Boris Stuart and welcome to Within Reason.

Thank you for having me.

Nice to see you.

How are you feeling post two rounds with Sam Harris?

That was extraordinary.

And the problem is the last time I grumbled about it he insisted I did a second

podcast so the risk is if I grumble about it a third time I'm going to be on for

third podcast. I felt it was interesting to do two rounds of what felt to me like 90 minutes but I'm sure

90 minutes each so probably three hours.

So I'm sure Sam's supporters will tell me that I've exaggerated that and

it was nothing like that amount of time at all.

I mean Sam Harris is I'm sure almost all your listeners will know is an American

neuroscientist philosopher and very prominent atheist and I just did two episodes of

his podcast where Sam Harris was trying to get in particularly in the second session

into his view that Islam is a uniquely dangerous religion and that it poses felt like he seemed to

be saying a kind of existential threat to British society and this was the big danger lurking in plain sight and I wasn't really acknowledging how much of a threat this post to Britain and I was trying to defend it.

The main point that I wish I'd emphasised more though when we talk about

podcasts discussing this kind of thing and I mentioned it but I didn't lean into it hard enough is that

neither Sam nor I are Muslims neither of us read the Quran in Arabic

neither of us are actually fully up to speed with Islamic theology.

And it's therefore a bit weird, I felt, for us to spend quite so much time with me defending Islam and him questioning Islam

and from that point of view. But actually I'd be interesting here what you thought? Did you

...