Drive for multi-faith Britain deepens rifts, says Anglican Church
Pastor Dale Morgan
Drive for multi-faith Britain deepens rifts, says Anglican Church*
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones
(Filed: 08/10/2006)
The Church of England has launched an astonishing attack on the
Government's drive to turn Britain into a multi-faith society.
In a wide-ranging condemnation of policy, it says that the attempt to
make minority "faith" communities more integrated has backfired, leaving
society "more separated than ever before". The criticisms are made in a
confidential Church document, leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, that
challenges the "widespread description" of Britain as a multi-faith
society and even calls for the term "multi-faith" to be reconsidered.
Mosque minaret
The Church says 'privileged attention' has been given to the Islamic faith
It claims that divisions between communities have been deepened by the
Government's "schizophrenic" approach to tackling multiculturalism.
While trying to encourage interfaith relations, it has actually given
"privileged attention" to the Islamic faith and Muslim communities.
Written by Guy Wilkinson, the interfaith adviser to the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, the paper says that the Church of England
has been sidelined. Instead, "preferential" treatment has been afforded
to the Muslim community despite the fact that it makes up only three per
cent of the population. Britain remains overwhelmingly a Christian
country at heart and moves to label it as a multi-faith society suggest
a hidden agenda, it says.
The leaked report follows a week of tension in which a Muslim policeman
was excused armed guard duty at the Israeli embassy in London, Asian and
white youths clashed in Windsor, and Jack Straw suggested that Muslim
women should not wear the full veil across the face in public.
The report lists a number of moves made by the Government since the
London bombings in July last year to win favour with Muslim communities.
These include "using public funds" to fly Muslim scholars to Britain,
shelving legislation on forced marriage and encouraging financial
arrangements to comply with Islamic requirements. These efforts have
undermined its interfaith agenda and produced no "noticeable positive
impact on community cohesion", the Church document says.
"Indeed, one might argue that disaffection and separation is now greater
than ever, with Muslim
communities withdrawing further into a sense of victimhood, and other
faith communities seriously concerned that the Government has given
signals that appear to encourage the notion of a privileged relationship
with sections of the Muslim community."
Insiders at the House of Bishops meeting last week, where the briefing
paper was "well received", say it marks a radical departure from the
Church's usually diplomatic relations with the Government on the
multi-faith issue. One bishop said it was the first time the Church had
launched such a defence of the country's Christian heritage.
The paper, entitled Cohesion and Integration – A briefing note for the
House [of Bishops], argues that the effort invested in trying to
integrate Muslims since the London bombings has had no positive impact
on community relations and that Ruth Kelly's controversial Commission on
Cohesion and Integration seems doomed to fail.
It can also be revealed that the archbishop met Miss Kelly, the
Communities Secretary, last month to discuss how the Church of England
could contribute. Bishops are dismayed that no Christian denomination is
represented on the commission.
The bishops' document questions how effective it will be and says the
focus for solving the problem should not be placed on one particular
minority but "with the 'majority' communities and in the core culture".
"In relation to faith, there has been a divided, almost schizophrenic
approach," the briefing paper says. The Government was misguided in
"scapegoating the Muslim community as the source of the problem at the
same time as believing that they should be uniquely responsible for
solutions". It goes on: "The contribution of the Church of England in
particular and of Christianity in general to the underlying culture
remains very substantial."
The 2001 census showed that 72 per cent of Britons describe themselves
as Christian. "It could certainly be argued that there is an agenda
behind a claim that a five per cent adherence to 'other faiths' makes
for a multi-faith society," says the document.
Mr Wilkinson, who was an archdeacon in Bradford during the riots of
2001, says the Government is wrong to see faith as the cause of a
divided society.