As part of my education, I have resolved to go up to London 1-2 time a month for Philosophy related meetups and lectures. I went to one on a Wednesday just passed on Islam and Philosophy, as in the link below:

http://pfalondon.org/kant.html

The presenter made some interesting points in his criticism of current democracy which respects the majority blindly without any moral code or guidance, but I really think there can be no other choice in this world. Islam he said, in one word represents justice while Christianity represents love (fair enough). Sharia law is based on 6 principles which among them include the right to family, education, property, and dignity. All values, he reminded us, were included in the American Constitution. Fair dues for him to do such a presentation though. I left early in the question and answer session as I had to catch a train. One questioner appeared quite irate about his criticism of current democracy, as it appeared that his argument gave no benefit to atheists having any moral code. Overall I preferred the meetups in earlier this year, especially Richard Barons on Thought Experiments in Ethics. Shafeeq did remind us of the debt we do owe to the old Islamic world for reviving the interest in classical Greek philosophy though. Later I listened to two good podcasts from In Our time on

Al Kindi  (he translated the old Greek texts to Arabic)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01k2bv8

and

Al-Ghazali (he refuted the sole use of Greek Philosophy, pointing out where it digressed from Islamic teaching)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055j9rv