Some extracts from Rev Joel Edwards speech, Respect is what you say about me to be given on Feb. 8th at Winchester between 12.30 to 1pm are shown below:
“The commonality which Respect builds will never be comfortable with the language of anti-relationships. It begins precisely where we should begin: black or Asian, Muslim, Hindu or Christian we are all peas in the same pod. Any injustice is wrong not because it is done to my culture, colour or creed but because it is done against my humanity and ultimately against God. Respect means that in this regard, my humanity is elevated above my culture, colour or creed. To make my colour or class more important than my humanness is a romantic notion we cannot afford. The only way to avoid Huntingdon’s ‘Clash of Civilisation’ is to appeal to the image of God within us and to put our common humanity above our politicised relationships.Both sides of the debate needed to take seriously the notion of respect.
Rev Joel Edwards, Evangelical Alliance UK
“Communities subjected to personal or institutional racism may come to define their very existence in polemic terms. They become survivors in a hostile environment. Creative energy can be spent in looking out for one’s self; defending one’s culture or race against the odds. People who defend their culture against other people’s culture are likely to end up in a default position which disallows the transition of cultural change which takes place on any normal cultural journey. In this embattled landscape, victims of injustice may find themselves prisoners of their own injustice. The fight against ‘racism’ is an important one but it is a precarious one and one which is very hard to measure. After 40 years of legislation against it I have met few anti-racist campaigners with a sense of achievement on this vital issue.
“The disrespect by the Danish press has been informed I suspect by two impulses. One that religion - like everything else - is fair game: in a liberal democracy there is no such thing as sacred space. But also, I imagine, satirical language has given itself the freedom to raise serious questions on behalf of the whole community. In this instance the question behind the offensive drawings was this: ‘is there a relationship between violence, terrorism and Islam?’ There has to be space for such questions. But to have framed it in the language of religious heckling was grossly disrespectful to a faith which has no reference point for satirical comments about its founder, Prophet Mohammed.“The question for Islam is this: ‘How do you live as a minority in a culture where the language of religious heckling has become normal?’ And if one is unable to respect this reality how do you propose to change it? And indeed how willing are Muslims to go beyond the offence to hear the central question of Islam’s relationship with violence? And to what extent do words of violence actually vindicate the questions raised in the first place? How will Islam - a religion of peace - emerge from this controversy having shown as much respect as it has demanded?
“This radical Respect is not the sole property of a Christian community. It is the basis on which unity in diversity is best sustained because people who respect each other so deeply quite literally will be afraid to hurt each other. And when they do, Respect will continue to temper human relationships working for justice with the belief that both the terrorist and the bus driver are made in God’s image. From this perspective we will be better disposed to find the words which do not hurt.”
