2014 events

Some recent interfaith events

The Westminster interfaith group heard an account of Gandhi’s involvement in interfaith from William Rhind of the Gandhi foundation. He gave us some quotes from Gandhi.

“Religions are different roads converging to the same point. Denial of God will not liberate me from his operation. The only way to find God is to see him in his creation and to be one with it. God is light not darkness. God is love not hate. God is truth not untruth. The only devils in the world are those running about in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought.

Without needing to be a Christian, I can testify to what Jesus means in my life.” Gandhi saw Jesus as the ‘finest flower of Judaism’.

Sayed Ali Abbas Razawi addressed a meeting in Brixton of Faiths together in Lambeth and spoke on the issue of violence. He said that humiliation leads to extremism. Most fringe groups are not in mosques and there needs to be a united stand against ISIS to find a non-violent solution to violence. Muslim men are well integrated into society in the United Kingdom . However some see themselves as victims. Centralisation of Muslims prevents radicalisation.

What we can do is to invite our neighbours, interact with children, improve our public relations and promote our activities on local radio and in local papers.

The British Humanist association promoted “Looking for common ground: how can Muslims and humanists live and work together in 21^st century London?” at Conway Hall. This was the first dialogue of its kind and Alom Shaha did an excellent job asking questions of 4 different speakers. It was pointed out from the floor that the “conservative” Muslim was not represented.

Yasmin Rehman spoke against pigeonholing by government. She finds it offensive to be described as British Asian Muslim. All the speakers stressed the great diversity within Islam. Yasmin spoke against the violence against women and children and stressed that all needed protection from English law not sharia law.

Huda Jawad spoke from the Shia perspective. She said that people should be empowered to ask Muslims the right questions. Manadou Bocoum spoke about the differences of African Islam and the problem of multiple identities. Muslims should be brave and speak honestly and he felt that the understanding of the Qu’ran should be higher than the Qu’ran itself.

Sara Khan spoke passionately about her fight for justice. “Can you be a Muslim feminist?”  She is amazed that she has been described as Islamophobic. “Your identity influences your interpretation  of the text”. She mentioned the difficulty of reconciling modernity and Islam but there did seem to be common ground with humanists.

Questions from the floor included the question of faith schools and homophobia from Muslims. It was hoped that this was the first of many similar encounters.

I sang at “Whichever way Love turns” the 850th  anniversary of Ibn’ Arabi in music and sound  concert/event at Brunei gallery SOAS. We all received a warm welcome from  Amin Hussain and Thalia-Mari Papadopolou. There was a varied programme  including Flamenco guitar, singers, poetry , the whirling dervishes of West London, Muslim Zikr chant from the Mevlevi Threshold society,  Sikh, Jewish (my good friend Stefan and Arjan) and a marvellous Orthodox St  Nektarios choir member singing Agios O Theos with drone on  harp.

 I sang Ubi caritas (God is love) and Sanctus from the  Requiem mass which is probably our oldest chant linking back  to the synagogue and Jesus may have sung it. Ubi caritas is particularly suitable as it means “Where charity and love is, there is God”.

The whole concert had a beautiful atmosphere of calm and contemplation. It was sponsored by the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi society www.ibnarabisociety.org, the Beshara Trust www.beshara.org and St Ethelburga’s www.stethelburgas.org.

One of the highlights of 2014 was speaking to over 300 at the Ramadan tent near University of London Senate House. I told the audience that I could not improve on the words of Pope Francis “Interreligious dialogue is a necessary condition for peace in the world, and so it is a duty for Christians as well as other religious communities.” (Evangelii Gaudium 250) and I presented a copy of the document to the organisers.

John Woodhouse

Westminster cathedral interfaith group