POLITICIANS from the three leading parties, all described as “deeply embedded of their faith culture and heritage”, engaged in an interfaith hustings on Wednesday within the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields, believed to be the primary of its kind within the country.
It was marked by what the Vicar, the Revd Dr Sam Wells, described as “respectful and profound discussion. . . There’s not enough of that,” he said. “It’s called politics.”
The panellists were: the Sir Stephen Timms who currently chairs the Labour Faith Champions; David Burrowes, director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and a former PM’s deputy special envoy for Freedom of Religion and Belief; and Hina Bokhari, Liberal Democrat, a London Assembly Member.
The essential query posed by the nine major faiths represented was: how would an incoming government higher engage with the religion communities, and the way could those communities help to shape policies? The hustings followed an open Letter to an Incoming Government from Voices within the Faith and Belief Sector, published on Monday from the Faith and Belief Policy Collective, convened by the Faith and Belief Forum and the Faiths and Civil Society Unit (FCSU), Goldsmiths, London.
It proposes “a profound and strategic re-imagining of the role and contribution of faith and belief in British society. We seek a more flourishing and equitable future for all residents within the face of unprecedented challenges.”
It continues: “The religion and belief landscape in Britain is now dynamic, diverse and hugely variegated. Minority faith communities are growing in number and confidence and are increasingly publicly visible. Whilst institutional Christian practice is in some areas giving solution to more eclectic and personalised types of spirituality and belief, for lots of the growing numbers who discover as non-religious or humanists, interest in belief and ethics has never been so engaged.”
The collective desires to see faith and belief communities contributing to policymaking. It has recommendations on representation, including the equal and meaningful involvement of girls, and opportunities for young people to feed into policies which have an effect on them; on protection, including reviewing laws on hate crime motivated by hostility, and supporting the usage of restorative approaches; and on trust in institutions, including strengthening the statutory obligation regarding the teaching of RE, Religion, and Worldviews in schools and colleges.
It concludes: “By pulling together we are able to stem [the] rising hate against minority faith and belief identities that continues to blight our nation; we are able to co-create modern responses to the underlying conditions that sustain inequality; and we are able to rebuild the trust in our institutions that is required for us all to flourish. We need to work with the incoming Government to grasp this vision.”
Professor Christopher Baker, of the FCSU, referred to the partnerships between faith groups and native authorities which had been made in the course of the pandemic. Both parties, he said, had “found they’d to let go of some things for civil society’s good, and discover a partnership based on shared values”; a recent model was essential in order that partnerships could “go upstream” and shape policy ideas.
The letter, he emphasised, was “not a top-down communiqué or an try to provide an unequivocal answer”, but got here from an emerging group of religion and belief organisations and individuals.
The moderator of the hustings, Laura Marks, referred to the Bloom report: the independent review of religion engagement, published last yr, which concluded that faith was “an overriding force for good” (News, 28 April 2023). Little had been implemented from that review, and plenty of had thought it too negative, but “a minimum of it got us occupied with the connection in a more formal and structured way,” she said.
Ms Bokhari was particularly concerned in regards to the adversarial effects of social media. “Our commitment to dialogue doesn’t stop. If we now have governments calling protests ‘hate marches’: that doesn’t help. We are in a bubble. We all know what we would like to do. How can we reach those communities who’re only seeing things on their phones, and don’t speak to their neighbours? We must burst that bubble.”
Sir Stephen put a robust emphasis on ensuring of fine relationships between different faith groups. He deplored the withdrawal of cash from the interfaith network as “an utterly, utterly silly thing to have done. . . When different groups work together in actual practical collaboration, values are shared to an extent where good co-operation may be achieved.”
Mr Burrowes affirmed the vital importance of interfaith dialogue, but additionally of acting and being seen to act on behalf of other faiths after they were going through difficult times. The pandemic had meant close relationships formed between the religion leaders within the national crisis. The need was for higher closer engagement on a regular basis, not only in crisis.
All three politicians desired to see the reintroduction of the “round tables” that had taken place in the course of the pandemic. They desired to see religious literacy resourced, through local authorities, government, and business; and the training and resourcing of RE teachers. Mr Burrowes made the purpose that dialogue have to be mainstream fairly than polarised.
There was reflection on the part played by the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion and Belief, which brings together UK efforts to advertise religious tolerance abroad. Someone dedicated to promoting it inside the UK was considered to be desirable, however it have to be someone with a great understanding of the problems, panellists suggested.
“One thing the pandemic has shown us is just how big and vital the resource inside faith communities is, and government must work with that and have interaction with faith groups as partners,” Sir Stephen said.
Mr Burrowes said that “Too often the Government would have a look at faith as an issue issue fairly than an answer issue. . . Thankfully, things have moved on, and there’s now far more concern in regards to the positive role of religion. [However] faith literacy must be prolonged right across government, each local and national, to everyone on the federal government payroll.”
Ms Bakhari felt that, “In some ways, despite all our efforts, when it really mattered, we failed as an interfaith sector in bringing some communities together. I say this because, despite many groups doing amazing work, we now have seen an increase in hate crime in our city, [and ] that breaks my heart; so we’d like to strengthen our interfaith work and its future. The Government must stop the rhetoric that alienates different groups.”
Ms Marks concluded: “What we saw was the necessity to construct thoughtful, values-based faith and belief voices into government and policy-making. After years of neglect by central government, our society would profit from a deeper understanding of those communities who contribute way beyond their size, and yet are so often pitted against one another, excluded, or feared.”
