Does Secular state limit religion? What is Islamic State? Representing the Muslim perspective was Hamza Andreas Tzortzis, Brother Hamza is an international public speaker on Islam. He is a writer with articles, essays and commentaries on political philosophy, the philosophy of religion and society. Hamza is an intellectual activist actively engaging on issues pertaining to religion, social cohesion and politics. Hamza is also a researcher with a recent publication on non-Muslim perceptions on Islam and Muslims. Hamza regularly participates in debates and symposiums with leading intellectuals, public speakers and academics on topics concerning western and Islamic philosophy, politics and current affairs. For example he participated in a debate with the president of American Atheists, Dr. Ed Buckner on "Islam or Atheism?", he also debated the editor of the Philosophy Now magazine Rick Lewis, entitled God: Delusion or Truth? and he participated in a debate with the best selling author, philosophy lecturer and chair of the British Humanist Association's Philosophers Group Peter Cave on Can We Live Better Lives Without Religion? More recently Hamza debated the highly acclaimed professor, Simon Blackburn, who is one of the leading atheist and humanist academics in the world. The debate was held in the historic Cambridge University debating chambers. Hamza regularly appears in the media explaining and demystifying Islam and providing unique perspectives on current affairs. He has appeared on the BBC, BBC Arabic, BBC Radio 4, Press TV, Islam Channel, Nile TV, Ummah TV, Iqra TV, TV3 (Malaysia) and National Public Radio of America. Hamza lectures all around the world on topics related to Islam, philosophy and politics. He is a regular speaker at universities across the UK and he is one of the main initiators of the contemporary emergence of Muslim public speakers using Islamic and Western philosophy to shed light on Islam and demystify its way of life. Representing the liberal side was Dr Alan Sked; Dr Sked is reader in International History at the London School of Economics (LSE). He studied History at Glasgow, then Merton College, Oxford. His doctoral supervisor at Oxford was A. J. P. Taylor, who was a major influence on Sked. In particular, Sked's writings on the Habsburg Monarchy owe much to Taylor, although their interpretations are very different. Sked himself is now a world authority on Habsburg history but has also written standard texts on British and European history. His books have been translated into German, Italian, Czech, Portuguese, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. At LSE he teaches popular courses on US and modern intellectual history as well as on the history of sex, race and slavery. The Topic of Debate: Islam or Secular Liberalism - Which is the Way Forward? Hamza Andreas Tzortzis (www.hamzatzortzis.com) vs. Dr. Alan Sked (www2.lse.ac.uk/internationalHistory/whosWho/academicStaff/sked.aspx) (London School of Economics, London, UK 23rd January 2009)