Faith and common sense: Interfaith projects unite people

In December 2009, a mosque application was refused by Walsall council after receiving more than 800 complaints. Was this the handiwork of Stop the Islamification of Europe? The BNP? No. The protesters were mainly Muslims, and the mosque application in question was submitted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Guardian | UK
By Tehmina Kazi | 22 November 2010


Theological pluralism can take us beyond mere tolerance to championing the rights of people with different views

Ask most people what their minds conjure up at the mention of interfaith work and you will usually get visions of reverends and rabbis hobnobbing over tea in a leaky church hall, thrashing out their differences over the Trinity through tight-lipped smiles. Thankfully, I have yet to come across stuffy platitudes like these in the interfaith activities I have witnessed and participated in.

Instead of spending hours discussing every theological difference under the sun – in mind-numbing detail, no less – these projects seek to unite people based on their shared concerns and interests. Take, for example, the Three Faiths Forum Women ARTogether project where women from different faith backgrounds use their passion for art to break down barriers between communities. Or the Interfaith Youth Trust, which has funded many similar projects, including a cemetery cleaning project run by Christians and Jews.


The vast majority of theologians happily propagate and even spearhead these kinds of initiatives; just witness Shaykh Hamza Yusuf's enthusiastic participation in interfaith youth conferences. However, there remains a fringe of religious leaders who see diversity as a threat to their authority. Of course, they would be the greatest beneficiaries of interfaith dialogue – if only they knew! Exclusivist approaches to religious diversity – and the arrogance that usually accompanies them – are not only the biggest threat to interfaith relations, but do tremendous damage to intrafaith relations, too. In December 2009, a mosque application was refused by Walsall council after receiving more than 800 complaints. Was this the handiwork of Stop the Islamification of Europe? The BNP? No. The protesters were mainly Muslims, and the mosque application in question was submitted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association UK (members of a minority sect who have faced relentless persecution, particularly in Pakistan).

To most witnesses, this probably evokes memories of the People's Front of Judea. More crucially, the aforementioned protesters have, knowingly or unknowingly, breached a fundamental tenet of our civic code: the importance of reciprocity when upholding the civil rights of particular minority groups. For no matter how people evaluate belief systems that are different from their own, equal treatment before the law is what places us on common ground.

In order to subscribe to this model of civic pluralism, one doesn't have to be a theological pluralist, but it certainly helps. Mahatma Gandhi summed up theological pluralism when he said: "I came to the conclusion long ago that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu. But our innermost prayer should be a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian."

This sort of approach is more likely to take us beyond the parameters of mere tolerance for other groupings, into a mindset where we can actively champion the rights of people with different views from our own. For example, British Muslims for Secular Democracy, the organisation that I work for, campaigned against two antisemitic preachers who were invited to speak at Green Lane mosque in December 2009. In addition, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Community Security Trust vehemently criticised the launch of the EDL's Jewish Division in June 2010.

Nonreligious groups and individuals, such as human rights activist Peter Tatchell, have also played a momentous role in this process. Tatchell is well known for his interventions against the subjugation of Balochis in Pakistan, a minority group that ostensibly has nothing to do with him. Interfaith and intercultural activities can provide a major impetus for this kind of empathetic advocacy work, as long as they implement the central teaching of most major religions, ie the just and ethical treatment of other people, especially those who happen to be different.



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