Rowan Williams tells Christians to give more respect to other Religions

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rev Rowan Williams marked the third anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by calling out to Christians everywhere to show more respect to other religions.

He said, “It is sad that sometimes an unfaithful or careless Christian way of speaking has led Muslims and Jews to believe that we have a doctrine of God that does not recognise the oneness and sufficiency of God.”

Williams was speaking at the al-Azhar al-Sharif Institute in Cairo, one of Sunni Islam’s most honoured learning centres. But the archbishop did not stop at just directing his speech at Christians, he requested that all faiths speak out in a unified voice against violence and atrocities by religious fanatics.

“When the Christian, the Muslim or the Jew sees his neighbour of another faith following the ways of this world instead of the peaceful will of God, he must remind his neighbour of the nature of the one God we look to,” said Williams.

The speech has come out at a time when Sir Jeremy Greenstock (the former UK ambassador to the UN) has spoken out and admitted that the allied movement in Iraq had played straight into al-Qaeda’s hands. He told Radio Four’s Today programme that it was impossible for the West to defeat Osama Bin Laden’s terror group by military force alone, but that policies should be made and implemented to reduce the feeling of hate in the Muslim world towards much of the West.

He warned, “I think it was one of the objectives of Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda leadership originally to draw America into conflict on Arab soil as close to Saudi Arabia as possible. Iraq is not yet a failed state. We are in a transition period, which has got considerable difficulties. But if Iraq ends up as a failed state and we leave it in that state, then we are worse off than when we started.”

Across the world 9/11 memorial services were held and the ones lost in the tragedy remembered. In New York, hundreds of British police officers joined their counterpart from 47 national forces to form an ‘honour-guard’ for the families of those who died in the atrocities.

Sixty-seven British police officers joined together in the British Memorial Gardens, each representing one of the Britons that died in the tragedy, whilst the North American Welsh Choir gave a choral devotion as a tribute.