Rick Santorum and EPPC's Program to Protect America's Freedom are pleased to present a three-part symposium exploring the relationship between Shariah law and the West. As supporters of secular democracy are forced to engage those who would seek to install a global Islamic theocracy, challenging tensions are inevitable, and much hinges on the response we give. The series aims to instigate appropriate reflection on what it is we seek to defend, and how U.S. policy might go about doing that in a long battle where the weapons are not limited to stolen airplanes, but rather include the quieter tools of language, law, and financial institutions.

This first event will feature Andrew McCarthy on the subject of libel tourism, a form of forum shopping currently being manipulated to suppress criticism of radical Islam. Mr. McCarthy holds the Chair of the Center for Law and Counterterrorism at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Prior to joining FDD, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he was involved in the prosecution of both foreign and domestic terrorism. After September 11, he supervised the U.S. Attorney's Anti-Terrorism Command Post in New York City. Mr. McCarthy is a regular contributor at National Review Online and Commentary where he writes on a wide range of subjects including law, terrorism, and national security.

The second event will feature Nonie Darwish and Angela Wu on the subject of U.N. Defamation Laws, and will occur on May 12 from 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. A third event will be held in late spring and will explore the rise and international acceptance of Shariah-compliant finance, and the ways in which classic Western institutions may or may not choose to accommodate it. More details about these events will be forthcoming.

For more information, please contact Anne Snyder at asnyder@eppc.org or 202.682.1204.