Withdrawl from Conference

I had been asked to present a paper and lead a workshop at the 'Middle-East Spiritualities' conference in Edinburgh. Then I was queried on the content of my paper and workshop because I mentioned that we would be looking at an interview we had done with Jeff Helper from the Israeli Campaign Against House Demolitions -- I was asked to confirm "the nature and content of the film's footage". The email I received went onto to explain the conference's aims were to discuss spirituality without touching on the politics of the Middle East which are covered extensively, elsewhere.

Here's my reply:

I am sorry to say that I cannot see a way ahead after your last email, except to withdraw. My session concentrates on the Palestinian Christian presence in the Middle East, their identity, and their developing liberation theology which is shaped by the context of occupation. My session is committed to exploring spirituality, peace and identity and my research takes as a basic premise that the Palestinian Christians are oppressed. Part of my paper explores the reasons why nearly all the Palestinian Christians have left the Middle East, and the resultant crushing of their culture and identity. My question is whether their spirituality and identity can survive. So this means that I am quite unable to present a de-politicized paper since it is at the intersection between spirituality and politics that the core of our research is based at York St John. So, regretfully I will have to withdraw from the conference.