Contributions of Muslim Organisations in interfaith dialogue and activities in Britain

Q. What is the contributions of Muslim organisations in inter-faith dialogue and activities in Britain, both historically and more recently?

A. Muslims and Muslim organisations have made a vital contribution, at many levels, local and national, to interfaith developments in the UK. In the recent past organisations in the UK seeking Muslim participants would contact interfaith organisations. I remember the BBC often ringing us at the International Interfaith Centre (IIC) for suggestions about a Muslim contributor to a television or radio programme. Today that is not necessary as Muslims (and other faith communities too) are now so well organised they can be contacted directly when required. Some Muslims, like Zaki Badawi (highly respected by Muslims and others, co-founder of The Three Faiths Forum and connected in his life time with the Muslim College and the World Congress of Faiths – read more about him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaki_Badawi ), Ibrahim Mogra (once an IIC trustee, now Chair of Religions for Peace UK as well as Chair of the Muslim Council of Britain Inter Faith Relations section), and Eboo Patel (Founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, based in Chicago) have helped develop interfaith work in new ways. In my own life and interfaith journey Muslims have played a key role. Asaf Hussain, Ossama ElKaffash, Miraj Ul-Islam Zia, Farid Esack, Ebrahim Patel and Ibrahim Mogra are among those from whom I have learned much and for whom I feel deep affection and respect.

As well as specifically Muslim organisations, like the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Muslims have been directly connected to bi and tri dialogue for some time. Examples of this are:
The Three Faiths Forum www.threefaithsforum.org
The Woolf Institute www.woolfinstitute.cam.ac.uk
The Christian Muslim Forum www.christianmuslimforum.org
Joseph Interfaith Foundation (Jews and Muslims) www.josephinterfaithfoundation.org
Alif Aleph (Jews and Muslims) www.aauk.org
Muslim-Jewish Forum rabbigluck at hotmail.com
The Maimonides Foundation www.maimonides-foundation.org
Muslim-Christian Marriage Support Group www.mcmarriage.org.uk
The Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme: Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Partnership www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/cip/

Lat Blaylock, RE Today Advisor and NATRE Executive Member, sent this perspective: One way in which Muslims contribute to interfaith activity is through religious education for schools. This is often via the Standing Advisory Council for RE that each of England’s local authorities maintains by law. These SACREs, 151 in all, set the RE curriculum by agreeing a syllabus for all community and voluntary controlled schools every 5 years. A big majority of SACREs benefit from the voluntary activism of hundreds of Muslims with an interest in education. In one way, school RE is the biggest example of interfaith work and dialogue in the whole country, and Muslims have been key partners in this for decades. SACREs work best when the members collaborate around the best interests of the children in school. There are many examples of Muslim contributions to this, both in places like Leicester and Newham, with large Muslim communities, and in places like Lincolnshire or Cornwall, where learning about respect and identity in modern Britain is a different challenge because the community is less diverse.

Julian Bond, Director of the Christian Muslim Forum offers this: Members of the Muslim community and Muslim organizations have been very involved in the formation of the Christian Muslim Forum. Historically, Quilliam’s original mosque in Liverpool was involved in dialogue. Some of the other key players are:

Building Bridges, Pendle: church-mosque twinning initiative www.pendle.net/buildingbridges
Karimia Institute, Nottingham – Musharraf Hussain: Good Friday walk of Witness http://www.christianmuslimforum.org/subpage.asp?id=338&mainid=20&
Various initiatives related to Fuad Nahdi, inter faith components of the Muslim College’s syllabus www.muslimcollege.ac.uk
Initiatives related to Zaki Badawi (Three Faiths Forum)
Fiyaz Mughal – Faith Matters www.faithmatters.co.uk
Indian Muslim Welfare Society, Dewsbury, Mufti Yusuf Akudi
Ibrahim Mogra, Muslim Council of Britain Inter Faith www.mcb.org.uk
Leicester – Christian-Muslim (inc women only) dialogue groups, FMO, St Philip’s Centre
An-Nisa Society/Humera Khan www.an-nisa.org
Alif-Aleph (London)
Muslim-Christian Marriage Group (Heather al-Yousuf)
Inter Faith Marriage Network (Rosalind Birtwistle) – published document ‘Interfaith Relationships’ www.interfaithmarriage.org.uk
Clapham & Stockwell Faith Forum – Understanding Christianity for Muslims at Stockwell Mosque, event comparing suffering of Jesus and Imam Hussayn
West Mids Faith Forum, Yorkshire & Humber Faith Forum, Faith Together in Leeds 11
Maulana Shahid Raza, Muslim College, Leicester Central Mosque
Al-Khoei Foundation
City Circle www.thecitycircle.com
Islamic Relief www.islamic-relief.org.uk

Taniem Mueen of the Three Faiths Forum indicated that these Muslim organisations had been prominent in the UK work of the TFF: the Ismaili Centre, the Muslim Council of Britain, the Muslim College, the City Circle and the Radical Middle Way.

This book might be of wider interest: Islam and Inter-Faith Relations: The Gerald Weisfeld Lectures 2006: Edited by Lloyd Ridgeon and Perry Schmidt-Leukel, SCM Press 2007. The Lecture Series takes place at the University of Glasgow.

To conclude, it seems to me that the history of Muslim organisations and their involvement in interfaith in the UK is research waiting to be done! It would surely be a study of interest to many people.