BBC RADIO LEICESTER: DISCUSSING FORGIVENESS WITH MONICA WINFIELD

On BBC Radio Leicester this morning with Monica Winfield, talking about forgiveness. John Florance phoned me last Wednesday morning to ask if I'd take part in the show, speaking to the topic from a Bahá'í point of view.

I walk down to St Nicholas Place from home in Stoneygate (my 11-year old son Harry comes along to keep me company - and to continue our ongoing conversation about DC comics' new 52). That little stroll takes us about 45 minutes at this time of the morning. It's cold, of course, but pleasant enough.

I'm the last of the three guests to arrive, just after 0800. Already there and ready to roll are Allan Hayes, Trustee of the British Humanist Association and past President of Leicester Secular Society and Daud Sameja, Chairman of the Leicester Christian-Muslim Dialogue Group at St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society (in the photo above with Rebecca Bryers, the show's producer).

I haven't met Monica (photo above) before. She keeps us going for a quarter of an hour or so, asking two questions, which all three of us get to answer in turn. Then she allows us each a final thought. It's all very agreeable and matey and a genuinely enjoyable experience.

As well as putting across some of the ways in which I'd say the Bahá'í principle and practice of forgiveness converges and diverges from how it's seen and done in other traditions, I get to use one of my favourite quotations: "Resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other person dies." This is attributed to Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) - although personally, I heard it for the first time uttered by Tim Bayliss an unusually spiritually-centred detective (played by Kyle Secor) in the classic police procedural Homicide: Life on the Street. The quotation came up in connection with our agreement that an important aspect of forgiveness is how it allows us to draw a line under the past and make personal and collective progress.

This is the third time that Allan Hayes and I have sat together in this studio. He remarks (off-air) that he and I will have to put our minds to engineering a public spat of some sort before long, since most people expect the two of us to disagree with each other and we're constantly surprising them that we agree on so much. Thankfully, Monica is not of that opinion and is glad to promote harmony and cooperation on this slot. The programme can be heard on BBC Radio Leicester's Listen Again facility till midnight, Saturday 3 March (our chat begins just after 0810).

WE CONDEMN THIS VIOLENCE

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

We condemn this violence

As leaders of Leicester's long-standing Christian-Muslim Dialogue Group we wish to extend our deepest sympathies to all those impacted by the terrible murders in Oslo and Utoeya, in Norway.

Anders Behring Breivik has admitted responsibility, stating that he was motivated by a desire to fight to preserve a "Christian Europe", especially against the influence and growth of Islam.

Of course, all right-thinking people will condemn Breivik's violent response but we are concerned that his underlying ideology of suspicion and hatred may be shared more widely.

We condemn this act and all similar actions of violence which purport to be in the name of our respective faiths. Christianity and Islam have contributed greatly to advancing human rights and social justice, not only in the UK but throughout the world. We must never let those who espouse violence act in our name.

By way of contrast, our experience in Leicestershire tells us that this viewpoint presents a fundamentally false understanding of both of our major world religions, which speak not of hatred and intolerance, but of compassion and respect.

An example is our annual joint Christian-Muslim charity dinner which raises thousands of pounds for the poor and disadvantaged in the UK and abroad.

We have found that we are well able to co-exist in mutual trust and understanding, and to work together for the good of wider society.

We encourage Christians and Muslims everywhere to live up to this vision of adhering to the best that their faiths offer.

Canon Dr John Hall, Director, St Philip's Centre, Suleman Nagdi, MBE, DL, Federation of Muslim Organisations, Daud Sameja, co-chair, Christian Muslim Dialogue Group, Rev Peter Hobson, co-chair, Christian Muslim Dialogue Group.

Of the four signatories to this letter, two (John Hall and Suleman Nagdi) are actively involved in Leicester Council of Faiths.

As well as being published in the paper's Mercury Mailbox, this statement also appears on the St Philip's Centre website. That site includes a response to a message of sympathy sent from John Hall to the Fjell Congregation, Drammen in the Church of Norway with whom the Centre has links.