Honest, impassioned dialogue

Just back from a very interesting meeting of the East London Three Faiths Forum in which Bishop Michael Nazir Ali spoke on faith in a plural community at the Ilford Islamic Centre.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post a summary before too long of the Bishop's speech from the notes I took but this post is just some of my initial reactions to that speech and the impassioned debate that followed.

The Bishop argued strongly for accountability, integration, reciprocity, a recognition of plurality, and government by consent in addressing and expressing faith within plural communities. He argued that the British approach to multiculturalism and tolerance had led to a benign neglect of minority ethnic communities. He was challenged strongly about his comments regarding 'no go' areas with many of those responding to his speech arguing that such comments were irresponsible and inflammatory when Muslim communities felt under threat as a minority community in Britain and when Western Christian armies were fighting in Muslim countries. The Bishop held his ground on this issue saying that he had spoken not about the Muslim community as a whole but only of the actions of extremists which in some circumstances had led to Christian converts from Islam in Britain requiring police protection. He argued that the Muslim community needed to acknowledge and work to counter extremism within its own community.

The Bishop's speech itself was well received by those present although some of those responding thought that the comments the Bishop had made in the press about no go areas and the veil were not appropriate expressions of the views he had shared in the speech. The debate following the speech was impassioned but honest and the evening was a positive experience of dialogue with both the Ilford Islamic Centre and the Bishop needing to be acknowledged for their openness to engage in that dialogue.

I felt that the dialogue would have been enhanced by a greater acknowledgement of the sense of threat and hurt felt felt by the Muslim community at the military actions of the West in Muslim countries while continuing to hold the line on the suffering experienced by some Christians within some Muslim states or communities. I think too that, at the same time that the call is made for Muslim communities to deal with the extremists in their midst, it is also important for the Christian community to clearly condemn those such as 'The Christian Council of Great Britain', who are extremists promoting the racist views of the BNP under a Christian banner. The Church, as a whole, has been clear about its opposition to the views of the BNP and their associates (see the Bishop of Durham's recent statement, for example) but an acknowledgement of the need for such statements from the Church is not often made in the context of a call for the Muslim community to acknowledge and deal with extremists in their midst. That connection was not made tonight, although a comment relating to this issue was made.

The East London Three Faiths Forum has been a positive forum for disalogue between the Abrahamic faiths and this meeting, despite its controversial billing and impassioned debate, was another valuable opportunity for honest dialogue to occur.

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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Peter Gabriel - Signal To Noise.