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A Sacred Trust

27/8/2016

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The world continues to be appalled at the atrocities carried out in the name of religion. At present the violence is associated with Islamic extremism though all religions have been involved in war and engaged in violence at some time in their histories as we were recently reminded by Pope Francis.  This timely reminder came during an interview with journalists as the Pope returned to Rome from his recent visit to Poland. Ines San Martin, the Vatican correspondent for Crux reported on the Pope’s response to a question as to why he never spoke about Islamic terrrorism or fundamentalism when condemning attacks such as the recent murder of Fr Jacques Hamel:

     “I don’t like to talk about Islamic violence, because every day, when I read the newspaper, I see violence and read about an            Italian who kills his fiancé or his mother- in-law. They are baptized Catholics. They are violent Catholics.  If I speak of Islamic        violence, then I have to speak of Catholic violence too”.
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In spite of this many people still have a sneaking suspicion that Islam is violent at its core for after all wasn’t it spread by the sword? 

This was one of the questions discussed at a recent colloquium on Islam organised by the Scottish Bishops’ Committee for Interreligious Dialogue and the Conforti Global Education Institute. Islam did spread rapidly and did so on the back of Arabic expansionism and empire building, as well as Arab commercial interests, much as Christianity did on the back of colonialism. Interactive maps showed the interplay between Christian and Muslim empires over the centuries and how the exhaustion of the Byzantine Empire had meant a welcome acceptance of Islam as a new and energetic religion. Presenters were to true to  Hans Kung has a dictum that there will be no real dialogue between religions without an investigation into the foundations of the religion. Those who introduced the various topics covered by the colloquium: origins and expansion, sharia law, movements such as Salafism and the place of women in Islam did just that.  They allowed us to see the idealism at the heart of Islam, the need to understand the context into which a religion is born and in which it develops, the difficulties of on-going interpretations as the religion rethinks its faith in the light of new historical and cultural contexts, the hardening of attitudes which were not present in its origins or in the teaching of its founders. The colloquium opened a window into the complexities and diversity within Islam and hopefully expelled misrepresentations, misunderstandings and even fears and suspicions that people are often not able to express.
 
Dianna Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University, maintains that

    “People of every religious tradition depend upon one another to interpret one another fairly and accurately”.  We are the                keepers of one another’s image. This is one of the most critical aspects of our interdependence and it is a sacred trust”.  

To do this in the case of Islam is to stand in solidarity with our more moderate Islamic brothers and sisters who are anxious to maintain and witness to their Islamic identity while educating the world about its true meaning and practice.  One way of doing this, I think, is to publicise the good things that happen in the Muslim world and Muslim attempts to reach out in friendship to other faiths.

Good things do happen and just this week there has been a report in the World Council of Churches newsletter of the opening of the International Centre for Inter-Faith Peace and Harmony (ICIPH) in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, a region in which more than 20,000 people have died in interreligious violence over the last three decades. It is the most recent in a growing number of interfaith initiatives in Nigeria which are courageously battling the effects of Boko Haram.  At the formal opening of the Centre Malam Nasir EL-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, shared his experience of the way that religious leaders, both Christian and Muslim, sometimes speak and act in ways that hinder interreligious peace - a good reminder, not just to religious leaders but to all of us, that our words about one another can contribute to or hinder peacemaking in our own contexts.  

The recent murder of ninety-two year old Fr Jacques Hamel in Rouen appalled all right minded people of all religions. The Bishops’ Committee received a number of letters of condolences. The latest one came this week from the Imam and President of the Central Mosque in Glasgow. The letter included this statement:
 
    The Covenant of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) in the 7th Century to the Christian Monks of Saint Catherine          Monastery of Mount Sinai was a pioneering document. It promised freedom of worship, movement as well as security,   protection and civic rights.
 
In a similar spirit, the Muslim Community pledges to work together with the Christian Community in the Abrahamic way of love and mutual understanding to build bridges and overcome the great challenges of our time.
 
The reference to the covenant that the Prophet Mohammed made with the monks of St Catherine’ Monastery in Sinai is an interesting one and a good example of how important it is to go back to the foundations of our faith as Hans Kung suggested. They give an insight into an Islam quite different from that perpetrated by extremist groups that are characterised more by intolerance than respect for one another’s faith and freedom of worship.
 
These are small steps but important ones none the less and there are many more like them but they don't get much publicity. Hopefully they sow the seeds of peace and strengthen the bonds of friendship which will grow and flourish so that the Kingdom of God will indeed be revealed in our mid
st.

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Interfaith Education

23/8/2016

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Hans Kung has a saying which is often used in interfaith circles. The saying is: ‘no peace in the world without peace between religions; no peace between religions without dialogue between religions.’ There is a third part that’s not quoted as often: ‘no dialogue between the religions without investigation of the foundation of the religions.’  The more I have become involved in interfaith the more I have felt that education of one another’s faiths is important and I am impressed when religious communities are willing to teach about other faiths as part of their educational and pastoral programmes. In fact I’ve become a bit suspicious when faith communities acknowledge their willingness to dialogue but in fact seem to know very little about the faiths with which they are dialoguing or don’t  show much of an interest in learning about them. 

There are many motivations for engaging in dialogue.  And while it’s true that it’s people who speak to one another and not religions in the abstract, some people engage in dialogue simply because they’ve been appointed by their community to do so.  A wise community would, I think, appoint someone to speak for them at the dialogue table who was interested in it but dialogue today has political implications.  So many interfaith groups (at least in this country) at national and local level are financed by governments that have social cohesion as the main aim, want to focus on social justice projects and dialogue about common civic interests and concerns. This is all laudable of course and I’m all for it but it can mean some representatives are intent on getting an equal share of the pie, having their voice heard, defending their position, countering misunderstandings about their faith.  Again this is all very laudable and I support it but it often means the impression is one of defensiveness rather than openness to others.

 I notice a difference in local interfaith groups that bring together interested individuals from various faith communities who want to learn more about one another and the more formal groups that have set themselves up as charities and operate with a Board of Trustees. I started out on my interfaith journey by getting involved in the Glasgow Sharing of Faiths. I would have said I was a member of this interfaith group even though there was no formal membership.  Now we have Interfaith Glasgow with its Board of Trustees and though I go to some of their activities I’m not sure I feel I belong.  This is not to say Interfaith Glasgow is not doing a good and important job and that individuals engaged in this more formal way aren’t inspired by the work. The proof of this would be if they were inclined to continue to engage in interfaith once their term of office was finished.  But it does change the nature of interfaith groups and raises a question about identity. Who is Interfaith Glasgow – the staff, the Board or the people who participate in their activities?  And this question could be asked about interfaith groups up and down the country. 

It’s good that faith communities are working with one another, that they have come out of their past isolation and are intent on playing their part in civic life. There’s a danger, however, that named representatives are seen as the ones to do the interfaith work which lets others off the hook. There’s as much work for an interfaith representative to do within the community as without.  And that work I think is in the area of education.  Hans Kung has said it’s important to investigate the foundation of the religions – and not just their beliefs and practices - if there is to be real dialogue.  At heart nearly all the world faiths began as renewal movements within existing religions. Religious founders called people back to a way of life which put aside greed and violence, put God and the transcendent first and showed the secret of human flourishing was compassion, justice and love of neighbour.  The ideals of religions are to be found in their origins though often the context into which the religion was born determined how these were expressed.  And a study of these foundations helps us realise the way in which the religion has developed and rethought its faith in the light of new historical and cultural contexts, sometimes deviating from the ideal of its founder.  This, I think, helps us realise the good and bad in all religions and to a certain extent not to judge.  A principle of interfaith relations is always to compare like with like and to avoid comparing the ideals of our own with the perceived reality of the other, which of course never quite comes up to the ideals of our own. It helps us develop the respect and sympathy necessary for positive and fruitful dialogue. It helps us appreciate the good in religion (our own as well as others) and the short comings that let all our religions down. 

Yes, I do think Hans Kung is right. Study and learning about other religions is necessary and a good way to begin the interfaith journey. 

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Burkini or Bikini?

15/8/2016

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 It’s in the news today that a French court in Nice has upheld the ban on burkinis that was recently imposed by the mayor of Cannes. The word’s an interesting and clever take on the work bikini and is a full body covering that allows Muslim women to bathe in public- very like a wetsuit in fact and it might even be quite difficult to distinguish between the two. But wetsuits are not banned, only burkinis.  The reasons given by the mayor of Cannes are public order concerns in that they’re seen to be a "symbol of Islamic extremism" and could cause controversy and conflict. According to the BBC website the ruling says that
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"Access to beaches and for swimming is banned to any person wearing improper clothes that are not respectful of good morals and secularism. Beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are currently the target of terrorist attacks, is liable to create risks of disrupting public order."

Well I wonder what happened to equality, fraternity and liberty?  It’s also rather ironic that full body clothing is thought to be improper and not respectful of good morals while very scanty beachwear is. How would the authorities feel if all women decided to appear on the beaches in burkinis in solidarity with their Muslim sisters? It would be a great sight if it were to happen. And what has happened to modesty, a virtue that seems to have lost its importance today but one that would be upheld by all religions, even if there are different cultural and historical expressions of it?

The ruling of course comes from a place of fear where Muslims have become associated with terrorism and from a country which has had recent experience of terrorist atrocities. It’s understandable that a court in Nice would uphold the Cannes legislation. But to impose a ban on a modest dress only alienates a community and those women within the community who want to dress modestly. And it’s evidence to more extreme forms of Islam that the west is decadent, which unfortunately is often then associated with Christianity. There’s a great cartoon which shows a western woman in a bikini and Muslim woman in a burqa passing one another. The western woman is thinking – everything covered but her eyes, what a cruel male- dominated culture while the Muslim is thinking - nothing covered but her eyes what a cruel male -dominated culture. It’s all in the interpretation – one woman’s liberation is another woman’s oppression.
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Women in general and the wearing of the veil in particular have become the ground on which the battle for Islam’s soul seems to be taking place. How women dress and are treated has become a criteria for judging where a country, community or individual is in the continuum between extreme traditionalism and a more liberal approach. Some see it as a sign of women’s oppression and I’ve heard it said often by some people that they will not engage with Islam because of its attitude to women.

The veil is not an Islamic invention. Historians trace it back to Assyria in the 13th century before the common era. It’s been common throughout history for women to cover their head. Orthodox married women do it, some African cultures do it and we have nuns within the Christian tradition who are covered from head to foot as a sign of their religious commitment.  For some years I wore a veil though I’m very glad not to do so anymore as I don’t feel the need to distinguish myself in that way. But some sisters still do and want to do so just as some Muslim women want to witness to their faith by wearing the hijab and the fuller veiling of the niqab and burka which seems to be gaining in popularity, at least in my neck of the woods. It’s quite likely that criticising and outlawing it will make some women more determined to witness to their faith in this very public way as a way of exercising religious freedom and as a protest against western cultural imperialism.  Perhaps if we were a more equal, integrated society there would not be the same need for it. Motivations for such things can be quite complicated especially as some Muslim women don’t wear the veil and don’t think they are betraying their religion or being inauthentic in any way.

There’s a debate within Islam as to whether the wearing of the veil is Qur’anic or a reflection of the culture into which Islam was born. Like all religions Islam developed in a patriarchal society and will have absorbed into itself the attitudes and norms of that society. Which leaves open the question of whether wearing the veil is religion or culture?  The Qur’an talks about modesty for both men and women but does not prescribe the wearing of the veil or burqa, or niqab, though the wearing of a veil was likely to have been the norm for wealthy women at least in 7th cy Arabia.  Scholars and Islamic feminists point out that prescriptions about veiling and seclusion in the Qur’an refer to the wives of the Prophet and may have been a way of protecting the Prophet’s wives and sanctity of his home. But like all religions the developing tradition became more rigorous in its attitude to women and interpreters of the Qur’an imposed veiling and seclusion (which is what the burqa and niqab are).   
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In the end, I think, the important thing is freedom of choice and we know that in some societies that’s not the case.  Today there is a backlash against a westernisation which was imposed on traditional Islamic societies like Egypt and Turkey which even went so far as to outlaw the veil. Now westernisation is seen as a challenge to traditional Islamic values, to say nothing of a  threat to male superiority. In many cases women have become the victims of a political expediency which threatens their freedom and choice.  Surely  this is also the case with the banning of the burkini?

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Civic Religion

6/8/2016

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I came across a phrase this weekend that I liked and gave me food for thought.  It was civic religion and used in relation to the opening of the Olympic Games in Rio. I only saw little bits of this on the web and, in spite of all the problems leading up to the Games and the difficulties over budget, it didn’t disappoint in its spectacular opening and sense of joyful celebration. It even had a sobering message for the world about climate change but offered hope in the planting of seeds which will replace some of the rain forests that are being destroyed even as I write. I found the lighting of the Olympic beacon from a torch carried from Mt Olympus as moving as it was spectacular. It linked us with history, with all those people who had carried it and welcomed it on its journey. It made us feel part of something bigger than ourselves. So too did the parade of athletes; each country welcomed with great enthusiasm though the biggest cheer was for the team of refugees – the first time such a team has taken part in the Games and hopefully a sign of our desire to welcome the stranger.

So what is religious about all of this? In what sense can this be called civic religion? The phrase comes from Anthony Moretti, an associate professor at from Robert Morris University who has written about the Olympic Games as a form of civic religion. Certainly the history of the Olympic Games shows their connection to religion.  The original Greek games included worship and dedication to the Greek gods and were only stopped after they were banned by a Christian Emperor because they were pagan. They were revived in the 19th century by a French aristocrat, Pierre de Coubertin, as a way of promoting peace among nations and much of their rituals, like the reverential lighting of the Olympic flame look suspiciously like religion. But of course there’s much that is irreligious about them as we know from doping scandals, multi-national sponsors, one country trying to outdo another in spectacular opening and closing ceremonies, athlete’s villages, sports arenas and velodromes etc. Commercialism and materialism are very evident, so much so that those who reflect on such things think the Games have lost their soul.  

Perhaps this soul can be recovered. I’m not sure if Popes usually send a message to the Games but this year Pope Francis sent a video in which he recognised the important role sport can have in building world peace. He said

 “ In a world thirsting for peace, tolerance, and reconciliation, I hope that the spirit of the Olympic Games inspires all - participants and spectators - to "fight the good fight" and finish the race together (cf. 2 Tim 4,7-8), desiring to obtain as a prize, not a medal, but something much more precious: the construction of a civilisation in which solidarity reigns and is based upon the recognition that we are all members of the same human family, regardless of the differences of culture, skin colour, or religion.”

What I found so moving about the opening ceremony was the sense of people transcending these differences, joyfully welcoming them, united in their hopes, focussed on something greater than themselves and participating in a common ritual which at least for that moment witnessed to the best side of their humanity and their desire to live up to it.
Because of the time differences another ‘civic religious’ event was happening more or less at the same time as the opening of the Olympic Games. This time it was taking place in Japan and remembering the horrors of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima seventy-one years ago. I’ve been to Hiroshima and seen the effects of that bomb. The museum and memorial graphically depict the horror of nuclear weapons. You would think that such things as the sight of people vapourised as a result of the bomb, the toys of children killed as they played, the evidence of radiation sickness would be enough to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. And yet my country, or at least the Westminster Government, has voted to renew the nuclear Trident missiles (at an obscene amount of money) based in a most beautiful and peaceful part of Scotland.  Soon the UN General Assembly will decide whether to begin negotiations about a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. It seems a no-brainer to me but it’s unlikely to have a smooth ride. Yet what a wonderful contribution to world peace it would be and what an amazing amount of money could be diverted to other areas of concern.

Every year Japan remembers those who died and the horrors of nuclear war but it also demonstrates its desire and commitment to world peace. Each August 6th there is a civic ceremony in Hiroshima during which doves of peace are released at 8.15 am, the same time that the bomb fell on unsuspecting citizens; a Peace Bell is rung and all citizens are asked to “offer silent prayers for one minute to appease the souls of those killed by the atomic bomb and to pray for eternal peace on Earth. During the ceremony, the Peace Declaration, appealing for the abolition of nuclear weapons and for the realization of eternal world peace, is delivered by the Mayor of Hiroshima City and transmitted worldwide. But even the Japanese government is beginning to renege on this, now wanting to send troops to troubled parts of the world – no doubt to protect their own interests – something that has led to public demonstrations which are not usual in Japan.
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It strikes me that this too was a moment in which those attending the ceremony, and those praying in solidarity with it throughout the world, were transcending differences, recognising their common humanity, sharing a common pain and horror of what war can do, uniting in their hopes for a better future, focussing on something greater than themselves and participating in a common ritual which at least for that moment witnessed to the best side of their humanity and their desire to live up to it – all elements of what could be called civic religion. Why I like the phrase so much is because I have often thought that we need a way of celebrating our common citizenship which is inclusive and welcoming of all. I have participated often in interfaith ceremonies which try to do this by including a prayer or reading from each of the major faiths with a contribution from someone who would call themselves non-religious. These events have often struck me as unsatisfactory and can seem like an interfaith concert more than a unified religious act. Perhaps the Olympic Games and the Hiroshima service have something to teach us about how to organise and conduct such events with dignity and meaning while we delight in our differences.
 

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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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