West 'held hostage' by Islam says Rome

As Richard Owen reports, the Vatican is today warning that interfaith dialogue in the West must not allow itself to be held hostage by Islam. Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue pictured here, has this week discussed new guidelines for interfaith dialogue and he said the Church 'has to have regard for all religions,' not just one. 'What was interesting about our discussions was that we did not concentrate on Islam because in a way we are being held hostage by Islam a little bit,' he told the Catholic website Terrasanta.net. 'Islam is very important, but there are also other great Asiatic religious traditions. Islam is one religion.' The Catholics are organising a Christian-Muslim summit in Rome in October, it being their response to the Common Word document published to mark the anniversary of the Regensberg address. The document was addressed to the Catholics and 'the other churches' too, and on their behalf the Archbishop of Canterbury earlier this month hosted a gathering of Christian leaders to discuss  present relations with Islam. (Read Tauran's London lecture on this on the Jesuit site ThinkingFaith.)

Coincidentally,  Melanie Phillips in The Spectator is saying a similar thing in a rather more polemical style, having a go at Hazel Blears for her response to the Church report that we broke news of in The Times on Saturday, Moral, but no Compass. (Thinking Anglicans has all the links you could possibly need and more on that one. Frank Field has put down an early day motion in the House of Commons which I've reproduced below and one of the authors, Francis Davis, has written a piece about it, also on ThinkingFaith. )

Melanie writes: 'You really don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Here is a government minister endorsing the sidelining of the founding faith of her country by an aggressively colonising religion whose adherents are determined that it should supplant that founding faith – and boasting that she is giving it British taxpayers’ money to do so in the name of defeating religious extremism. It’s all of a piece with the uneducation minister Ed Balls announcing that imams would be sent into schools to teach Islamic principles in citizenship lessons, or the Home Office decision not to prosecute individuals recruited to the jihad but to offer them ‘therapy and counselling from community groups’ instead.'

The Catholics and other Christian leaders are understandably concerned that Muslims expect equal treatment here while in some Islamic countries, Christians are not allowed to worship openly. The Church of England, as the largest faith group, feels neglected by the Government which devotes huge sums to researching Islam while failing to appreciate the good neighbour living next door. The Church has its own self-appointed 'spokesman' for those concerned about Islam in Britain, the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali. Many of his colleagues on the bench of bishops, some of them extremely senior, are becoming increasingly exasperated, angry even, by his comments on Islam. They fear he is making a tricky situation even worse. His supporters, meanwhile, are equally angered by the little recognition given to the fact that he has received death threats when he has spoken out on Islam in the past. However,  whatever the privately-expressed doubts,  he was one of those involved in the recent consultation regarding the Common Word at Lambeth.

There will be no official documents published from that meeting, but I do understand that the Archbishop of Canterbury is currently writing a response looking at some of the issues involved. This, when it is published in the next few weeks, will be his first major contribution on Islam since Sharia. Interestingly though, at the consultation, when Christians from around the world spoke of their experience, the Nigerians were particularly critical of the anti-Islam rhetoric that suddenly seems so fashionable here. The Nigerian Christian leaders do not want the West's attitude imported into their situation, believing that violence feeds violence, and that it can only exacerbate an already tense situation.

Frank Field's EDM:

That this House welcomes the publication of Moral, But No Compass:
Church, Government and the Future of Welfare, by Francis Davis, Elizabeth Paulhus et al of the Von Hugel Institute, Cambridge University, the results of research undertaken with the blessing of the Archbishop's Council of the Church of England and with the support of the House of Bishops; notes that it records an absence of an adequate evidence base on the part of the Government and departments of state when it comes to understanding the civic contribution of the Christian churches in the UK; notes an under-estimation of the total number of faith-based charities on the part of the Charity Commission; acknowledges the pioneering contribution made by Christian churches to social innovations in services and initiatives on housing, alcohol dependency, poverty alleviation, education, criminal justice, community participation and health and well-being as well as rural and urban social cohesion and economic development; notes that the research draws on interviews with Ministers and shadow ministers, senior civil servants and voluntary sector leaders as well as several Members of both Houses; congratulates the Right Reverend Stephen Lowe, National Bishop for Urban Life, for initiating this work; calls for fresh and high level discussions within the Civil Service and with, and between Ministers on measures to help the UK harness this under-recognised faith-based contribution to the life of the UK; and calls on British embassies and consulates-general to share the report with other EU and Commonwealth countries as an example of good British practice.

Comments

[Kieransmum]

Yes, but let's not forget Melanie Phillips believes the decline of the use of the traditional Prayer Book is directly linked to the "threat" of Islam - she's hardly a logical thinker.

[Stuart Hartill]

It is quite depressing that European Christianity in particular seems to be reviving a hatred of 'the other' based on medieval fear of the Turk. This hatred (to me at least) appears to be excused by the manipulation of centuries old folk myth, not investigation of solid contemporary evidence, and the most worrying thing is the way in which it recycles fascist propaganda of the 1920s and 1930s.
I was absolutely astonished to discover the other day that some clergy and lay Christians now even align themselves with cod-chivalric orders which claim to have been founded in the Crusades - though at least that might explain some of their recent bizarre and paranoid rhetoric.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster FRSA]

Stuart is wrong. Most clergy go out of their way to meet Muslims and understand them. This is not reciprocated on the whole and has meant that other minority 'others', as Stuart would call them, feel totally marginalized. I am talking about Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and agnostics.

[Stuart Hartill]

I think you misunderstand me, Dr Lancaster. I readily accept that many ordinary British clergy try hard. I personally work with some on an interfaith & belief forum in a small community and value their efforts - sometimes against the disinterest of 'head office' it has to be said.
It is an uphill struggle, but having also lived in Northern Ireland one I understand and have faith in (if you'll excuse the pun from an agnostic!)because it is finally driven by ordinary people saying 'we cannot live like this'.
My big worry is a phenomena I witnessed while teaching in Hungary a decade ago - a clever and subtle 'rebranding' of far right views as 'spiritual' rather than 'political' to avoid new hate crime legislation.
Until recently I'd thought the major UK churches were above that, but now I'm not so sure. The rhetoric is oddly similar to that I heard on the European mainland, and haven't seen here before. I cannot help wondering where it comes from. This rigid, doctrinaire language is not something I ever dreamed of hearing from an English pulpit.

[Dr. Irene Lancaster FRSA]

Fair enough, but I don't think the situation in Northern Ireland is totally similar to that in present-day Britain.

I don't think there is an equivalent of sharia law among Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Nor do I think that even the most hardened extremists in that country were out to kill the other side, wherever they might reside.

That is the case among some (although certainly not all) Muslim youth and others on mainland Britain, which has been confirmed by conversations I had with some of them in the school and university environment.

[Tom Jackson]

The problem with any attempt to reconcile Islamic and Christian cultures is that the issue becomes unmanageable due to the sheer magnitude of the situation.

But it really is no different to a group of people sharing a house together. There will be differences of attitude and behaviour which will – if they are to continue living together – require adjustment and compromise. Even the most basic understanding of what is such a simple issue results in an awareness that if there is no adjustment and compromise on all sides, it is in everyone’s interest to make other arrangements for accommodation.

And that is the developing situation we have in the UK – and, indeed, in other communities where Islam is gaining a foothold.

As a belief system, as a cultural foundation on which Muslims build their lives, Islam does not compromise – not when it comes down to it. There is no means or mechanism by which they can make the adjustments and compromises that are necessary for us all to live together as a harmonious and secure society within their beliefs.

As with any minority conflict – even a minority which is growing more significant day by day – a tolerant and accommodating community such as we have in the UK will always resist taking a firm and decisive approach which safeguards their cultural heritage and protects the institutions and structure upon which we, as a nation, depend and rely on.

That is why we need to address this problem, not with a spirit of compromise, but with determination and strength, with an awareness that if we don’t face up to the problem now, the situation that will face us, our children and our grandchildren in the future will be considerably more difficult and threatening.

[Alistair]

Irene makes an interesting point re peceived marginalisation of other faiths.

It's not just the CofE that feels it is being ignored. In February of this year, Britain's Hindu Forum issued a press release condeming the Government for ignoring the peaceful and well-integrated Hindu community and only reacting to those ethnic minorities which "shout the loudest or cause problems" - no prizes for guessing who that was aimed at!

“The impression we get is that those who shout the loudest or cause problems get immediate attention from this Government, while those who work actively to make community cohesion a reality get ignored,” explained Ishwer Tailor, President of the Hindu Forum of Britain. Sudarshan Bhatia, President of the National Council of Hindu Temples, said "Just because Hindus are quiet, we are ignored, isolated and sidelined.”

See http://www.hinduforum.org/Default.aspx?sID=45&cID=241&ctID=43&lID=0

Christians seem to want to use Islam as the bogeyman catalyst that will persuade lapsed and "cultural" Christians that, unless they become more overtly religious (or get out there and convert Muslims to Christianity, as Nazir-Ali would like), the Britain around them will be utterly overwhelmed by the Muslim onslaught.

The Government must wonder what the point is of spending millions to encourage inter-faith dialogue when all it seems to be achieving is to get the rest of the religions ganging up on one in particular. The Vatican suggesting Islam is holding interfaith work "hostage" is not talk designed to have us all walking off into the sunset as happy, tolerant and respectful citizens.

Brown & Co must also wonder why it bothers to reach out to "faith communities" when clearly all it achieves is to unleash this grubby scramble for privilege, influence and resource on a "me too" basis. The manner in which faith communities are reacting to the Government's apeal to them suggests they are selfish and self-serving, which is the very opposite of what they preach.

[Matt Wardman]

I'm organising a series of guest articles on my own website here:

http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/category/symposium/

>Christians seem to want to use Islam as the bogeyman catalyst that will persuade lapsed and "cultural" Christians that, unless they become more overtly religious (or get out there and convert Muslims to Christianity, as Nazir-Ali would like), the Britain around them will be utterly overwhelmed by the Muslim onslaught.

That's quite funny mischievous stuff being put out by people trying to paint the Church of England (and MNA in particular) as "fundamentalists" in order to push it out of public life. The idea that people will go back to church because they are scared of a caricature of Islam is silly; never mind the fact that it's contrary to all Christian teaching on mission and evangelism.

[Fatpie42]

How strange it is that, on the one hand Religious Education lessons must give extra attention to Christianity because most of the population claims to follow that religion. Yet for some reason the Roman Catholic Church does not see the large proportion of the world's population following Islam as a good reason to give it a prominent place in their dealings with other faiths....

[RW]

Is it necessary to be rude about one partner in dialogue in order to be able to enagage another? It seems to me that the Cardinal's main problem may be his own ineptness.

[Ivan Erickson]

Extract from: “The Truth and the Light Regarding the Christian and Islam Faiths”, by Ivan Erickson, author of the spiritual novel, “Song of the Storm Winds”, available via direct links to amazon.com on my website, http://www.ivan-erickson.com - Other discourses are also available for viewing and comments on my site.
The following is the second of six total premises from the above discourse, “The Truth and the Light Regarding the Christian and Islam Faiths”, of which the rational person will find irrefutable. Please know that I love all people of all faiths and ethnicities of whom God loves, and this is the reason why I continuously toil to bring the Truth and the Light to all those who are seeking:
“The second premise to address is the Islam belief that Jesus Christ was only a prophet – that He was not deity or the only Son of God. In 1 John, 2:18-23 we read: “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the holy one, and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth. Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. No one who denies the Son has the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well.”i In 1 John 4, 1-3 we read: “Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world.”ii Also, Jesus Christ professed many times in the Gospel that He was the Messiah, the only Son of God the Father. If the Islam faithful sincerely believes that Jesus was a prophet, how can they at the same time not believe that He was God’s Son? – For a prophet is one who speaks the Truth for God, you see”.