Islam Today: Threat or Promise?

I was the guest speaker after Choral Evensong this evening at St James, Paddington — the church where Oscar Wilde got married. The theme I was asked to address was Islam Today, a subject that perplexes many non-Muslims in Britain, in the wake of 9/11, our own 7/7 and the rhetoric of fundamentalist zealots. As I stated in my talk, we fear what we do not know, and much mistrust (and its worst, Islamophobia) is based on ignorance. If one studies the so-called Five Pillars of mainstream Sunni Islam — Faith, Prayer, Charity, Fasting and Pilgrimage — there is much that is common with Christian teaching, even if most Christians today are not so fervent in their belief or practice.

Too often, people confuse the religion ‘Islam’ with Islamist ideology — the extremist, violent and intolerant message propagated by certain radical imams and groups associated with the Al Qaida network. It is right that measures should be taken against extremist groups and propaganda, but it is essential — both for justice and for social cohesion — that Islam is not demonised in the process.

At the same time, we need to review certain aspects of social breakdown in our own society — the anti-social behaviour, the casual criminality, the chronic drunkenness — to understand why aspects of modern Briatin revolt some young British Muslims (as they do sections of the ‘indigenous’ community). In our multicultural society, we all have things to learn from each other. Tolerance is a core Briish value which we rightly expect people in this country to share. But we can also learn from such central Muslim virtues as modesty, dignity and respect.