons why it is difficult forthe left today, given its origins and orientations, to deal with Muslim and Jewish difference when that difference is asserted by Jews and Muslims themselves.  Brian Klug is Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at St Benet’s Hall, Oxford. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish and non-Jewish Relations, University of Southampton, and in summer 2012 was Visiting Scholar at the International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia. His latest two books are Being Jewish and Doing Justice(2011) and Offence: The Jewish Case(2009).