Six years of sharing peace

Left to right: Very Revd John Hall, Bishop Richard Cheetham, Rt Hon Eric Pickles, Julian Bond

 

Origins and Context

 

The Christian Muslim Forum arose from concerns in the Church of England to engage with a growing UK Muslim population, a response rooted in loving our neighbours, not 7/7, 9/11 or 2001’s riots in Northern towns, it was already underway in 2000. Our origins are in conversation, which I have been part of since 2002, as have some colleagues here. Initial conversation among Christians widened into a bilateral conversation.

 

As Christians and Muslims we are called to serve God’s purposes of love and justice. Our beliefs and practices have much in common, but with striking differences; we speak of truth, but have irreconcilable truth claims. Confrontation and suspicion mar our long history, yet with examples of peaceful coexistence and cooperation. In some places we live harmoniously; elsewhere there is suspicion, tension or hostility. This is how Muslims and Christians interact, or fail to, with one another. In recent years we have witnessed the rise of the BNP and the EDL, some hardening of attitudes to Muslims amongst Christians and others and growing claims that Christians are marginalised, or worse, in the UK. We are also more aware of the plight of religious minorities overseas and tuned in to what sometimes seems to be the precarious, or overbearing place, depending on where you are standing, of religion in Britain.  

 

Our Work and Mission

 

Since 2006 we have role-modelled a productive, committed relationship between Christians and Muslims, and seek to inspire others. Our work takes place against the backdrop just described, so we offer a commitment to learning about each other from each other, collaborating on shared issues, even difficult ones, recognising differences and similarities, while inviting others to join us on the journey. A journey including education, myth-busting, advocacy, honesty, risk-taking, we have shared these and offered them to others. We have created a conversation and invited others to join it.

 

Our first event, a gathering of ‘Imams and Ministers’, reflected on the role of religious leaders. There was much excitement as people met from around the country, a strong feeling that this was a useful new approach. It showed us Christian and Muslim leaders:

 

They thanked us for useful input from speakers but found meeting others the most valuable aspect. A frequent inter faith stereotype is men sitting around talking over tea and samosas, one of our female colleagues teases us constantly about this. But everything starts with conversation, it just needs to lead somewhere and achieve something. Over the years we have explored: leadership, community cohesion, citizenship, identity, building friendship, dialogue, mission/da’wah, extremism, inclusiveness and secular society. The benefits of these conversations have been recognised by the Department for Communities funding, through the Church Urban Fund, the ‘Near Neighbours’ programme, through which we seek to:

 

Leadership is a key focus for us, though we have also spent much time training youth workers and creating opportunities for dialogue amongst young people. We have focused on inclusion of women in inter faith and run women-only events, our Near Neighbours programme has a women’s leadership strand. Some of our best known work has been our statements and resource documents, which have all come about through conversation:

 

Statement on Religious Festivals, challenging secular fears that Christmas offends Muslims and Ethical Witness Guidelines, how Christians and Muslims can build good relationships while being missionary faiths. We were especially pleased to produce our Local Encounter Letter, encouraging good relationships locally, jointly agreed by Christians and Muslims at Lambeth Palace in July 2010.

 

‘We don't need priests or imams to have good dialogue, they would be an asset, but aren't necessary ingredients. We need good, honest, honourable persons to carry it out. I strongly feel that this unity we have [agreed statement] should be made public as much as possible.’ Daud, participant.

 

Over the last year we have - organised youth dialogue with young people walking between a mosque and a church; held a community leaders event in an Islamic seminary and cathedral in Blackburn; delivered a conference on faith schools in Oxford; run a series of family seminars, in Oxford and Brent; run a women,  environment and faith group in Brixton; invited young people to develop a statement on trade justice and share a platform with the Archbishop of Canterbury, had a public conversation (another one) with an atheist philosopher and issued a statement on halal meat.

 

‘It was very encouraging to see such an event in a Dar al-Ulum establishment’ Shaykh Abdal-Hakim Murad, Blackburn Leaders’ Event, March 2011

 

Our resources to date have enabled us to achieve a good track record in responding as an organisation to events, either in the UK or overseas, which strain good relations between Christians and Muslims, where people of one faith suffer at the hands of others, are demonised in the media or misunderstood. 

 

The Future …

 

Our future plans include: a Christian-Muslim art exhibition in Walthamstow, a conference for Christian and Muslim teachers in state schools, a seminar on contextual theology; a women’s leadership conference and a day seminar for prison chaplains here.

 

We will know we have achieved our vision when we are no longer needed and Christian-Muslim relations are a source of encouragement and rejoicing rather than a place of tension. But to get to this point we need to do more, key to this will be:

 

We look forward to including you in this ongoing conversation this afternoon.

 

Theological presentation - Love in Islam - Love and justice

 

Julian Bond, Director

16 January 2012,

Westminster Abbey