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The Friend Circle
As we know, Quilliam is the world’s first counterextremism
think tank set up to address the
unique challenges of citizenship, identity, and
belonging in a globalised world. Quilliam stands
for religious freedom, equality, human rights and
democracy.
Our most successful work has been based on the
premise of dialogue. So when Quilliam launched
it’s private membership service, the Circle, it
should have been based around that notion.
However, I feel that without interference the
Circle will be short-lived, it is a Circle that is based
upon monetary gain rather than a promotion of
dialogue. The very essence of a coaching session
is problematic, we are preaching to the converted
which gives the impression of dialogue, when
instead it is used as an incentive that is effortless
on our end. This is all great and well that it’s
effortless on our end, however the circle appears
rushed, unprofessional and haphazard on the
outside. The Circle should be an exclusive
service where you can directly contribute to
challenging extremism, promoting pluralism,
and inspiring change - rather than receiving a
t-shirt, accessing our once free publications and
receiving a coaching session you didn’t know you
needed. Even the pricing of our publications is
flawed, not only are we charging for this once
free information, but if you can use google you
can access them for free, despite there a being
fee on quilliamfoundation.org. See link: http://
bit.ly/2feGJqu The following document aims to
correct these issues.
The following document will introduce a project
I have been working on behind the scenes,
outside of my day to day work to improve
the Circle. We cannot introduce the Circle
and add it to our preexisting workload and
expect half a million pounds or six thousand+
donors. We need to introduce something
that beats the Henry Jackson Society and the
Chatham House memberships and so on.
The following project is called In Conversation
With. It is one that I breifed Haras on in June
2016. All the information in this document is
not based on possbilites, the location and the
guests have all confirmed to participate if a
project like this was to take place.
The ‘In Conversation With…’ series, is where
the chairman of Quilliam, Maajid Nawaz
will sit in a prestigious location and have a
progressive conversation that will be filmed
infront of a live audience (Circle Members). For
example, a conversation with Maajid Nawaz may
consist of how religious literalism can and will
exclude minorities, living as an LGBTQ person
in the middle east and how the arts can turn the
tide on discrimination against those who identify
as LGBTQ with Sir Ian McKellen. The faces
in the rest of the document have been heavily
researched and contacted by myself to see if
they would be willing to donate their time to our
cause, for free. All of the faces below agreed.
This event will not cost Quilliam a penny, apart
from the guests travel and accommodation (if
applicable). The Circle members will not be
charged to attend such talk and will have an
involvement on their talking points. We shall
not hire a venue, if we place the series within
religious buildings we have a greater chance
to get them granted for free, as I have with All
Saints’ Church, Blackheath. If we host Maajid
Nawaz and Sam Harris in New York, the chances
are that every attendee shall be a new member
to the Circle. So if we host the conversation to
200 Circle members, where they have a chance
to meet Sam and Maajid, that is £24,000
profit. The reason for having this series filmed
is that a large amount of our supporters cannot
attend due to small venues or their location.
For the project to go ahead I would need an
annual wage. As you can appreciate as of
March I will have been at Quilliam for one
year, with no wage, relying on my savings
to pay for my efforts towards Quilliam.