We can think back to what it was like when our denominational ties were much stronger than they are today and people had very strong ideas about what it meant to be a non-Conformist or an Anglican or a Roman Catholic, and I think happily these days we can see across those boundaries and discover those things that we have more in common and which make us distinctive.
And I think similar things can happen between faith communities - but not to water down those things that are distinctive. The way in which we honour all faith communities is to recognise their distinctiveness, not to pretend necessarily that we all think the same and believe the same, when that’s clearly not the case.
The question then is, given our distinctiveness, how do we learn together in an ideal way, in a diverse and plural society?
CT: It is of course not long after the attempted attacks, but from what you can gather, have they had any effect on inter-faith relations so far?
NW: I think it’s important to make the distinction that as far as we can see from the reports so far, the people investigated in relation to this are not long-standing members of British society, but have arrived from elsewhere in the last year or two. So I don’t think that the actions of this particular group of people should necessarily be seen as representative of either Islam or British Muslims in general. It doesn’t seem to have that background.
The second thing is that I think it is too early to say what impact these attacks may have. I do think that there have been some positive outcomes from other attacks, post-9/11, post-7/7. I think people have recognised the importance of developing good inter-faith relationships and I think in a sense that provides an impetus for our work and people are beginning to see the relevance of what we have been saying for a while.
One of the things that the forum is doing is to emphasise the importance of appropriate training for both clergy and imams, in terms of relating to contemporary British society, learning to live with the other, understanding the other and relating to the other appropriately. That is important both for imams and for clergy and that is something that the forum wants to address in the coming months.
CT: So there is a lot to be positive about?
NW: Clearly there are anxieties that we need to be alert to but I think there are real opportunities for both Christians and Muslims to take the initiative and to find a way forward.
For more information about the Christian Muslim Forum, please go to www.christianmuslimforum.org
