MUSLIMS ARE SEEKING HARMONY

The Leicester Mercury mailbox section today includes the following letter by Suleman Nagdi (photo above), on behalf of the Federation of Muslim Organisations. I yield to no one in my admiration and respect for Suleman - and his writing. Pity he doesn't mention Leicester Council of Faiths and its 25 years promoting better community relations in this piece though.

Dear Sir,

I respond to Father Leon Pereira's letter 9th February 2011 "state-sponsored multiculturalism breeds division".

Several points about integration were made without any discussion about what we are integrating to. Identities are complex, multiple and changing whichever part of the world you are from. Without a benchmark for integration, it makes no sense to identify one community as the problem when we know that many communities would also struggle to define what we are integrating to. There is sadly a growing culture of attacking without any efforts made to propose ways forward. It appears that the Prime Minister’s speech on multiculturalism did not reflect that the Muslim community is a community of communities with people from different backgrounds, nationalities and experiences. This is why Muslims have adapted over centuries to live in all corners of the globe. Without diversity Muslims would have been restricted to narrow geographical areas. Islam has interacted with the "West" for hundreds of years with its contribution to science leading to the European renaissance.

I trust that as a Catholic, Father Pereira should be aware of the Second Vatican Council "Nostra Aetate" which began a stronger push towards interfaith working. This was supplemented by "A Common Word" more recently which anchored the Muslim commitment to our Christian family. Father Pereira made a host of irresponsible remarks such as associating criminal acts committed by a few to the many. His comments on protests at funerals of soldiers and vandalising of war memorials ignores that Muslims constitute the second highest represented faith in the UK armed forces. Grooming and honour killings occur across numerous communities and must be rooted out. These are evil cultural practices with no basis in any faith. What we must not do is to convince ourselves that there is a "religious motivation" behind these crimes when they take place. If that is the case, Father Pereira would be fully aware of the controversies in the Catholic Church. I would much prefer a more mature and reasoned level of debate which does not stigmatise and stereotype entire faith community. We should avoid comparing the best of ours with the worst of others.

I would like to offer an invitation to Father Pereira to sample the how Muslims are building positive interfaith relationships in Leicester. The fact is that Muslims have a long and proud record of loyalty to Leicester and its interfaith ethos. The list of achievements are endless. Father Pereira could take part in our Christian-Muslim Charity Dinner, Imams vs Clergy sports, numerous dialogue groups or Mitzvah Day efforts. My experiences with my Christian brothers and sisters is one of tremendous respect. Not least through the Faith Leaders Forum chaired by our Bishop of Leicester. Rather than saying “state-sponsored multiculturalism breeds division”, I would say “communities-sponsored interfaith breeds harmony”.

Yours,

Suleman Nagdi MBE DL

Federation of Muslim Organisations