Adam: starting at the very beginning

I am looking forward to being part of the launch this evening of a Spiritual Art exhibition at Silbury Gallery in MK, curated by my dear friend and brother Anouar Kassim. Last year we celebrated and explored Spirituality and Mathematics — this year Adam.

Adam, whom Muslims think of as the first prophet, is the beginning. He defines the global scope of all the Abrahamic faiths. We are all of one flesh and blood int he final analysis. This is why sectarianism is never enough.

Western Christians have so emphasised Genesis as a story about guilt, and perhaps missed the fact that it is more about shame, and flawed coming of age. Lose touch with this story and we lose touch with the tragic and paradoxical dimension of what it means to be human.

Thinking about what is distinctive about the Christian vision of Adam brings to mind a hymn from 100 Hymns for Today (1969) by a man called Richard G. Jones. The language is that of forty years ago, but I'm sorry it has consistently failed to make it into hymnbooks since — especially if it implies the English are just too Pelagian for this kind of thing. I hope not.

God who created this Eden of Earth,
Giving to Adam and Eve their fresh birth,
What have we done with that wonderful tree
Lord forgive Adam, for Adam is me.

Adam ambitious desires to be wise,
casts out obedience and lusts with his eyes,
Grasps his sweet fruit, "as God I shall be"
Lord forgive Adam, for Adam is me.

Thirst after power is the sin of my shame,
Pride's ruthless thrust after status and fame,
Turning and stealing and cowering from thee,
Lord forgive Adam, for Adam is me.

Cursed is the earth through this cancerous crime,
Symbol of man through all passage of time,
Put it all right, Lord, let Adam be free:
Lord forgive Adam, for Adam is me.

Glory to God! What is this that I see?
Man made anew, second Adam is he,
Bleeding his love on another fine tree,
Lord forgive Adam, for Adam is me.

Rises that Adam the Master of death,
Pours out his spirit in glorious new breath;
Sheer Liberation! with him I am free!
Lives Second Adam, in mercy, in me.

Time to pull up the Drawbridge?

Dresden has been a good place to pursue hot issues that don’t seem to be able to air so openly in the UK. On Friday the Frauenkirche saw one of the world’s leading academic experts on Migration, Professor Klaus Bade, unpack the grounds of the fear some Germans feel about his subject.

This fear, Bade calls it “Hysteria,” finds many forms of expression from skinheads to the NPD, but its most public exponent of late has been former railway administrator and SPD Senator, now Bundesbank board member, Thilo Sarrazin. Last year he published a book called Deutschland schafft sich ab (“Germany abolishes itself”) claiming that immigrant Muslims don’t want to integrate and habitually depend on social services rather than honest t

oil. He calculates that in a few generations the Muslim population will grow and overwhelm Germany.

But there’s more. Sarrazin dives from

there into a murkier cellar when he suggests that Muslims are in some undefined way genetically less intelligent. The only answer, apart from pulling up the drawbridge, is to take away the social benefits that feed them. Offended? It’s hard not to be, especially if you remember the evolutionary eugenic theory that underpinned twentieth century Anti-Semitism. It cannot be wise to dance on the edge of this particular abyss.

Hysteria is a form of fear, the most powerful drive in the reptile brain that underlies everything we think. So this stuff matters. It is not enough simply to huff and puff about its moral shortcomings, or to draw historical parallels, although those are almost inescapable. We cannot address hysteria by embarrassed shuffling fro

m foot to foot as those who have just realised that our eccentric neighbour at a cocktail party is actually potty. Neither should the concern be suppressed, as that only amplifies it and may even seem to validate its more febrile imaginations. If you awake in the night fearing your brain is being chewed up by space monsters, best wake up. The only answer is a truthful analysis of reality. We need to engage the higher end of the Brain with reality.

In fifty minutes of fast paced German liberally sprinkled with hard facts and figures, Bade analysed the real trends in the German population — falling in many places, and increasingly in need of high capacity intelligence from anywhere in the world it can be got. It turns out that most German Muslims see themselves as German, and very much share the general aspirations them of fellow citizens for their children, but often lack to a greater extent the means to bring them about.

Reflecting on the unpleasant soft racism and Islamophobia that can be found in the English media, it strikes me that quality of analysis is very thin on the ground. Politicians run scared before the wind without the means, courage or resources to shine light into the murky cellar. And as was the case with doing God, the field of play is left to the forces of ignorance and tribalism. The whole up to date picture can be found in the Encyclopedia of European Migration and Minorities: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present, which the professor has co-edited. Cambridge University Press. £106.50. They may want to serialise it in the Daily Mail, but don’t hold your breath...

as dying, yet behold, we live!

Xavier Beauvoir’s Of Gods and Men is a beautiful, extraordinary achievement. Understated at all times, highly sophisticated and understanding of its subject, beautifully scripted, it explores the life and death of the Tibhirine Trappist community in Algeria in 1996, during the civil war. The monks live a simple, self-sustaining life of prayer, kindness and service. As the political situation deteriorates, they find themselves caught in a shooting war, driven by Islamist fundamentalists. The army offers protection of a sort, but this raises other questions for the monks - questions of calling and integrity as well as a basic issue about whether life in an armed camp is actually compatible with what they believe their community should be. Do they stay or do they go?

Shrewdly, kindly observed and impeccably acted, this is a tale of tragedy and hope way beyond the scope of Hollywood blockbusters. Very few films about religion reveal as deep an understanding of their subjects as this.. Given our distribution system that gives fifteen screen multiplexes with the same film playing in 10 of them, you are unlikely now to catch the film at a proper cinema, but when it comes out on DVD in May you would be insane not to get it. Five out of five stars.
A couple of additional pieces for reflection. As he contemplated what may happen, the real Brother Christian composed in 1994 a letter to his family in case the worst should happen, that is worthy of careful reflection. Excuse my schoolboy French off the soundttrack album, but here goes:
If a day should come, and it could be today, to fall victim to the terrorism that seems to be engulfing foreigners in this country today, I would love my community, my Church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and this country and also that the sole Giver of all life was no stranger to such a brutal ending. They should also associate my taking off with so many other equally violent but anonymous deaths. My life is no more valuable than any other, nor less. Anyway, it lacks the innocence of childhood. I have lived long enough to know that I myself am part of the evil which, sadly, seems to prevail in the world, even the evil that could suddenly befall me. I could not seek such a death, and I could not die happy to see these people, whom I love, indiscriminately blamed for my death. That would be too high a price to pay for what could be called the grace of martyrdom by an Algerian, whoever he may be, above all if he is motivated by what he may believe Islam to be. I know the contempt in which natives of this country are already held around the world. I also know caricatures of the kind of Islam that encourages Islamism. For me this country, and Islam, are something very different. They are body and soul. This is what I have always said publicly, as I believe it and have known and seen this theme in the gospel I learnt in my first Church, at my mother's knee. This I have practised in Algeria, and always from the start in respecting Muslim believers. My death could, plainly, give substance to the arguments of those who think I am just naive, or a starry-eyed idealist. But they need to know that this will finally liberate my most ardent curiosity, in that I may be able, God willing,to submerge my vision in that of the Father, in order to see his Muslim children just as he sees them. In this thank you letter, which says everything about my llife from now on, I want to include you all, friends of yesterday and today, and even you too, friend of my last moments, who will not understand what you are doing. Yes, even for you, I genuinely want to thank you and bid this Adieu, commendation to God, May we one day meet again, in Paradise, as happy thieves, if it pleases God, Father of us both. Amen.

Finally for contemplation, a summary of the teaching of St Paul from Richard Rohr: “Brothers and sisters, remember that your life situation will not last. It is only that which you fall through so that you can fall into your actual Life, and that Big Life ironically includes death (which is the falling).”

Heaven 10 in Milton Keynes

Saturday morning at Heaven 10, a Music and Arts Festival organised by Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga-Steele artist adn priest, at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone in Milton Keynes. Anouar Kassim put together a celebration of Islamic Arts heritge and culture, incuding fascinating and beautiful stuff from Iran and Somalia, as well as work by a remarkable Muslim Caligrapher, Haji Noor Deen. He combines Arabic and Chinese writing in ingenious and thought-provoking ways, at all shapes and sizes including some giant originals that would test most caligraphers’ art to destruction.

I was also fascinated by an installation by Air-MK, which produces multimedia sensory zones to stimulate prayer and reflection. Howard Williams and friends transformed the small chapel at Cornerstone into a remarkable reflective space, with a screen on which people could react to questions about themselves and God, in their own time. There’s a great vibrancy and creativity in the air in MK, and the way the city is sucking in people from all over the world in interesting ways is becoming very apparent...

How papers feed bigotry about Islam

At the last census, High Wycombe’s population was 92,300, of whom 10,838 were Muslim (11·7 %). If you prick them, do they not bleed? Like the rest of us, Muslims die. Therefore it can come as no surprise that there is a demand for Muslim burials in High Wycombe. The Local Authority has to meet this. Population is growing, and room running out. It would suit Hysterical Islamophobics to be able to say space had been clawed back from consecrated ground in the local graveyard; but that would be barmy because the other 88% of the population also continue to die, so there's absolutely no sense in not extending the graveyard, and land is available.

Enter the Bucks Free Press with a story called “High Wycombe Cemetery Extension agreed for Muslim Burials.” This downpedals the fact that a cemetery extension was needed anyway, and points out Muslims like be buried facing Mecca whilst omitting, curiously, to point out

1. It doesn't cost any more to bury people in new ground facing any particular direction
   
   
2. The site in question snakes round a hillside in all directions, and where the majority orientation has been East, Mecca is basically East of High Wycombe anyway
   
   
3. Since 11·3% of the town’s ratepayers are Muslim, they surely have the same right to be buried according to their wishes, if possible, as everybody else.
   

Next, as is the way with Flat Earth News, this scoop (that Muslims in High Wycombe die like everybody else — Shock! Horror!) is routed, via This is Local London, to the Daily Telegraph.

The Telegraph spins the story, by adding an anonymous local resident saying “Yet again many thousands of pounds [are] being spent pandering to the local Muslim community.” Apparently burying the dead is pandering to them.
I disagree. I don’t think High Wycombe is ready for Sky Burials quite yet.

The Telegraph also carries, final killer element, a quotation from the Bishop of Buckingham — oh, that’s me! — pointing out that people of all faiths and none are regularly buried in consecrated ground. This is hardly news, since it’s an obligation laid on the Church since time immemorial and legislated in the Burials Act 1880. The established church is delighted, of course, to fufil this basic civic obligation.

But, final link in the chain, the Telegraph story fulfils its purpose. On Saturday evening I receive a furious email from a gentleman in the North West. He had the character and decency to give his name, but can’t have expected me to use it publicly, so I won’t. I believe my correspondent is a good and decent man. This is his reding of the Telegraph:

Having just read an article where it states you are delighted to serve the Muslim community in allowing an extension of Muslim graves facing Mecca into the main graveyard in High Wycombe, Bucks. I would like to express my disgust at your support of such an action given how Christians throughout the world have and are still being persecuted by Muslims on the instruction of Islam.

I would ask you Sir, where was your support for Christians when Muslims desecrated the graveyard in St. Johns Church, Longsight, Manchester by destroying all the gravestones to make way for a mosque car park. The silence of the media and the Church on this issue, has been absolutely deafening.

By your appeasement and support for Islam you are feeding a hungry lion and when there is no more food to give it, it will turn on you, as can be seen in how Coptics are treated in their own cities in Egypt, a once Christian country. Not only are Muslims taken over our Churches they now want to invade our graveyards and the Church is sitting back and not only saying nothing but encouraging such actions.

It is an absolute disgrace and a very sad day for Christians in this once Christian country

I have to point out to him that I didn’t actually say what he thinks I did. This isn’t a churchyard so it’s none of my business who is buried there. But then my eye is caught by his tale of St John’s Longsight, which I had never heard of before, not being a recipient of Manchester BNP publicity. A video has been posted on the Internet of what I believe is called hard nogging being used as substrate for a carpark, with the strong implication that it is made up of Christian gravestones. This is the message my friend in the north West received, that Muslims have been “destroying all the gravestones to make way for a Mosque car park.”

Trouble is, the gravestones are still there. Indeed, you can see them here. The basic answer to my friend’s question (“where was my support for Christians...?) is that the whole story was a canard, a fiction designed to whip up inter-religious hatred. My correspondent, good and decent man that he is, bought the lie. The Daily Telegraph story in its sexed up form catalysed a response in him, and so the panjandrum of fear, suspicion and hatred gathers momentum.

I had to remind him, as the Christian he professes to be, that the Ninth Commandment is a Christian value. He does not care to admit that he bore false witness, although he patently did, and he goes on to suggest “the bottom line is not about this or any other story put out by the British press.” Really?

Evangelism between Muslims and Christians

One interesting document of which I hadn’t heard fell out of an interfaith learning day at St Philip’s Centre Leicester, yesterday. The UK Christian Muslim Forum has produced Ethical guidelines for Christian Muslim Witness in Britain. Both faiths teach firm friendship with those outside the faith, but (here comes the twist) are, inherently, missionary faiths — Christian Evangelism parallels Muslim Da’wah. People respond to this fact variously, of which Alan Race, Vicar of St Philip’s Leicester logged three characteristic pragmatic ways, mirrored among both Christians and Muslims:

1. Simple competition/ slugging it out: As Annie Oakeley put it “anything you can do I can do better.” English people, Christian and Muslim, have a strong cultural resistance to being strident and competitive about anything, least of all religion.
   Positively, this default position does avoid the bother of using your brain or taking your own faith tradition seriously. Its the easy “thumb in bum and mind in neutral” option.
   Negatively, it makes friendship very difficult, denies first principles of the faiths concerned, and pushed to its logical extreme, as it almost never is in the UK, you’d end up in a Telegraph fantasy world of “No Go areas” and suchlike.
   
   
2. Acceptance that it is God’s providence that both faith communities exist — a theology of “people of the book” or providence, in which believers feel secure enough about their faith to leave it to God to sort things out in the end.
   Positively, this does engage with reality and express tolerance in a way which is attractive to English people. It’s probably where most English people of all faiths and none actually are.
   Negatively, it seems to require pure relativism, and requires work to engage with one’s own religion more seriously in its own terms rather than just as cultural identity.
   
   
3. Acceptance of (2), supplemented by feeling OK about conversions (either way). This raises the stakes on (2) and feels edgier.
   Positively, it’s arguable this makes a virtue out of a theological and practical necessity in a free society.
   Negatively, Conversions of this sort are surprisingly uncommon, and can inspire fear and backlash in people taking View (1).
   

So here are the Christian Musim Forum Ethical Guidelines, observing which probably would enhance fruitful dialogue between any faith group and any other — but what are their limits?

The Christian Muslim Forum offers the following suggestions that, we hope, will equip Christians and Muslims (and others) to share their faith with integrity and compassion for those they meet.

1) We bear witness to, and proclaim our faith not only through words but through our attitudes, actions and lifestyles.

2) We cannot convert people, only God can do that. In our language and methods we should recognise that people’s choice of faith is primarily a matter between themselves and God.

3) Sharing our faith should never be coercive; this is especially important when working with children, young people and vulnerable adults. Everyone should have the choice to accept or reject the message we proclaim and we will accept people’s choices without resentment.

4) Whilst we might care for people in need or who are facing personal crises, we should never manipulate these situations in order to gain a convert.

5) An invitation to convert should never be linked with financial, material or other inducements. It should be a decision of the heart and mind alone.

6) We will speak of our faith without demeaning or ridiculing the faiths of others.

7) We will speak clearly and honestly about our faith, even when that is uncomfortable or controversial.

8) We will be honest about our motivations for activities and we will inform people when events will include the sharing of faith.

9) Whilst recognising that either community will naturally rejoice with and support those who have chosen to join them, we will be sensitive to the loss that others may feel.

10) Whilst we may feel hurt when someone we know and love chooses to leave our faith, we will respect their decision and will not force them to stay or harass them afterwards.

Wycombe aviation bombers conviction

The convictions of Assad Sarwar and colleagues have got our nearest town of Wycombe into the papers for all the wrong reasons. In the past day or so I've met various local people deeply ashamed and taken aback that anyone from round here, whatever their politics or religion, could think of doing such a thing, let alone plan it for real. They have brought shame and disgust on themselves and everything they say they were standing for. What's the learning?

Thanks to those who take a lead in our shared security, for geting the job done in trying circumstances. They get a lot of stick, understandably, when they get it wrong. They deserve our grateful thanks when they get it right.

Gerald Templer worked out in Malaya in the late forties that any campaign against terrorism is a not a movie, or a game of toy soldiers, but a battle for hearts and minds. Tactical Actions that legitimate violent world views actually make the problem worse. Northern Ireland got a future when terrorists were undermined from within, and genuine representatives got round the table to find another way. Imagine anyone had been evil and ridiculous enough to suggest bombing Dublin in the troubles, a laughable notion, which would obviously have made everything far worse.

Various people tell me our problem has been communities that just do not know their neighbours well enough. This is not just some fluffy bunny thing, though it's got that dimension to it. Strong, sympathetically connected and concerned neighbours will show up sociopathy for what it is, and share information for the good of all with those who need to know. They are more likely to identify and understand the significance of potentially evil behaviour in their midst, before it comes to this.

An over-individualistic atomised society will produce its own sociopaths from surprising directions, grounded in any habitual willingness to set people against each other. Remember the Oklahoma City bomber, or the Unabomber. There has been great progress in building the kind of relationships we need in Wycombe on various levels. We have to stick with that progress and show up divisive sterotypes on all sides for the dangerous rubbish they really are.

Mercy seasons justice?

Is the world just an eternal irrational game of hardball/softball? Some people, “Liberals” choose, just for the hell of it, to be absurdly nice to evil people, whilst others, “Conservatives” secretly enjoy the crisp whip of the lash, especially aimed at someone else’s back. What kind of mercy, actually, seasons justice? Jesus came to fulfil the law, not abolish it. What kind of fulfillment? a car clamp operative is, in a wooden sense, fulfilling the law — binding the burden, doing nothing to ease it it. But so is a Justice of appeal, or a legislator.

Wondering how mercy relates to justice, I came across an old Islamic folk tale. It is told of the seventh century Khalifa Umar Bin al-Khittab, who you will remember was the successor of Abu Bakr among the Rashidun Khalifas, known as “al-faruq” — one who judges aright. From his sword of Justice, above, you will understand Umar was no soggy Liberal.

A young man was arrested for murder, and brought by the victim’s sons before the Khalifa. He pleaded guilty, and submitted to an “eye for an eye” death sentence the family were entitled to demand, according to primitive justice. He asked however, to delay the execution three days. He was guardian to an orphan, and the lad’s inheritance was hidden somewhere only he knew. It wasn’t fair to punish the child for his sins, so three days compassionate leave was arranged.

Someone, however, had to stand proxy for the convict in case he failed to reappear for execution — someone willing, if necessary, to die in his stead. Old Abu Dharr, companion of the Prophet offered, and the young criminal went home to sort out his family affairs.

Three days later, he had not returned. Amidst a certain amount of “told you so,” but also great sadness, Abu Dharr prepared for beheading in the town square. The executioner sharpened up his axe, and got his red tights that didn’t show the blood, ready for the wash. Actually I'm not sure about the red tights, but you get the idea.

At which point young criminal returned, huffing and puffing. “So very sorry,” he said. “Caravans on the road — but I’m here now, so let’s get on with the beaheading.”

The crowd were amazed. “Why the hell did you come back? You were free. We’d all have legged it!”

“Oh no!” said the young criminal. “I am a Muslim, and it would be intolerably shameful to me to have people saying, on my account, that Muslims do not keep their word.”

So the crowd turned to old Abu Dharr. “You’re a lucky old fox, Abu Dharr. You must have known this criminal was a man of his word at heart. More than we did!”

“Oh no!” said Abu Dharr. Never seen the feller in my life. But I am a Muslim, and it would be intolerably shameful to me to have people saying, on my account, that Muslims have no compassion.”

At which point the victim’s family went back to Khalifa Umar and asked him to call off the execution: “We are Muslms, and it would be intolerably shameful to us to have people saying, on our account, that there is no forgiveness in Islam.”

OK, “Liberals” and “Conservatives.” What would it be “intolerably shameful” to have people say of us, Christians that we claim to be...?

Communal Bath House manners

Interesting times down the local Hammam this morning. Cultural interaction, this being a local rather than tourist bath house, was fascinating. Women whom we would think prudish because they wouldn’t walk down the street in a skimpy top and shorts found our female Western insistence on wearing a top in a wholly female bath house weird and prudish. So what is, actually, “prudish?” what is “natural?” Another conversation with someone local who had been to London posed a question —“why do you need millions of security cameras in England? Here, most people, most of the time, know God will be angry with them if they steal, so they don’t” — a naïve point of view, perhaps, but indicative of another cultural gap?

Back to the Public Bath House. Hammams conserve water and combines the advantages of a shower and a bath — you open your pores and relax like a bath with steam (aided by gommage = mud scrub if you want) but refresh and get rid of the dirt like a shower. The whole notion of a community bath house is a bit odd to our very privatised Western sensibilities. Being bloky and throwing water over ourselves was a lot of fun and we all wish we'd taken the plunge (except there isn't a plunge to take) earlier in the week.

I came away feeling that how we interpret and understand gender are the finest tuned most personal bits of our cultural conditioning, and the easiest to get wrong. Absolutising them is ridiculous. They live within our comfort zones and evolve all the time. It’s all too easy to assume we know that the other person is being liberated or oppressed when all they are being is themselves! Observing gender interactions in an Eastern culture also throws some of the context of the Bible into perspective, as a near Eastern text.

To respond to God in others, we need to listen carefully, reducing our interpretative filters and assumptions to a working minimum, defocusing on our own reactions and respecting their provisionality. We need to express ourselves openly but courteously, suspending our disbelief about the other person’s culture. Then we need to draw gentle and provisional conclusions. That’s how cross cultural sensitivity works, and seeing the different strategies people have for straddling cultures, it’s plain Christianity in an open Cross-cultural environment feels very different to the way it does from an Imperialistic ( = Chauvinstic and standardized) standpoint.

Early Christianity grew best at points of cross-cultural intersection, the open ports and trading system nodes of the near East; so an age of globalised communications should be fertile soil for the authentic article... What has to change in us for this to be the case?

Love bombed by a Lord Bishop

I spent some time this morning being buttonholed by enthusiastic people trying to push copies of Michael Nazir-Ali’s latest book at me. The first time round I tactfully declined, already having a large bag of promotional materials. The second time, I explained I really didn’t want one, given the way in which +Michael’s words have been twisted in and by the media to make him a less than helpful voice on the ground in many of my Muslim majority areas. I also explained how much I would have preferred his voice in person than in print. The third time round, I was in a hurry, did the Anglican thing, and caved in. I’ll look forward to reading and perhaps even reviewing his book here, sometime after this conference.

Someone at lunch said of it “Remaindered — already?” “No, no,” I said. “Very odd, then,” said my companion. “How extraordinary to sit twenty miles up the road, refusing to talk with the rest of us, but choosing instead to address us in print.” I understood, of course. I tried to explain that Love has many languages, and remote control bombing people with paperbacks from twenty miles away is just one of them.

Our conversation petered off the subject of +Michael, and into tales we all had of teenage children who had gone off in a sulk and could only be brought back into the family, sometimes after many years, by remaining open to them, whilst refusing to be carried away into angry responses by their childishness, lest any of us say things we would later regret.

On to the Sexuality hearings — the lowest attended of any so far, by a fair old way... and at the microphone as I speak, it’s 11 UK, North American bishops and 2 from the rest of the world. If it doesn’t rain I may go off for a run...

Muslim Guerillas in the Midst?

Morning seminar yesterday at Bucks New University, about combating violent extremism, arranged by the Wycombe Muslim Christian Council, which I helped launch a while ago. It brought together Police, Council and community leaders.
Like it or not, and I don’t, Buckinghamshire has a problem with extremist religion. A young Wycombe man is currently on trial for allegedly plotting to blow up aircraft. One of the 7/7 bombers was from Aylesbury, as was one man implicated in the failed second attack on 21/07. There was another incident around then which came within a breath of a police officer drawing a gun on a train. One of the 2007 Glasgow Airport bombers originated in Princes Risborough. This year we have had Operation Kiosk in Wycombe, initiated by a speculative story in the News of the World.

In short, we have a problem in this county with violent extremism. This has been exacerbated by media hype and race/ faith hate criminals. The final victim of 7/7 was almost a completely innocent next door neighbour, but the hate criminals involved didn't know the flashpoint of diesel. There has been anger aimed at “Pakis” = anyone who looks foreign. Here are some quotes from hate mail received by the Police Service:

All Muslims are terrorists
We are at war with Islam
Terrorists are Pakistanis men with long beards

I remember meetng a supposedly educated, but astonishingly ignorant and bigoted gentleman when lecturing at, of all places, the University of Buckingham last year. We do indeed have a problem.

The good story is that a lot of honest grass roots toil has been going on, some initiated by the Church. It’s brought together community leaders, Churches and Mosques, the Police Service, Local and national government. The Church has taken a leading role with others in bringing people together to understand their neighbours, helping to identify what this is actually all about. Good project work is now going on, to build capacity to contribute to society, to combat unwitting secularist ignorance in local government, to empower women, to bring together people with a passion for community cohesion. Far more than special projects this is about the values by which we conduct our everyday lives. With this activity has come truer knowing and understanding our neighbours. That’s been a huge benefit.

The highlight of the seminar for me was a challenging address by Syed Mohsin Abbas, a TV producer. He acknowledged that some elements in his own profession feed on extremism, and nourish it in others by their ignorance and stereotyping. This validates some of the crazy world views out there, and isolates the huge mainline community whilst glamorizing extremists. Mr Abbas also pulled no punches about the obvious effects that UK/US foreign policy have had on young Muslims.

He also acnowledged with devastating honesty the destructive and narrowing tendency of some conservative schools in Islam, often Saudi resourced. He talked about how fundamentalism appeals to insecure damaged people, gives them blinkers they can wear as an identity, and turns their religion from a spiritual resource into arogance, hatred and exclusivism. The key symptoms are injustice aimed at others, self-righteousness, discriminatory behaviour, anger and fear. Amidst a largely apathetic mainline Muslim community, some young people reach out for symbols of identity as a response to a deeply confused society. Me, me, me, egotism has left a spiritual vacuum and young people are vulnerable. The media ham it up further, and the emergence of our varied Muslim communities from postcolonial to fully particpating modes can be internally challenging.

Racism and complacency in broader society don’t help, but you can only be paranoid about the mainstream if you're not sure of yourself. That’s why vacuous secularism only validates fundamentalist rhetoric, heightens confusion and solves nothing. The only answer is for young people to find out who they are, and grow in a classic, tolerant religion of depth, mercy and hospitality. Some young students settle for a religion that is partial and maimed. It only goes as far as law and sharia, making these into isolated absolutes, and failing to seek or embrace higher spiritual concerns. Thus their religion becomes a curse to them and everyone else, and they become locked in a fundamentalist playground with no way out, a licence for violent extremism. We are only talking about a tiny number of people, but the media create the stars, the stereotypes; and thus disease spreads.

The Church of England is often riduled for being confused and subtle, listening more than denouncing. People take its gut rejection of absolutism and faith-hate for weakness, and perhaps it is weakness compared to absolutism and fundamentalism. People mock the C of E for being easy going and politically naïve. Thank God it is all these things. The alternatives are a bloody nightmare — licensed insanity. Some voices in the media delight in absolutism and certainty as the answer to religious authority, not a sickness of the soul. If we want to be part of the solution, not the problem, we may find we have attitudes to work on in ourselves.

The message of Jesus is love and grace, not law and order. It’s not what we say, but the way we say it that reveals our true spiritual state. There are currently no areas in Bucks you could call no-go — indeed the whole idea of no-go areas is evil, childish and defeatist — another media stereotype with which we collude at our peril. In fact the Church’s network is spread all over the county, on some level in every place. We have a great dispersed, variegated network from which to make a contribution. So what is our contribution going to be? We need to ask what our deepest values are, and how our behaviour and attitudes align with basic Christian values — not techie top-shelf stuff, but the sermon on the mount. And when we decide to get off our backsides and be intentional to build a cohesive and decent society, where is our graciousness, our capacity to look for God in others, the fruit of the Spirit in us?

Faith speaks to faith in Guildford

Monday at the University of Surrey, Guildford, for the relaunch of the South East England Faith Forum. Bishop Christopher Hill has been working hard with representatives of faith communities all over the South East. The University tself is engaged in putting together a really interesting Multifaith Centre, ( see Ruth Gledhill) — a nice caff with a chapel, synagogue, mosque and gurdwara attached.

Regional government in the South East isn’t exactly dynamite on the streets, but this day wasn’t about regionalism. It was about working together and getting involved. The Government sees and works with Third Sector groups in a particular way, and anyone with higher ambitions to engage than the Amish needs to learn how. Monsignor John Devine from Warrington, who heads up faith involvement with regional government in the North West told us about the culture changes involved in working beyond classic silos — “I found I was telling stories and they were counting stuff.” Counting stuff in the North West brought faith groups above the radar, and established the almost spooky way in which they are most active at exactly the places need is highest. Being able to describe value faith adds to build social capital enlightens everybody plenty good, and helps to dispel the gobsmacking religious illiteracy in much local government and the press. It was very inspiring to meet Taki Jaffer who has been doing some really pioneering work with the Portsmouth Race Equality Network. Discussions in the public square now are often haphazard and sporadic, and suffer from ignorance, prejudice and religious illiteracy. The best that could come out of SEEFF would be some process of scoping and quantifying the considerable and obvious value faith communities add to the region’s social capital.