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WINTER 2014 /15 IN THIS ISSUE FAITH IN ACTION

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Perspectives Published by the Woolf Institute, From the Editor UK Registered Charity No 1069589 It is with great pleasure that I introduce Perspectives. Gathered around the theme of Editorial Board Faith in Action, this edition brings together an eclectic range of authors and subjects, Alice Sandham, Editor reflecting how the creative meeting of faith and practice can inspire, encourage and Trisha Kessler, Culture Editor enrich the wider world. Emma Harris, Editorial Assistant Carolina Gonzalez-Carvajal, Faith in Action seemed a natural theme; so much of our work and conversations at Editorial Consultant the Woolf Institute have centred around the intersections of religion and applied contexts: from the recent training sessions for diplomats at the Foreign and Submissions Commonwealth Office, to the ongoing training delivered to hospital and hospice staff We welcome readers’ responses and contributions. Please get in touch using in End of Life Care, the Woolf Institute seems increasingly drawn towards bridging the the details below. gap between theological insight and practical engagement.

Contact These articles are also a reminder of how faith can act as another word for hope: Perspectives there are several articles in this edition which show encouraging beginnings in Woolf Institute challenging contexts. Gorazd Andrejc˘’s thoughtful report on youth interfaith work in 12 – 14 Grange Road post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina describes how young people with little knowledge Cambridge or previous contact with the religious ‘other’ are reaching out and working together CB3 9DU to improve the shared future of their country. Similarly, in Canon Angus Ritchie’s United Kingdom account of grassroots responses to austerity, we learn how people of all faiths and Tel: : +44 (0)1223 741 048 none worked together to campaign for greater social justice and responsibility in [email protected] the face of economic collapse. Meanwhile, Trisha Kessler’s interview with Luqman Ali explores the experiences and inspiration behind Khayaal: a theatre company that www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/resources/ brings together a religiously diverse cast to reimagine the wisdom literature of Islam, perspectives.asp creatively interpreting and enacting messages of insight and reconciliation.

Distributed free of charge in the We are honoured that Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew UK and worldwide. Congregations of the Commonwealth) has shared his ‘bookshelf’, reflecting on Photography those books that have inspired and shaped his outlooks and endeavours. Beyond Cover: cc Mostar Bridge at night by the bookshelf there is also an aspect of storytelling in this edition, with an article Péter Báthory. This image was shared exploring the work of Jim Mortram, a photographer and blogger whose huge on a Creative Commons Licence: http:// sensitivity to the people and testimonies he documents is inspiring. Finally, we are creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ delighted to have the opportunity to review Mirza Waheed’s latest novel, The Book of Gold Leaves, a heartbreaking tale of love and conflict set in the author’s hometown of Design & print management Srinagar, Kashmir. H2 Associates, Cambridge

One of our contributors observed that, in the face of disturbing and seemingly Perspectives is printed on chlorine-free unresolvable world events, it is natural to feel both saddened and powerless. FSC certified paper with vegetable based ink. Ultimately, however, he reminded us that we can have a vast impact on the world simply by the way we engage with those immediately around us. He concluded: even if you just help a neighbour, “not for any other reason than you’re able to” this can have positive and unexpected effects. I can think of no better example of faith in action.

I hope you enjoy the edition; with its focus on small but hopeful beginnings, creative insights and practical concerns, I believe it reflects the important work of the Institute.

Alice Sandham, Editor

PERSPECTIVES 2 PERSPECTIVES Editorial From the Editor ...... 2 From the Director ...... 4

News News and Updates ...... 5 Conferences and Roundtables ...... 9

Features Small Steps: Youth Interfaith Work in Post-Conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina, Dr Gorazd Andrejč ...... 10 Faith in Action: Religious Responses to the Crash, Canon Dr Angus Ritchie...... 14 A Post-Interfaith World: Religion, Society and International Relations, Dr Edward Kessler ...... 18 Life After Prison: Could ‘Faith in Action’ Transform Rehabilitation?, Dr Ruth Armstrong ...... 21 Shared Interests: Shared Action, Faith- and Community-Based Organisations in an Age of Austerity, Dr Shana Cohen...... 25

DEVELOPMENT PULL-OUT...... CENTRE PAGES

Culture Theatre Faith at the Fringe?, Mike Levy ...... 28 Photography Stories from a Small Town: the Photography of Jim Mortram, Alice Sandham & Carolina Gonzalez-Carvajal ...... 30 Book Shelf Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis on his favourite books ...... 35 Interview Presenting Tales of Wisdom with Luqman Ali, Trisha Kessler ...... 36 Book Review Mirza Waheed, The Book of Gold Leaves Reviewed by Dr Manali Desai ...... 39

Noticeboard People...... 40 Resources ...... 41 Courses ...... 42 Highlights and Calendar ...... 44

www.woolf.cam.ac.uk

From the Director

Nowhere, it seems, is the subject of peace and understanding, or more realistically, violence and misunderstanding, more evident than in discussions about conflicts involving religion. Indeed, since religion is a major force in today’s society we need to understand why, in the words of the sociologist Peter Berger, “the world is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more so than ever”.

Understanding today’s world is at the heart of the Woolf Institute’s work. This issue of Perspectives demonstrates the Institute’s approach: rigorous study undertaken collaboratively, through sometimes difficult discussions about beliefs, narratives, and attitudes that take seriously all religious and secular perspectives but privilege none. Exploring the theme of faith in action, this edition will include articles from the fields of philosophy, literature, sociology, political science as well as theology. You will also read about a wide range of educational programmes, publications and events which epitomise our desire to combine theology with social sciences and the humanities.

Given increasing demand for our work, we are also delighted to announce a partnership with Westminster College to build a new home for the Woolf Institute in the centre of Cambridge. This will be a tremendous advance, providing us for the first time with a fit-for-purpose facility so we can develop and deliver more educational programmes.

Our student body has tripled since we opened and we need new facilities to meet increasing demand. The new building will offer our expanding body of international students and fellows a study environment of the highest quality, an enhanced range of courses with a dedicated library and media centre. The Woolf Institute community will also be strengthened by the provision of on-site living accommodation, proximity to the existing community in Westminster College and other Cambridge Colleges.

With your help, the Woolf Institute will be able to fulfill its vision of becoming the global leader in one of the most important challenges of our age: the interfaith encounter.

Thank you for your interest in and support of our work. Your encouragement is vital to our success.

Dr Edward Kessler MBE Founder Director

PERSPECTIVES 4 NEWS

A permanent new home News

We are delighted to share the news that after many months of negotiation, the Woolf Institute has been granted planning permission from Cambridge City Council to build a purpose-built home at the Westminster Site. This marks a major step forward for the Woolf Institute and is a significant milestone in the building’s development.

For further details, please see the development pull-out or contact Matthew Teather: [email protected]

50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate Major grant for comparative research project

2015 marks 50 years since Nostra Aetate, The Woolf Institute has received the 1965 Declaration on the Church’s a major grant to undertake the Relationship to Non-Christian Religions. first cross-country comparison One of the most influential and celebrated of interfaith initiatives in the UK, documents issued by the Second Vatican India and Qatar. The study, which Council, Nostra Aetate made possible a will be undertaken in co-operation new and positive relationship between Jews with Georgetown University and and Catholics, as well as other Christians. the Doha International Center for Dr Edward Kessler will contribute to two Interfaith Dialogue (DICID), will anniversary conferences at the Universities analyse the effectiveness of leader-led of Vienna and Toronto and will be attending and grassroots interfaith bodies in a funding from the Qatar National the official celebration at the Vatican on European, Asian and Middle Eastern Research Fund (QNRF) and aims to 28 October 2015. context. The project has received develop practical outputs for future use in improving the effectiveness of interfaith initiatives.

For further information about the Peter Geymayer Peter

cc project, please contact Dr Shana Cohen: [email protected]

Date for your diary

The Woolf Institute is scheduling a Black Tie Gala Fundraising Dinner on 5 November 2015 at Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London. Bishops at the historic Second Vatican Council

PERSPECTIVES 5 Open seminar Goodbye Wesley House Alumni event series on Muslim- Jewish Relations We were delighted that former staff and students were able to join us for an informal ‘tea and cakes’ gathering on 1 August to mark our last day in Wesley House.

For the second year running, the Woolf Institute is co-organising a series of open panel events with the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies examining themes in Muslim-Jewish relations. These events will explore the cultural and philosophical dimensions of the Muslim-Jewish encounter and are open to all to attend.

For further information, please see: http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/events

Etty US/UK education project

To commemorate Between 19 – 22 March, the Woolf The programme culminated in a one- the 70th anniversary Institute, in collaboration with the day conference, including contributions of the liberation University of Cambridge Faculty of from Dr Philip Barnes (King’s College of Auschwitz, the Education, held a symposium and London) and Dr Liam Gearon (University Woolf Institute, conference examining approaches to of Oxford), addressing how religious Great Saint Mary’s religious education in the US and UK. education might move forward towards Church and a model which takes difference and the Cambridge Hosted by the Faculty of Education, this diversity seriously. Theological Federation will host programme offered an opportunity for US a dramatic performance of Etty, a and UK teachers to participate in a series A report and a toolkit will be published dramatisation of the diaries of of visits, workshops and break-out groups, shortly. For further information, Etty Hillesum. designed to help everyone enrich their please contact Mohammed Aziz: experience of teaching and learning about [email protected] Using only Etty Hillesum’s words, this and from world religions. play brings us to 1943 when Etty, a young Jewish woman, is about to be deported out of Holland and, ultimately, to Auschwitz. As she

prepares for her deportation, she digs Photography Ava Dan deeper into her soul to understand “this piece of history” believing that humanity is the best and only solution for survival. She wrote: “I know what may lie in wait for us… And yet I find life beautiful and meaningful.”

The play will be performed on 28 January at Great Saint Mary’s Church, by its author Susan Stein.

For further information, please contact Claire Curran: [email protected]

PERSPECTIVES 6 Woolf Institute at the Festival of Ideas

The Woolf Institute recently contributed 30 October, by a vibrant open discussion three events to this year’s Festival of Ideas. with Dr Edward Kessler and Sughra News Beginning on 22 October, the Woolf Ahmed on Faith(s) and National Identity. Institute held an open panel event entitled Playing and Praying? Sport and Religion The Festival of Ideas is an annual in Britain Today with contributions from celebration of the arts, humanities Dr Mahfoud Amara, Professor Michael and social sciences organised by Berkowitz, Adrian Cassidy and Omar the University of Cambridge public Salha. This was followed on 25 October engagement team. by a well-attended lecture delivered by Dr Esther-Miriam Wagner entitled To find out more, please see: How Language Shapes Identity and, on http://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/

The Woolf Institute has moved Woolf Institute at the Following 15 happy years based at that this will be a nurturing home for us. Wesley House, the Woolf Institute has Margaret Beaufort is an academic institution British 10k London Run moved offices to the Margaret Beaufort that works within the Roman Catholic On 12 July 2015, the Woolf Institute Institute of Theology. Although we are Church to offer women theological will be taking part in the British 10k sad to leave Wesley, we are certain education, professional pastoral practice Run in London. Over 500 charities and personal formation, preparing them for take part annually, and in 2015 the lay ministries and Christian discipleship in Institute has up to 30 places available today’s world. to friends, alumni and supporters who are willing to raise a minimum For more information about the sponsorship of £250 each towards the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, work of the Woolf Institute. Led by please see: Dr Edward Kessler, the Woolf http://www.margaretbeaufort.cam.ac.uk/ Institute runners will set off from Piccadilly, passing many London landmarks along the route including the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Visit from Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom St Paul’s and Whitehall.

On 5 November, the Woolf Institute was Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom is Arabic honoured to host Bob Fenton and Rami and Hebrew for Oasis of Peace: an Manaa, two ambassadors from the village intentional community jointly established Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom. by Jewish and Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. This bi-national community serves as a base for educational programmes such as The School for Peace, Children’s Educational System and The Pluralistic Spiritual Centre.

Bob and Rami gave a talk at the If you would like to help raise vital Michaelhouse Centre on their own funds for the Woolf Institute, please experiences of life in the village and the contact Matthew Teather about concept of the village as a whole. becoming one of our 10k Runners; and don’t forget to sponsor Ed For further information about Wahat at: https://www.justgiving.com/ al-Salam/Neve Shalom, please see here: Edward-Kessler http://wasns.org/

PERSPECTIVES 7 Rowan Williams Sughra Ahmed wins Lifetime contribution at the Foreign and Muslim Woman of award for Revd Professor Commonwealth Office the Year John Pawlikowski Woolf Institute’s Sughra Ahmed has been We are delighted to offer named Muslim Woman of the Year at the congratulations to Revd Professor 2014 British Muslim Awards. Sughra joined John Pawlikowski, OSM, former the Woolf Institute as Programmes Manager visiting fellow at the Woolf Institute, in April 2013 and is President of the Islamic who received the prestigious John Society of Britain. Courtney Murray Award for lifetime contributions to study and research in theology given by the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA) on 7 June, 2014.

On 17 June, Lord Rowan Williams gave a Further information about Woolf Institute lunchtime seminar for the Professor John Pawlikowski and his Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The pioneering work in Christian-Jewish seminar, entitled Religion and Foreign Policy dialogue can be found here: – a Christian Contribution? was well attended http://www.ctu.edu/academics/ by diplomats and civil servants from across john-t-pawlikowski-osm the FCO.

Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life Tomáš Halík receives On 23 June, the Commission on Religion and Woolf and Sir Iqbal Sacranie, as well as Templeton Prize Belief in British Public Life launched its public Commissioners: Dr Shana Cohen, Lord consultation document at the House of Lords, Richard Harries, Dr Edward Kessler, Prof We are thrilled to congratulate chaired by Baroness Butler-Sloss. Attendees Maleiha Malik, Prof Tariq Modood, Brian former Woolf Institute visiting fellow included Commission Patrons, Lord Harry Pearce and Rabbi Dr Norman Solomon. Monsignor Professor Tomáš Halík, who recently received the Templeton On launching the document, Dr Edward Prize for 2014. This award recognises Kessler, Vice-Chair of the Commission efforts to affirm “life’s spiritual said: “Today’s UK does not provide neat dimension” with previous recipients categories of religion and belief and including Archbishop Desmond Tutu presents a more complex and diverse and the Dalai Lama. context than has hitherto been in existence. Our Commission seeks to offer some insights and suggestions for ways to foster a vibrant society, which is underpinned by religion and belief”. Petr Novak, Wikipedia Novak, Petr

The consultation invites discussion of the media, education, social action and law. As well as a national consultation, local hearings are underway and the report will be published soon after the General Election.

To download the official consultation document and contribute your views, please see: http://www.corab.org.uk/

PERSPECTIVES 8 CONFERENCES & ROUNDTABLES News Ludwig Wittgenstein and Interreligious Communication Woolf Institute Between 24 – 25 June 2015, Dr Gorazd Roundtable Day 2014 Andrejč will convene a conference on Ludwig Wittgenstein and Interreligious Communication. This conference aims to provide a platform

Nico Hogg for conversation on recent and current Wittgensteinien approaches to interfaith communication from Muslim, Jewish, Christian or comparative theological perspectives.

For further information, please contact Dr Gorazd Andrej˘c: [email protected]

Rethinking the Culture Minorities in Contact

On 13 November, Dr Shana Cohen of Tolerance and Dr Christina Fuhr held a Woolf Dr Gorazd Andrejč recently contributed to Institute Roundtable Day at St the International Summer School: Rethinking Edmund’s College entitled: Austerity the Culture of Tolerance, a joint programme and our Social Future. This workshop organised by the University of Milan- formed part of the Woolf Institute’s Bicocca, the University of East Sarajevo, and wider comparative European study the University of Sarajevo. The conference on faith- and community-based sought to establish a critical discourse on responses to austerity in Berlin, tolerance and toleration, with particular London, Paris and Rome. Speakers reference to the context of post-war, included: Canon Angus Ritchie (The Between 23 – 24 April 2015, the Woolf but also post-socialist and post-Yugoslav Centre for Theology & Community), Institute and Faculty of History, University societies of the Western Balkans. Barry Griffiths (Jimmy’s Night Shelter, of Cambridge, will hold an interdisciplinary Cambridge), Nick Spencer (Theos) conference entitled Minorities in Contact. and Chris Baker (William Temple This will be organised by visiting fellow Foundation, University of Chester). Dr Ana Echevarria in cooperation with Dr Nora Berend. For further information, please

contact Dr Christina Fuhr: on Flickr Clark and Kim Kays Ancient and Medieval [email protected] Disputations between Jews and Christians

Following last year’s successful End of Life Care Matters Conference conference (organised by Woolf Institute visiting fellow Dr Sébastien On 20 October, Sughra Ahmed London Synagogue), Maureen O’Neill, Morlet), the proceedings of Ancient organised a multidisciplinary conference: (Faith in Older People) and Dr Philip Lodge and Medieval Disputations between End of Life Care Matters, at the Royal (Royal Free Hospital). Jews and Christians: Fiction & Reality, Society of Medicine. The programme will shortly be published by Peeters explored issues of religious and cultural For more information on Woolf Institute Publishers. Contributions will include needs at the end of life, bringing training on Diversity in End of Life Care, chapters from Prof William Horbury, together medical and non-medical please see: http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/ Dr James Carleton Paget and perspectives. Speakers included Rabbi practice/end-of-life-care.asp Prof Marc Saperstein. Jonathan Wittenberg (New North

PERSPECTIVES 9 Small Steps: Youth Interfaith Work in Post-Conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina Features By Dr Gorazd Andrejč, Woolf Institute

When a young student Marija, a Bosnian Croat and Catholic, posted a photo of herself in a mosque with a headscarf covering her hair, she got a mixed response from her Facebook friends. The photo was taken whilst on an educational visit to a historic mosque in Sarajevo, a majority Muslim city where she had moved to complete her studies. Some of the comments were jokes: for example, one friend asked her whether she was considering converting; another reminded her that she had been warned not to move to Sarajevo, with a smiley next to the comment. But there were also other comments, like the one by a male friend of Marija’s which said: “Take that off your Youth in Bosnia-Herzegovina face an uncertain future head and from Facebook!”. There was no accompanying smiley. conflict in the 1990s between Serbs, during which several county government Croats and Bosniaks. Each of these buildings were severely damaged and n post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina, nationalities are usually identified by their burned, have highlighted the widespread religious identification, normally blended majority religious traditions – Christian corruption as well as the inability of the Iwith ethno-national identification, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Muslim, state and regional governments to alleviate remains a very important political and respectively. In this context, religious economic problems and enable better social factor in determining the lives of symbols and narratives are habitually put living conditions for its citizens, many of young people. As revealed by the adverse in service of ethno-political point scoring whom are unemployed and living below the reactions to the photo of Marija’s visit to in which the ethnic and religious other, poverty-line. On the other hand, the recent the mosque, whilst seemingly part of the one’s neighbour and fellow Bosnian or disastrous floods in the country showed that background, ethno-religious identities are Herzegovinian, is often presented as a people on the ground were motivated to easily brought to the fore if boundaries of threat to one’s own wellbeing, or even help one another, often in a very organised difference are seemingly, let alone actually, survival. Despite well-established evidence way and on a large scale, regardless of the transgressed. These deeper beliefs and of what happened immediately before and faith or ethnicity of those who needed help attitudes are part of the challenge which during the war, no nationwide, organised and disregarding internal borders. young people in Bosnia-Herzegovina are reconciliation or trust-building process has faced with if/when they engage more been implemented, although there was an However, to appreciate the context in seriously in interfaith activities or engage attempt to instigate such a process in 2000.1 which young people in Bosnia-Herzegovina across ethno-religious boundaries. find themselves day to day, we need On the one hand, the protests and riots to take into consideration not only the The context which happened in the country in 2014, large-scale political and socio-economic Today’s society in Bosnia-Herzegovina is situation, but also the significance and one of deep political and socio-economic 1 I.T. Oliva, An Analytical Framework for Reconciliation the scale of the ‘voluntary’ segregation divisions, maintained through the repeated Processes: Two Case Studies in the Context of in the country after the ethnic cleansing Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina (MA Thesis, uncovering of the unhealed wounds and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2011), pp. of the 1990s. The process of re-settling fears stemming from the inter-ethnic 36-40. Available online: http://ow.ly/C7alc returnees has been only partly successful.

PERSPECTIVES 10 For a variety of reasons, many people in all three communities chose not to return to their homes. As a consequence, Bosnia- Herzegovina today has considerably more ethnically homogenous cities and towns than before the war, meaning that ethnic and faith communities, including young people, interact and communicate far less than in previous generations.

Cities such as Mostar, where, as a direct result of the conflict, a strong ethnic separation has been established, present specific challenges for interethnic and interfaith relations. Emblematic of this is the so-called ‘divided schools’ phenomena. In the central Bosnian city of Vitez, a school formerly known as Brotherhood and Unity is a case in point. Every morning the Catholic Croat children head to the right, to enter the main school building, and the Bosnian Muslims head to the left, to attend classes in the annex. Croat and Muslim pupils may share the same campus but they have separate classrooms, teachers and curricula. This form of ‘voluntary’ segregation Travnik, Bosnia-Herzegovina is not limited to education: several institutions in Vitez are also divided: neighbourhoods, spaces. In short: knowing your fellow young largely remain unchallenged by personal sports clubs and even the local fire citizen of a different nationality and faith on experience. In this context, and especially departments are duplicated along ethnic any meaningful level is no longer a given but since religion still acts as the dominant lines. This situation reflects, but inevitably an anomaly. ethnic identifier, one’s ethnic and religious also intensifies the ethnic segregation, thus ‘other’ – whether Bosniak, Serb, Croat, or sowing the seeds for longer-lasting divisions Educators, who work on youth interfaith Jew – can stubbornly remain a projected in society.2 education in the country, testify that the instead of a real ‘other’. Surely it is through levels of religious knowledge of other an ongoing and genuine dialogue with Because of this lack of contact, the post-war communities are at an all-time low. In fellow citizens of different faiths that Bosnian generations are now growing up with less Mersiha Jusić’s study of Muslim and Catholic youth can test their own projections (often knowledge of each other’s micro-cultural and youth’s religious understanding in four high mistrustful misrepresentations, enforced religious characteristics than their parents schools in Central Bosnia, results suggested by ethno-political narratives) about a did – this is despite the fact that their parents even basic knowledge of their neighbours’ neighbour’s faith, as well as envision a grew up in a socialist society where religions faith was scarce. For example, only 2% respectful and long-term coexistence were nominally excluded from public life. of Christian students could explain the despite differences. While older generations, including those who significance of the two main Muslim Eids (or fought each other and/or were victimised locally: Bajrams) and only 32% of Muslim It is, then, almost a truism to say that by the war, grew up in a social reality where students knew the reason why Easter and proper interfaith dialogue among young the lives of Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, Jews, and Christmas were commemorated.3 people in Bosnia-Herzegovina is vital to others in Bosnia-Herzegovina were much the future of this country. However, it is more interrelated and co-dependent, most With this lack of knowledge, it is very also important to put this into the context young people in Bosnia-Herzegovina today easy to imagine how a Bosnian youth of the other socio-economic and political are growing up in a significantly segregated might unwittingly misrepresent the faith factors which are equally, or sometimes social reality, imposed by a post-conflict of one’s neighbour and, due to the more, important to Bosnian-Herzegovinian landscape of fragmented and divided political limited opportunities for interaction, society. For example, economic inequality such misrepresentations would also and a lack of opportunity for the young 2 “Segregated Bosnian Schools Reinforce Ethnic poses serious challenges to the future of Division”, Institute for War and Peace Reporting. 3 M. Jusić, Med-ureligijski Vodic˘ za Srednjoškolce B-H, as underlined by the recent riots. Also, Available online: http://is.gd/PqqkRy (Sarajevo: Mali Koraci, 2009) concerns over women’s rights demand

PERSPECTIVES 11 of different nationalities in the country together can also be seen as relevant in terms of furthering interfaith relations.

Let me describe three great examples of recent projects which I find particularly inspiring. They represent different types of interfaith dialogue and joint action of young people of different faiths – each type of dialogue, important in their own way, encourages better relations and a more stable future.

Youth from Srebrenica In 2011, to conclude a three-year Youth for Peace project supported by CARE International, the youth from Srebrenica and surrounding towns organised a series of meetings and activities entitled ‘Four Religions of Bosnia-Herzegovina’. Because of the symbolic significance of Srebrenica following the 1995 genocide, Young people take part in a graffiti festival in Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina this series of youth interfaith meetings has been seen as especially important. attention and action from those in B-H who activities that encourage innovative interfaith All the events were organised by the are in positions of influence. In both instances, dialogue and co-operation for young people young people of Srebrenica themselves, progress is hampered by a political stalemate in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Organisations, such as who invited eminent theologians from all that both reflects and feeds off the current the Catholic Relief Services Network for Peace four faith communities to participate in arrangement of power-relations between in Sarajevo led by Goran Bubalo, Genesis the project. Activities included bilateral ethnic groups/nationalities. As a consequence Project in Banja Luka led by Tijana Pejić, the dialogues between Muslim and Serbian state institutions function very poorly, to say Center for Peacebuilding in Sanski mostly led Orthodox youth, a concert by the multi- the least. Despite these challenges, in the long by Vahidin Omanović, Mali Koraci (Small faith choir Pontanima (Spiritual Bridge) and term, the engagement of religious leaders and Steps) from Sarajevo led by Amra Pandžo, talks by prominent Bosnian theologians.6 interfaith activists, young and old, may prove and Institute for Youth Development KULT Significantly, the project included visits to vital for fostering better understanding and from Sarajevo led by Jasmin Bešić, engage religious spaces. For some young Muslims, trust among people of all faiths in Bosnia- with youth across Bosnia-Herzegovina this was the first time they had been Herzegovina. There is, after all, a broad or with educators who work with young inside an Orthodox monastery, and for consensus among people of all faiths and people. They organise projects and some Christian youth, it was the first time none in B-H that educational institutions and workshops for members of different faiths or that they had been inside a Mosque – this youth educators have a very important role in none to come together, train in constructive was despite the fact that these buildings bringing about reconciliation in the country.4 and peaceful communication, non-violent were often only a few kilometres apart, or social action, or sometimes simply to get even less. Positive developments to know each other better. The projects of Given the overall situation in Bosnia- these organisations do not always have an A friend of mine, who was invited to be a Herzegovina today, there is still much to be explicit emphasis on faith or religiosity of leader of a workshop within this project, wished for in terms of youth interfaith work. the young people who take part, nor is this told me that the initial knowledge about the But, as well as challenges, there are also always needed. However, since the level of religion of their neighbours by some of the great opportunities. At the moment, there religious identification of people in Bosnia- young participants was limited. For example, are several programmes and longer-term Herzegovina is relatively high (in a recent some Christian high-school students study 72% of respondents across the country initially didn’t know that the Muslim faith identified themselves as religious, which is 4 This was established in a recent study conducted also belonged to the Abrahamic family significantly above the European average of by the University of Edinburgh and the Center 5 of monotheistic faiths, asking if Islam for Empirical Study of Religion, Sarajevo. See G. 50%) , all projects which bring young people Wilkes, et al., Factors in Reconciliation: Religion, Local Conditions, People and Trust (Sarajevo: CEIR, 2013). 6 “Mladi za Mir”, Deutche Welle. Available online: Available online: http://ow.ly/C7aKR 5 Ibid., pp. 13–14 http://ow.ly/C7aRL

PERSPECTIVES 12 was a ‘pagan’ or polytheistic religion. The initiative Leap of Faith Together more from different faith communities”. She felt realisation that the major faiths in Bosnia- than six years ago, but it is now overseen that the programme had not only helped her Herzegovina shared Abrahamic roots was by Božana Katava and led by Bosnian to break down prejudices, but also to make cited as important by several participants and Herzegovinian students, with the friends. Because of the group All Together, she in challenging misconceptions (often Interreligious Council of Bosnia-Herzegovina concluded, she now “believes in peace”. widespread in their respective communities) acting only as their umbrella organisation.8 about each other’s faiths. It was evident from the testimonies of the The core team of activists consists of students involved in All Together with whom I Meetings of Young Theologians about 25 students of all four major faiths had a chance to communicate that they felt a A different project initiated and run by the in Bosnia-Herzegovina – this time not just great sense of calling to further reconciliation, Interreligious Council of Bosnia-Herzegovina theological students or future clergy, but especially between the young people of and helped by the Konrad Adenauer also students of a variety of other, different Bosnia-Herzegovina, and that they saw this Foundation, is the Meetings of Young disciplines and vocations. At their seminars, group as having the potential to bring this Theologians Programme.7 Since 2006, young up to fifty young people of all faiths and about, even if only on a small scale, or in a seminarians who are training to be future none are offered the opportunity to learn, limited number of locations across the country. Roman Catholic or Christian Orthodox volunteer, and also have fun together. priests or Muslim Imams meet twice a year Their activities range from organising Conclusion in order to better understand the beliefs, training seminars for young people of From a pessimistic perspective which, in traditions, places of worship, liturgy and all faiths across the country on a variety the light of Bosnian political and social other aspects of their respective religious of topics, such as building civil society, divisions, too often seems the ‘rational’ cultures. While there is no Jewish theological to engaging with the media, team-work, way of seeing the situation, it is possible to seminary in the country, the meetings have volunteering and so on. Quite naturally, dismiss these projects as youthful idealism, also regularly included sessions on Judaism their activities are more practically focused or to disparage their potential and influence held by a member of the Jewish community than the activities of the theology students as an unrepresentative minority up against and educational visits to Jewish places of mentioned earlier: they attract students far more powerful groups and attitudes. worship. The students themselves would not only to their workshops, but also to However, the potential of such small steps often present the beliefs and other aspects their volunteering projects, working with should not be underestimated. of their respective traditions. high school pupils or with orphans and Typically, around thirty students would be families living in poverty. Interfaith dialogue and activities, by present at such meetings. In recent years, addressing and overcoming fears of, and these have included not only seminarians but “the potential of such mistrust between, people of different also students of the faculties of education communities, can disrupt and weaken the in Bihać and Zenica that train people small steps should not main resource on which nationalistic politics for teaching Islamic religious education. of divisions feed. This positive disruption is, Sometimes, the meetings are held over be underestimated” in fact, happening, but it is often not seen as three or four days, offering the opportunity newsworthy or politically relevant. for students to know each other better and Participants would often say that their form friendships. The meetings typically take involvement in this group had broadened From reading or listening to the personal place at one of the theological seminary their horizons dramatically. One student, who testimonies of those involved, I was struck schools (either in Sarajevo, where Muslim wrote to me about the project, described by a sense of the genuinely transformative and Catholic theological seminaries are her experience as a “real treasure which has effect that such projects can have on young located, or in Foča, where there is a Serbian built me as a person”. She explained that, people. Crucially, these projects don’t seek Orthodox faculty), but they also regularly as a student of education, the All Together to deny or annihilate different religious include visits to monasteries and other meetings have inspired her to instil the and ethnic identities. Instead they build traditional places of spiritual devotion (like importance of interfaith dialogue and respect friendships and engage in causes for the the Franciscan monastery in Mostar, the to the younger generations she will teach. common good, in full acknowledgement Serbian Orthodox monastery in Žitomislići, Another student, who is of the Serbian of the differences as well as commonalities or the Muslim dervish house tekke, or tekija Orthodox faith, wrote that being a part of between Bosnians and Herzegovinians of all as it is known locally, in Blagaj). this group has “had a great influence on faiths and none. [her] life”, explaining that it had helped her Svi Zajedno (All Together) in her “thinking about others who come Endnotes Svi Zajedno The project (All Together) was The photographs in this article were supplied by originally launched by the British Council Aleksandar Trifunović, a freelance photographer from 8 http://www.svizajedno.org/. I wish to thank Mrs Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Foremost, Aleksandar is Božana Katava who kindly put me in touch with a renowned journalist and editor of the popular online 7 http://ow.ly/C7b6O the young people involved in Svi Zajedno. portal BUKA Magazine: www.6yka.com

PERSPECTIVES 13 Faith in Action: Religious Responses to the Crash Features By Canon Dr Angus Ritchie, The Centre for Theology & Community

It is now almost six years since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. That event triggered a wider financial crash which Paulie on Flickr has affected economies and households around the world. It is now estimated that it will be at least 2018 before disposable incomes recover to pre-crash levels.

he scale and speed of the crash left politicians out of their depth, unable Tto placate an increasingly bewildered and anxious public. Words written by Maurice Glasman in 2009 still ring true today:

“The financial crash of autumn 2008 has yet to be fully appreciated. The mobilisation of resources [to bail out the banks] was unprecedented; indeed the transfer of assets is the greatest redistribution from poor to rich since the Norman Conquest, when the common and freehold lands of England were transferred to the ownership of William the Conqueror. And yet it was received into a strange political silence, as if The 2007/8 financial crisis has produced a recession in Europe not seen since the Great Depression it were an administrative error that needed correcting, rather than a systematic crisis It is striking that the voices which offer 2009: Citizens UK challenge of a financial model within which greed, hope and vision are still so often religious exploitative lending fantasy and recklessness had combined in ones. When people look for a space to ask Citizens UK is the national community lethal combination.” (Glasman, 2009) deeper, more fundamental questions about organising movement, made up of religious where their society is going – and how and civic institutions committed to working At the heart of any democratic society, to build a more just and stable economic together to both discern and promote a there must be an opportunity for ordinary system – they still turn to the leaders, the truly common good. Just ten months after citizens to discern and promote a truly books, and the buildings of faith. the Lehman bankruptcy, the alliance offered common good. That is to say, we must be the first significant grassroots response to the able to shape our future together. But the In this article, I will look at three examples financial crisis. A delegation delivered the holy bewildering complexity of our financial of this phenomenon, and consider their texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the systems, and the forces which are unleashed implications for the work of Jews, Christians chairman of RBS – one of the banks the UK when they malfunction, leave ordinary and Muslims in the public sphere. They government had just bailed out. This symbolic citizens feeling fearful and powerless. suggest that different faith traditions can action carried with it a serious message: that have something unique and constructive to the banking system needed to pay attention In such a bleak landscape, where might add to public debate – and that in doing to the wisdom contained within these books ordinary citizens turn to find hope? How so, they can both remain faithful to their if it was once again to serve the common might we begin to imagine and to build a distinctive convictions, and make a powerful good. In particular, as ordinary taxpayers had positive future together? contribution to the common good. bailed out the banks (to the tune of almost

PERSPECTIVES 14 one trillion pounds), Citizens UK wanted an 2011: Occupy LSX at being posed, not just to the Chapter of end to exploitative lending through a cap of St Paul’s Cathedral the Cathedral, but to our whole society. 20% on the total cost of credit, and called The coverage generated by the actions on the government to invest 1% of the taken in 2009 was generally positive. As the media focused on the bailout funds in the local and mutual The next time religion and economics controversies around the camp, the banking sector. were in the headlines, it was a rather less congregations in Citizens UK continued to happy experience. On 15 October, 2011, take action – listening to their members, As Jonathan Freedland acknowledged, faith Occupy LSX set up its camp outside St and engaging with the wider community was adding a unique and vital voice to the Paul’s Cathedral. Its arrival led to a painful to hear local people’s experiences, economic debate: debate within the church, and the ultimate and build a wider alliance for change. resignation of the cathedral’s Dean, Dr This action is now bearing fruit. ‘Just “It is telling that the lead voices in this Giles Fraser. This is not the place for a Money’ (the alliance’s campaign against new effort are from mosques, inner-city detailed analysis of the rights and wrongs exploitative lending) continues to gain churches and synagogues. The politicians of those events. However, it is frustrating momentum. Like Citizens UK’s Living Wage have been left looking flummoxed by the that the argument about the camp’s Campaign, it involves both patience and financial crisis, apparently desperate for location distracted attention from the determination. Both of these campaigns normal business to resume as soon as more fundamental concerns (concerns are rooted in the testimony and action possible. It has been left to the Pope to shared by both camp and church) about of tens of thousands of ordinary people offer the most comprehensive critique of the growing inequalities between rich and across some of England’s poorest our devastated economic landscape, in his poor, and the wider dysfunctions of our neighbourhoods. Both campaigns go far latest encyclical.” (Freedland, 2009) economic system. beyond gesture politics or protest. They harness the energy and moral vision In that encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, the then of our religious institutions, and enable Pope Benedict XVI attacked the way our them to work together to discern and to financial systems had been cut loose from promote a truly common good. any vision of the common good: Duncan C on Flickr 2013: New Pope and Archbishop “The conviction that the economy must speak out on economic issues be autonomous, that it must be shielded Last year saw the appointment of from ‘influences’ of a moral character, has new leaders for two worldwide led man to abuse the economic process churches – the Roman Catholic and in a thoroughly destructive way. In the Anglican Communions. Pope Francis long term, these convictions have led to and Archbishop Justin Welby are ‘both/ economic, social and political systems and’ Christians, who emphasise both the that trample upon personal and social personal and the social dimensions of the freedom, and are therefore unable to faith. Each has spoken out forcefully on deliver the justice that they promise.” issues of economic justice – whilst also (Caritas in Veritate, 34) affirming the distinctive orthodoxies of Christianity. They give the lie to the notion “Grave imbalances are produced when that engagement must involve a watering economic action, conceived merely as an down of the distinctive beliefs of those engine for wealth creation, is detached Occupy LSX demonstration, 2011 who are involved. As Pope Francis said in from political action, conceived as a his first sermon after election: means for pursuing justice through Nonetheless, there are positive lessons to redistribution.” (Ibid., 36) be drawn from these events. As Rowan “We can walk as much as we want, we Williams has observed, our allegedly can build many things, but if we do not Like the Living Wage, the call of synagogues, secular society again turned to a religious profess Jesus Christ, things go wrong. We churches and mosques for a cap on the building and to religious language to discuss may become a charitable NGO, but not cost of credit was initially dismissed as these vital issues. Questions about Biblical the Church, the Bride of the Lord. When unrealistic and impractical. And now, just like teaching on usury and about Jesus’ attitude we are not walking, we stop moving. the Living Wage, the witness of these local to wealth played a striking role in the When we are not building on the stones, congregations – drawing on the testimony rhetoric of the Occupy camp. One of the what happens? The same thing that of local people and the moral vision of their most powerful images of the protest was happens to children on the beach when faiths – is beginning to reshape the wider of a banner placed outside St Paul’s asking they build sandcastles: everything is swept economic discourse. “What would Jesus do?” It was a question away, there is no solidity.”

PERSPECTIVES 15 Pope Francis’ words and deeds provide that we do not do for others what they In November 2013, after increasing pressure a powerful rationale for the work of can do for themselves. It is action by the from the Archbishop, Citizens UK and from a Christians in Citizens UK. His words and poorest, and not simply for them, which range of other campaigners, the Chancellor deeds are deeply rooted in the distinctive has led to the extraordinary success of of the Exchequer announced that the beliefs of Christianity, which allows a the Living Wage campaign, and which is Government would indeed cap the cost of confident and yet humble engagement with at the heart of the Citizens UK’s campaign credit. Reflecting on the religious leaders in other faiths. We saw this most strikingly in against exploitative lending. the campaign, David Barclay asked: his unprecedented decision to wash the feet of a Muslim woman as part of the We see the same desire to hold together “How have faith groups managed to score 2013 Maundy Thursday liturgy. His visit personal and social transformation in the such remarkable and seemingly unlikely to Lampedusa (the Italian island which is ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury successes? In part it has been through one of the nearest gateways to Europe Justin Welby – and the same commitment their ability to listen to their members and for Africans fleeing poverty and conflict) to attend to the voices of the poorest. neighbours… It is action by the poorest, and challenged the treatment of refugees and Addressing the Church Urban Fund in not simply for them, which has led to the migrants by the world’s wealthiest nations. East London earlier this year, he explained extraordinary success of the Living Wage He has repeatedly demanded that we his understanding of the connection Campaign, and which has driven on the Just pay more attention to the voices of the between faith and social action: Money campaign against exploitative lending poorest – so that social action is not simply over the last four years.” (Barclay, 2014) a condescending attempt to speak for those “When Christians speak in public about in greatest need, but begins by engaging community flourishing or about justice, As Barclay observed, the strength of faith with what they have to say. there’s always someone who will pop up communities in Britain’s most deprived and ask why we’re sticking our noses in, neighbourhoods is one reason they have In a recent sermon, Francis warned against as if these things were miles away from such a powerful contribution to make to the “gentrification of the heart” that comes the proper concerns of Christianity. this debate. But, as he went on to argue, we when wealthier Christians are detached from cannot separate the impact of these faiths the experience of their poorest brothers Recently there have been the issues of from their distinctive teachings. and sisters. In his words, theology is not money and credit unions and power costs something we can “discuss calmly over tea” – of which the church has spoken. Stick to The faiths involved in Citizens UK’s campaign rather it must emerge from, and speak into, God, we are told. So we do, and we find… against exploitative lending each recognise this context of struggle and injustice. Jesus saying: Love God, love your neighbour. the need for a change in the human heart The common good of the community and as well as in our outward conditions. In This insight stands at the heart of justice are absolutely central to what it consequence, they recognise the connection community organising, with its ‘iron rule’ means to be a Christian.” between personal and social transformation, and the need for both structural changes and individual conversion.

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs Korephotos on Flickr Korephotos of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.” (Isaiah 58.6–8)

“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” (Surah Ar Ra’d 13.11)

“Come near to God and he will come near Banners at St Paul’s Cathedral, 2011 to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and

PERSPECTIVES 16 purify your hearts, you double-minded… Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4.8–10) London Citizens

Of course Jews, Christians and Muslims have some very significant areas of theological disagreement – and these lead on to practical differences on economics, as on other issues. But the evidence of their response to the economic crisis is clear: in the midst of such differences, it is possible to act together in ways that benefit us all. Such action does not need to dilute each distinctive religious identity. Rather, engagement with brothers and sisters of another faith can help believers to become more authentic and faithful in their own religious practice.

The worldwide Anglican Communion has issued this statement on engagement with people of other faiths, and the basis for common action: ‘Try Harder’: Demonstration by London Citizens for a London Living Wage

“It is not for us to set limits to the work pointed again to a central theme of the We began to ask: how disciplined am I of God, for the energy of the Holy Spirit Gospel which we can easily forget; we in my life of prayer? How faithful is my cannot be confined. ‘The tree is known by are re-evangelised through a gracious sense of the unity of the body of Christ its fruits’ (Matthew 12.33) and ‘the fruit encounter with other people.” to the words of the Gospels and of St of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, Paul? How often do I explain away and kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness This has certainly been the experience of ‘spiritualise’ the teaching of the Bible on and self-control’ (Galatians 5.22f). When those of us involved in Citizens UK. In my possessions and, in particular, on lending we meet these qualities in our encounter own borough, Tower Hamlets, the primary and borrowing? with people of other faiths, we must interfaith engagement has been with our engage joyfully with the Spirit’s work in Muslim neighbours. This engagement The fears so often expressed of interfaith their lives and in their communities.” has challenged us to be more faithful as engagement – that it involves a dilution of (Anglican Consultative Council, 2008) Christians – both in terms of our personal our own distinctive commitments, or that devotion and our action for social justice. In it becomes platitudinous – could not be Within the same report, this understanding their discipline in prayer, their strong sense further from our experience. Community goes further, suggesting that people of other of the Ummah (that is, the community of organising has enabled Christians, Jews faiths can ‘re-evangelise’ Christians: believers) and the seriousness with which and Muslims alike to become more faithful they take Quranic teaching on economics, believers, and to make a powerful and “As ambassadors of Christ, our mission the actions of Muslims in Citizens UK invited constructive contribution to our society at is to meet, to greet, and to acknowledge us to re-examine our Christian discipleship. this time of economic crisis. our dependence on other people and on God: ‘We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Endnotes ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ Anglican Communion Network for Inter Faith Concerns, 2008. Generous Love: The Truth of the Gospel and the Call to Dialogue. London: The Anglican Consultative Council. sake’… True hospitality is not about concealing our convictions, but about Barclay, D., “Our ‘Holy Alliance’ Should Claim Victory Over Payday Lending Cap”. Politics.co.uk [online] Available at: http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2013/11/26/comment-our-holy-alliance-should-claim-victory-over-payday-l expressing them in a practical way. We (accessed 8 March 2014) ourselves can in turn receive in friendship Freedland, J., 2009. “Heard the One About a Rabbi, an Imam and a Priest who Walk into a Bank?” The Guardian, 22 July. the hospitality of others, which may speak powerfully to us of the welcoming Glasman, M., 2009. “Taking Responsibility at a Time of Economic Crisis”. In: A. Ritchie, ed. 2009. Crunch Time: A Call to Action generosity that lies at the heart of God. . London: Contextual Theology Centre, p.88. Through sharing hospitality we are For more information on the Living Wage Campaign or Citizens UK, please see: http://www.livingwage.org.uk/

PERSPECTIVES 17 A Post-Interfaith World: Religion, Society and International Relations Features By Dr Edward Kessler, Woolf Institute

In 1999, the sociologist Peter Berger published an influential article in which he noted that: “the world is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more so than ever”. His words have yet to be fully absorbed, especially by politicians and policymakers, some of whom continue to focus on promoting civil society whilst forgetting that in most parts of the world

the most powerful actors in civil society © Christiane Grauert are religious. Indeed in the 2012 Pew Survey, 85% of the world’s population identified themselves as belonging to a specific religion; whilst even in a ‘secular’ UK, the figure stood at 75% according to the 2011 census.

his paper explains how a better understanding of religion (including Trelations between different religions) is vital; firstly, for fostering a Recent history has shown otherwise, as the and Weber but also because secularisation vibrant and stable society and secondly, for experience of The Economist demonstrates. had not just been a theory — it had developing a coherent and relevant strategy In its millennium issue, it published an article become the modus operandi for Western to international relations. It is not by chance entitled: “God: After a lengthy career, the diplomats.” that in June 2014, Pope Francis called for Almighty recently passed into history. Or “a culture of encounter” between society did he?”. The reader was informed that This means that the idea that religion could and faith, demonstrating his awareness of “the test will come on Judgement Day, be kept out of political life (“We don’t do their intricate relationship. Whilst I argue when man, we are told, will meet his God”) had to be abandoned, as did the that understanding religion is vital for maker. Or will it be God meeting his?” A post-Enlightenment paradigm – the view our society, I am equally convinced that few years later, however, the editor John that religion is a fading entity. I am not understanding our society is vital to religion, Micklethwait published “God is Back” in suggesting that we are about to return and for fostering good relations between which he acknowledged his conversion to to the past when religion and religious religions. This is because those who identify the recognition that the vast majority of authorities dominated society. Rather, there themselves as religious do not exist only the world regard God to be a factor in is a need to explore afresh where the in religious communities – they live in shaping their lives, both privately and in the legitimate overlap between religion and the world. Thus, religion and society have public square. society lies and to uncover a new paradigm influenced and have been influenced by one for the 21st century. I describe this as the another, both for good and for ill. In other That “God is Back” may have been a post-interfaith world. words, there is a two-way encounter. surprise to Micklethwait but it was a greater shock to the diplomatic community, as A post-interfaith world “God is Back” Gary Wilton has shown. He wrote in the The post-interfaith world can be compared A factor worth noting from the outset is the Diplomat Magazine in 2011: “The apparent to a mosaic: an intricate collection of failure of academic models of secularisation, resurgence of religion presents a profound colours representing different religions and which suggested that as societies modernise challenge not only to the much vaunted beliefs, each with multiple strands. they irrevocably grow more secular. secularisation theories of Marx, Durkheim One feature of this new, complex reality is

PERSPECTIVES 18 the extent of cross-faith and cross-belief parties in Israel and Militant Buddhists in acknowledged in 2006, it is “hard enough cooperation and overlapping concerns. Myanmar are but two examples – which to divide land between two groups on For example, conservative Christians, raise particular problems because religious the basis of legal or economic equity; it is who would not normally agree with non- radicals often claim God’s own authority far harder if one or both claim that the Christians, may find themselves more in and sovereignty to justify their actions. land in question was given to them by line with conservatively minded Jews and God”.1 More recently, The Chicago Council Muslims on, for example, family issues than A final feature in the complex post- on Global Affairs issued a report which with their liberal Christian co-religionists. interfaith world, not unrelated to the stated that: “it will be much harder, if not Similarly, liberal Jews may make common growth in fundamentalism, is an increasing impossible, to accomplish important goals cause with liberal Christians and Muslims suspicion of religion, and religious difference. – including development objectives, conflict on social justice issues, showing that Antisemitism, islamophobia and anti- resolution and the promotion of social and previous monolithic understandings of Christian hatred are significant issues. In human rights – without understanding the identity need to be nuanced by overlapping Western Europe, for example, there was religious context.”2 concerns and interaction. At the same shock at the antisemitic chanting and time, a post-interfaith world includes an violence of some (Muslim and non-Muslim) Diplomats, like policy-makers and their increasing number of people, especially in pro-Palestinian protestors during recent advisers, must learn as much as possible the West, who do not identify themselves marches opposing Israeli military action in about religion as well as society. A lack as religious. In the UK, this proportion Gaza. Similarly, the rise of radical (often but of understanding of one or the other of the population has risen from 12% to not only far-right) political groups use of makes their job harder and more difficult 25% in a single decade, according to the religion, particularly anti-Islamic rhetoric, to for countries to be good neighbours. In 2011 census. In contrast, beyond the West, further their secular ideological goals, has my view, religion and society cannot exist the post-interfaith world has witnessed a been demonstrated by Marine Le Pen’s happily without the other. notable resurgence of religion’s influence, comments about Islam in France and by sometimes filling a gap left by secular Golden Dawn in Greece. Nigel Baker, UK Ambassador to the Holy See, is a leading figure in the Foreign and “A post-interfaith paradigm presents a more Commonwealth Office’s recent interest in religious issues and explains further: “I complex and diverse world than has hitherto personally believe that an understanding of the dynamics of religion and faith in been in existence” global society is not only a legitimate and important tool of foreign policy practice, political ideologies, as demonstrated by Thus, a post-interfaith paradigm presents but an increasingly essential one for our the growth of political Islamism in the a more complex and diverse world than diplomats and foreign policy advisers in Middle East or the dramatic expansion of has hitherto been in existence. Religions, a modern world in which religion is ever Christianity in China. Meanwhile, the global because they have good digestion more important as a driver of political, growth of Pentecostalism to become the systems and are shaped by their context, social, cultural and even economic second largest Christian denomination epitomise our complicated, fragmented and motivation. In the same way that we in the world represents a significant shift multifaceted society. They are capable of expect diplomats to develop a keen in religious affiliation. This has various representing what is both worst and best knowledge of international economic implications, including new tangible and within it. issues, or the intricacies of multilateral intangible connections between the Global negotiating techniques in areas from South and the Southern States of the International Relations disarmament to climate change, we cannot United States. Despite the changing landscape, policy ignore religion.”3 analysts often still seek to separate religion This religious resurgence has not from world politics, to liberate logic from Baker is involved in a training course for FCO always been peaceful however. Samuel those beliefs that claim to transcend it. staff examining the role of religion, which Huntingdon’s controversial article, ‘The However, religious motivations do not Clash of Civilisations’, published in Foreign disappear simply because they are not 1 Madeline Albright, The Mighty and the Almighty: Affairs in 1993, not only reflected the mentioned; rather, they lie dormant only to Reflections on America, God and World Affairs (Harper Collins: 2006) end of the Cold War but also signalled rise up again, often at unexpected moments a renewed focus on, and outspokenness and with renewed intensity. 2 pp. 7–8; quoted from Marketa Geislerova, ‘Nego- about, violence perpetrated in the name of tiating the Religious Dimension in Foreign Policy’ Canadian Public Policy, 37:1, 2011 religion. All the world’s religions now include In the last few years, some policy makers among their number increasingly assertive have woken up to this challenge and 3 http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/nigelbaker/2013/01/24/ fundamentalists – the strict religious paid notice. As Madeleine Albright training-diplomats-to-understand-religion/

PERSPECTIVES 19 is delivered by the Woolf Institute. Part of the course explores how religious leaders could play a helpful role in talking to foreign governments and calming religious tensions. Recent examples include the public appeals for calm by religious leaders after the on Flickr Velden van der Judy murder of the soldier Lee Rigby in 2013 and the joint call for disarmament from Muslim and Christian religious leaders in the Central African Republic.4

It is clear then that a historic tendency to focus on ‘rational’ motivators, such as economics and security, detracts from understanding the complexity of society, or reduce tensions in inflammatory contexts, but that such a posture jeopardises not including communal and individual such as the Danish Foreign Ministry’s only the kind of learning that ought to take identities. This does not imply that foreign unsuccessful handling of the Cartoon Crisis place in the academy, but the very nature of policy should be based on promoting or in 2008. With greater knowledge as well understanding religion. defending a particular religion, even where as sensitivity, diplomats will become, in the a country has an ‘official’ or state religion. words of former UK Foreign Secretary, The challenge for diplomats is to catch up Countries which might be expected to William Hague, “skilled… on the ground in with events, to enhance their capacity to follow religious preferences in foreign the places that matter, who are able to get read a most potent sign of our times – policy, such as Iran or Pakistan, tend to look under the skin of those countries, who are religion. Governments in general, and foreign at national interest in non-religious terms immersed in their language, culture, politics ministries in particular, need to factor – for example, Pakistan’s two closest allies and history, and who have access to decision- religion into their approaches. The pattern are the USA and China. makers and can tap into informal networks of religious affiliation around the world has of influence. We need a more expeditionary changed and continues to change. Education concerning religion and religious approach to foreign policy, particularly in the identity can and should be incorporated area of conflict prevention…”5 The resurgence of religion challenges into foreign policy, partly by the education foreign policy makers to understand of diplomats (as well as politicians) Conclusion religious actors; their aspirations and themselves. An obligatory first stage is In the end, I defer to Wilfred Cantwell motivations. Globalisation has brought the greater religious ‘literacy’. For example, it Smith who argued that religion should not different religions into closer proximity – is not possible to understand the West be treated as a system, an ‘ism’, a simplistic sometimes in conflict and sometimes in Bank religious settler movement without overly conceptualised, static entity without cooperation. The former Bishop of Oran, being familiar with the ‘Greater Israel’ rootedness in either personal or historical Pierre Claverie, who was assassinated theology of Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook, who realities. Understanding religion does not lie in the Algerian Civil War by Islamic called any possible return of the occupied in religious systems, he argues, but in people: fundamentalists in 1996, was renowned for territory a ‘sin’. Similarly, Shia politics is not “Ask not what religion a person belongs to his understanding of Islam. He remarked understandable without an appreciation of but ask rather what religion belongs to that in his final sermon: “I have come to the the role of ‘Ashura’ as the transformative person”, he famously wrote.6 personal conviction that humanity is only event in Shia martyrology, commemorating plural. As soon as we start claiming to the martyrdom of Hussein, grandson To know another, contends Smith, we must possess the truth or to speak in the name of the Prophet Mohammed. Iran, a Shia be able to stand in that human situation of humanity, we fall into totalitarianism. theocracy, in particular engages in religious realising that there is no person on earth No one possesses the truth; each of us is diplomacy, exporting its version of Shi-ism we can fully understand, and yet, no searching for it.” across the Arab world through its support person that we cannot understand at least for Hezbollah and for Shia communities in somewhat. Smith is not saying that those of That search should include religious and Iraq and Bahrain. us who study religion should not be rational non-religious alike for religion and society or rigorous or any of those qualities we are inextricably entwined. As well as providing insight, greater religious associate with the pursuit of knowledge, ‘literacy’ can also help to avoid crises and/ This article is based on a talk given by 5 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/diplo- Dr Edward Kessler to the Brookings 4 http://www.onislam.net/english/news/ matic-excellence-in-the-21st-century africa/469479-car-religious-leaders-appeal-for- Institution, Washington, D.C. to an audience calm.html 6 The Meaning and End of Religion, 1962 of US diplomats and policy makers.

PERSPECTIVES 20 Life After Prison: Features Could ‘Faith in Action’ Transform Rehabilitation?

By Dr Ruth Armstrong, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge

In 2001, George Bush Jr. was elected president of the United States. With him came the domestic policy of ‘compassionate conservatism’. Key to Cyril Rana on Flickr this policy was the creation of new federal funding structures that allowed competition for government contracts to run social services. The idea was to strengthen the capacities of local faith- based and community organisations considered well placed to meet the needs of local people.

n England and Wales, we are currently undergoing the coalition government’s Icriminal justice reforms that are hoping to ‘transform rehabilitation’. These reforms have instigated the breakup of the National Probation Service and the creation of Community Rehabilitation Companies (also known as CRCs or tier 1 providers). CRCs will aim to reduce reoffending and be paid on results. They will work through a supply chain of smaller charities and enterprises (tier 2 providers), who in turn will rely on local faith-based and community organisations (tier 3 providers). We are heading into a new era for England and Wales in which the funding structures for criminal justice will relate to the capacities their experiences of faith-communities that there are people within broader society of local faith-based and community post-release. It uses these experiences to willing to reach out, to forgive, to accept organisations to meet the needs of local suggest what faith in action might look like and to support. However, the realities of life people and thus play their part in reducing if faith-communities are to play a role in post-release, even with low expectations, reoffending. Sound familiar? transforming rehabilitation. were often bitterly disappointing. There was little comfort in being a different person Research examining life after prison in Faith in action? facing the same struggles. the USA suggests that faith-communities For the men in my study, life after prison could have an important role to play in was difficult. Participants were conscious Joining a faith-community ex-prisoner re-entry to the community (La of their diminished social status. Their Involvement in faith-communities offered Vigne et al., 2009). This article returns to expectations were low, but their hopes an escape from the social stigma felt by the USA under George Bush’s presidency high. As prisoners, they had engaged in an participants through supplying a forum and looks at this in practice. It draws on the 18 month pre-release programme where in which to express a pro-social identity experiences of 48 men in their first year of volunteers had reinforced their individual and to change routine activities associated life after prison, one of whom was Muslim worth and acceptability, and demonstrated with a criminal lifestyle (Shapland and and the rest were Christian. It describes through their physical presence in the prison Bottoms, 2011). However, among the

PERSPECTIVES 21 David Shankbone on Flickr David

48 men there were notable differences Those that reoffended but were not re- parole restrictions and conflicts with in their experiences. I analysed their incarcerated tended to form social bonds employment schedules. Outside of these experiences and then divided them into with colleagues, family and friends. Their practicalities, another prevalent barrier was three groups, those who did not reoffend illicit activities risked severing their links with the perception of implicit exclusion due to (n=20), those who did reoffend but were faith-communities where they felt stigma the shame of continued illicit activities. not detected (n=13) and those who associated with such behaviours. In contrast, were re-imprisoned (n=15). All detected at work and with friends ‘social’ offending, In his examination of faith in community, reoffending resulted in re-imprisonment. such as drink driving or recreational drug- Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that it is only Outcome groups were based on self- use, could be part of belonging. in church that one can dare to be a report and official statistics on reoffending sinner (Bonhoeffer, 1939). But for many two years post-release. Those who did Those who were re-incarcerated also participants in this study, aspects of their not reoffend found it easier to join faith- struggled to form social bonds with lifestyles, from cohabiting to smoking crack communities. They emphasised feeling people in faith-communities. They had cocaine, stymied their engagement with welcomed, accepted and being held low expectations of faith-communities faith-communities. Participants spoke of accountable through close relationships and appeared unable to request help that how they struggled with life outside, did not with individuals within the faith-community. they badly needed. It is very difficult to live in ways they felt were compatible with They appreciated being able to be take individual responsibility for success continued involvement and did not want to honest about their ex-prisoner status in a without either the means to do so or the divulge these difficulties to the people they context in which this did not become too wherewithal to access assistance. With the knew in the faith-community because they prominent a feature of their persona. exception of some positive and strong felt embarrassed and feared rejection. relationships with volunteer mentors, re- These elements were emphasised less by incarcerated participants struggled to make Overcoming the barriers participants who were reoffending and pro-social connections with other individuals Between the difficulties of helplessness those who were re-incarcerated. What this and instead found belonging among street and hypermasculinity, ex-prisoners can be indicates is that the neediest ex-prisoners folk who were similarly stigmatised and a difficult group to befriend. However, the either were not finding these elements in socially excluded. ready and proven availability of help and the faith-communities they attended, or for support, should it be needed, appeared some reason they were not able to connect Barriers to joining a to go some way towards encouraging with them. A prison mentality was more faith-community ex-prisoners to overcome a preference evident in their accounts of life after prison. Barriers to continued involvement in faith- for self-reliance and the suppression of They struggled to open up to people and communities included practical matters problems. One participant, Octavio, said he bemoaned the lack of tangible help offered. such as a lack of transport, suitable clothing, had never asked his faith-community for

PERSPECTIVES 22 help and would rather not – but despite When I asked Joel what faith-communities Transforming rehabilitation – his reluctance he said he would if he really could do better to help ex-prisoners, he transforming communities needed to, because he was confident that explained why he thought such mistrust was In his study on how people leave a life help would be there: misguided. He said they should: of crime, Maruna found that a ‘significant other’ believing in the offender’s identity Q: Would you ask them? “Just accept you as the person you transformation was part of the desistance A: No are… You’ve got to trust God to process. He also argued, “if one knows Q: Why not? change my heart or do whatever. what personal myths seem most appealing A: I’ve got to do it myself. If I couldn’t do People don’t understand that and to desisting persons, one can better direct it myself then I would ask. they want to protect what they’ve the narrative reconstruction implicit in Q: Do you think they’d help? got instead of saying ‘this is what God the rehabilitative efforts” (Maruna, 2001). A: Yeah they would. They got this lady blessed you with, help somebody else’”. Where these ‘personal myths’ include an apartment for six months. They belief in the transformational power of a helped this travelling minister get a For Joel, a faith-community being God, but the very institutions dedicated to bus. They will break their back to help generous with material things was one this common belief demonstrate doubt in people. way of demonstrating ‘acceptance’ and this transformational power through not providing evidence of shared beliefs in a acting accordingly, they may struggle to Octavio’s faith-community had shown itself to God who could “change my heart or do be the ‘significant other’ that can buttress be what Bauman calls an ‘ethical community’, whatever”. The availability of tangible help narrative reconstruction during the initial one that could be trusted because it had was, therefore, not only about meeting precarious transition from incarceration. demonstrated how it would “break [its] back immediate needs, but about acknowledging Faith-communities that were more involved to help people”. For participants asking for worth through recognising personhood, with socially excluded groups appeared to help meant trusting their faith-communities; belief in redemption, and demonstrating have a deeper understanding of the vital role it involved a declaration of vulnerability and acceptance and belonging. The converse of social action as evidence of shared belief the need for assistance, and ex-prisoners, the of this was the perception that faith- in the potential for individual transformation. categorically untrusted, find it difficult to trust. communities that were unwilling to risk Ex-prisoners were more likely to remain in helping ex-prisoners did not believe in their faith-communities that could engage with In God we trust? essential humanity (do not “accept you as the practical aspects of their debilitated Participants often faced mistrust from the person you are”), and mistrusted the individual autonomy, because a lack of such faith-communities. Chris explained the lack identity transformation purported by the help indicated a lack of shared belief, and it of help for ex-prisoners in his wife’s church ex-prisoner (do not “trust God to change is the shared belief system that provides the on the basis that “they helped someone my heart”). To put it in Bauman’s terms, they basis for belonging in religious communities once, but he messed it up”. Chris went to a offered an aesthetic community – “the joy of and the satisfaction that comes from this different church. One minister told me that belonging without the discomfort of being (Lim and Putnam, 2010). If faith-communities his church no longer helped ex-prisoners bound” (Bauman, 2001). They welcomed ex- are merely forums for pro-social identity because they had once bought some prisoners to belong within their community, manifestation, they will struggle to overcome clothes for someone coming out of prison so long as it did not represent a cost to that the barriers that inhibit ex-prisoner but they “got burned” – the prisoner had community in terms of changing its shape or involvement. Communities that overcame taken the clothes but not attended church. taxing its resources. these difficulties responded to ex-prisoners who sought a forum in which to manifest the strength of their faith, through providing a community that showed solidarity in their weakness. Ro-buk on Flickr

One church that stood out as a faith- community that was very successful in reaching out to ex-prisoners was situated in the wealthiest neighbourhood in the city, but had a specific mission “to create a safe-harbour for the hurt, the lost and the seeking”. Its congregation was unusual in that it was mixed both in terms of race and socio-economic status. It had a distinct ‘recovery’ format to the service, which involved a time where congregants

PERSPECTIVES 23 contributed by voluntarily sharing things they were celebrating. The first time that I attended, one member of the congregation

stood up and celebrated the fact that even Wind on Flickr Éole though this week he had relapsed and used drugs again, he had called his friends within the community, got help, and wanted to celebrate the fact he was still in church and had now been clean again for five days. The congregation clapped and cheered his ‘success’. This was a church where people could fail and still belong. Six of the participants attended this church.

Conclusions In their normative theory of community intervention, Bazemore and Erbe suggest that community engagement with ex- prisoners is reciprocal and could increase collective efficacy through encouraging community engagement with issues of social justice (2003). My findings support this theory. Faith-communities where participants found it easier to get involved, to benefit from involvement and to stay an important role in supporting desistance. moral reform stance: speaking out against involved were those communities who Judaism, Christianity and Islam all emphasise criminal acts, crusading to transform manifested a commitment to each other respecting the dignity of every person and individual criminal lives and so on”, but through engaging theologically and practically reaching out to those in need. If faith- goes on to admonish that we should with the broader realities of their lives. communities are capacitated and permitted not forget the historical role of churches Grand claims have been made about the to work with people in prison, are pro- as moral agitators “who have targeted potential for faith-community involvement active in reaching out to ex-prisoners and activism not so much at personal moral with ex-prisoners to increase public safety responsive to the needs they find, they failures, but at society-wide ones” (Hercik, 2003) and reduce the risk of failure may be able to play a role in reducing (McRoberts, 2002). This kind of faith in in re-entry (Travis and Visher, 2005) but a reoffending. In my study, ex-prisoners action, could really ‘transform rehabilitation’ note of caution is appropriate. It has been coped responsibly where they were helped if it means that faith-communities shown that joining a faith-community and responsively. McRoberts acknowledges begin to agitate for the kind of societal later leaving is worse for re-entry outcomes that where crime is concerned, we might transformations that could actually and recidivism than never going at all (La expect faith-communities to “take a hard potentiate a rehabilitation revolution. Vigne, 2009). Where ex-prisoners pin their hopes on belonging among a group of like- Endnotes minded individuals whom they believe share Bazemore, G., and Erbe, C., 2003. “Operationalizing the Community Variable in Offender Reintegration: Theory and their faith, a pervading sense of isolation Practice for Developing Intervention Social Capital”. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 1(3), p. 246. and dislocation even in their midst is a bitter Hercik, J., 2003. Prisoner Re-entry, Religion and Research. Department of Health and Human Services USA. disappointment. If faith-communities are Johnson, B., 2008. “The Faith Factor and Prisoner Reentry”. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, 4 (5), p.1. to provide a “sacred safety net” for ex- La Vigne et al., 2009. Returning Home Study. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute. prisoners (McRoberts, 2002), they will Lim, C. and Putnam, R.D., 2010. “Religion, Social Networks and Life Satisfaction”. American Sociological Review, 75 (6), need to be adequately equipped for the p. 914–933. task because if they are not, they could Maruna, S., 2001. Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild their Lives. Washington, D.C.: American become part of the problem rather Psychological Association. than the solution. McRoberts, O., 2002. “Religion, Reform, Community: Examining the Idea of Church-based Prisoner Reentry”. Reentry Rountable. Washington D.C.: The Urban Institute. However, I am not without hope. If the Mears et al., 2006. “Faith-Based Efforts to Improve Prisoner Reentry: Assessing the Logic and Evidence”. Journal of ‘transforming rehabilitation’ agenda means Criminal Justice, 3, p.351. faith-communities become better equipped Petersilia, J., 2003. When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry. Oxford University Press. to support ex-prisoners, they could play Travis, J. and Visher, C. (eds.), 2005. Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America. Cambridge University Press.

PERSPECTIVES 24 Shared Interests: Shared Action Features Faith- and Community-Based Organisations in an Age of Austerity

By Dr Shana Cohen, Woolf Institute

During a discussion with the co-head of a local traders’ association in London,

I asked him how he felt about assuming Neil Moralee cc responsibility for supporting local businesses and other aspects of community life, sometimes in the place of local government. I added that some clergy I had spoken to felt that the government should pay greater attention to the cost of living rather than relying on food banks to feed people in crisis. He responded by saying, “Everyone has their remit… No one goes to church. So churches should provide shelter. They have all this space and the shelters themselves don’t have enough.”

lthough this comment was perhaps intended to be Aprovocative, it is notable that churches of many denominations have become more active in social action in the wake of austerity (Williams et al., 2012). Furthermore, this work has become phase, where a primary aspect of relations faith, secular, or multifaith organisations embedded as part of the identity and self- between faith-based actors, as well as with but they were all deliberately inclusive of understanding of a number of religious secular leaders and organisations, is to different faith communities and reflective groups. Speaking specifically about credit emphasise a common concern for social of shared motivation and values, even unions, the Archbishop of Canterbury justice. This phase builds upon decades of if the origin of these values was in a Justin Welby stated earlier this year: support for dialogue amongst policy makers different tradition. and religious leaders but also reflects “Our faith in Christ calls us to love the growing internal and external pressures, Theorising the achievement of justice, poor and vulnerable with our actions. such as radicalisation, shrinking membership, the economist Amartya Sen distinguishes That is why the Church must be actively and growing poverty alongside cuts in public between notions of justice that focus on involved in supporting the development benefits and services. binary outcomes (something being achieved of real lending alternatives, such as credit or not) and notions that are inclusive of unions. This is not an optional activity, but Drawing on ethnographic research process (2009). He writes that, “The role a fundamental part of our witness and amongst faith- and community-based of human agency cannot be obliterated by service to all God’s people.” organisations, I suggest that the practice and some exclusive focus on what happens only conceptualisation of interfaith relations are at the culmination”. As a result of increasing demand and increasingly directed at sustaining multifaith faith-based provision of social services, the communities by ensuring that freedom of Similar to Sen, in my research, local meaning and practice of interfaith religion and belief coincides with access representatives from across faiths and relations in highly diverse cities like London to material and social resources. In the from civic organisations perceived ‘agency’ or Manchester is moving into a new research, efforts could be made by single- amongst institutions and individuals as

PERSPECTIVES 25 know they will be dressed differently, so they hesitate. 70% of our service users are women with no skill base and network. But they can come here [to the David Woo on Flickr Woo David community centre] and feel comfortable.”

In the wake of widespread cuts and privatisation, ‘feeling comfortable’ mirrors a concern that under-resourced public institutions can lack attentiveness in their management and service delivery. This lack undermines both the purpose of public institutions as enhancing the common good and their more specific effectiveness in instigating the behavioural changes needed to overcome the problems they allegedly address (motivation to find a job, save money, look after their health, and so on). Instead, the perception across the different faith- and community-based Nearly 1 million people received emergency food from foodbanks in the last year organisations was that it had become their role, whether they wanted it or not, to pay inseparable from achieving just ‘outcomes’. community engagement. The director of a attention to individual needs, problems, Amongst the interviewees, the necessary project helping Orthodox Jewish men to and aspirations. ‘agency’ for achieving the desired find jobs discussed the reluctance of the outcomes (ostensibly by both public and government to alter the rules of Jobseekers’ This emphasis on the importance of community actors) was based on forming Allowance (JSA), to allow job seekers to individual needs in faith- and community- genuine relationships between public claim if they observed Shabbat: “We go to based organisations is not new. Indeed, institutions, faith- and community-based them to say that it is only in the winter for when I worked at a Christian organisation organisations, and individuals. The purpose a couple of Fridays, when the person will specialising in job placement almost fifteen of these relationships was to reveal the have to go home early. But they kick the years ago in Washington, D.C., one of needs and issues of specific communities issue into the long grass.” my co-workers, glancing at a middle-aged and encourage notions of personal man waiting to see her who had recently responsibility. The relationships, if genuine, More than a change in regulations, been released from prison, said, “He is would in turn enhance the social purpose of organisation staff like the director institutionalised. I can always tell. He can’t institutions and faith- and community-based wanted to reform how public institutions really adjust [to being out of prison]. But I organisations while increasing the dignity engaged with faith- and community-based want to talk to him. I want to be different and life possibilities of service users. organisations in order for both to achieve from Social Services because they treat Instead, though, clergy and community a greater overall impact. The director of a him like a number.” organisation staff in the research often Muslim community services organisation criticised the superficiality of relations similarly explained: “Health services Today in England, the concern for care between actors like the police, city council really need to have a faith element. The and attentiveness amongst faith- and and local government agencies (sometimes language needs to change… If you have community-based organisations, whether contracted out to private companies) and general services, they won’t be accessible. at a food bank or a credit union or faith- and community-based organisations. Orthodox Jews won’t use them for otherwise, has become more pronounced For example, a priest in Tottenham religious reasons and BME groups because because of budget cuts (Slay, 2013) and described his faith community’s relationship of language… They will get greater ‘buy-in’ a now entrenched managerial approach with police in the following terms: “When to their services [through working] with that focuses on quantitative measures of there is a particular reason for a meeting, rabbis and imams.” He described cultural productivity and evaluation (Clarke et it works very well. But a lot of this factors, as well as skills gaps as forming a al., 2000). The director of a credit union [interaction] seems to be about carving out barrier to job seekers in his community: based in North London told me that a a strange relationship that isn’t really there.” “With joblessness, it is not a special number of volunteers working there were language that is the issue but rather being also looking for a job. In response, a few Wanting more genuine relations with public comfortable in the environment they of the other volunteers were helping with institutions could also be concerned with are in. If they go to a standard class, they job placements out of their own time.

PERSPECTIVES 26 She added that by providing this service: government facilitation, shared funding existential meaning (from practicing a “We are picking up the pieces for local streams (e.g. Near Neighbours) faith or otherwise) with participating in agencies that are supposed to be helping overlapping volunteers, and the role of public institutions and secondly, collective with job placement. But the people come organisational networks. The directors responsibility to ensure opportunities exist back [from these agencies] demoralised, so of the Muslim community services for individuals to change their circumstances we have to do the job twice-over because organisation and the Jewish job placement and individual responsibility to pursue they need to be re-energised.” organisation who I interviewed in Bury these opportunities. knew each other through attending The director of a job placement agency the same government meetings. The Returning to Sen’s argument about the in Bury, who worked with the Muslim recognition of shared concerns and process of achieving justice, according to community services organisation cited greater power across faiths was also, in organisation staff interviewed, the answers above, made a similar case: because of the research, encouraging more multifaith to these questions have to combine the lack of employment opportunities, communication and collaboration. management of resources, shared belief there was a lack both of motivation and Referring to his participation in a post- in moral obligation and human potential, experience: “When I opened the office riot panel in Tottenham, a local priest and the “very wide boundaries” cited here, there was a massively big percentage explained: “It was great to talk to one of by one youth worker of inclusion. The of kids that were not motivated… These the local imams. We had quite a bit of fun priest in Tottenham stated: “It is good kids are coming out of school into this because, in some ways, we were coming that the Church is seen to have its doors big, wide world and haven’t got a clue from the same place. We talked about open. We are not a social club for the about interviews, appearance, and so on. similar issues.” This recognition of shared elect. One of the ‘givens’ is that we do And these aren’t just job interviews but interests also seemed to address intrafaith social action regardless of the belief of the also for college.” Career choices were divides; the director of social services at service user.” The motivation is as practical also not always informed: “They pick the Jewish care home mentioned meeting as it is moral for organisations because something easy, like hairdressing. Girls the director of an organisation serving the responsible financial behaviour helps credit pick it up without realising it takes a lot of ultra-Orthodox community at a similar unions survive and paying the bills helps hard work and courses like Maths, English meeting in Bury and being pleasantly maintain quality care for older relatives. and so on to do it. It is long hours with surprised by her comments: “For the For individuals as well, appreciating the rubbish money before you are qualified. first time, I have heard her mention that humanity of others, regardless of their The guys say they want to do catering the only way to get things done was social position or background, becomes a so go to work in a pub. They then do it through interfaith.” means to improve their own welfare. for a year and give up. Then they spend another couple of years ‘thinking’.” “interfaith relations are If this civic culture continues to develop, then it identifies interfaith relations with a If self-motivation to gain better knowledge potentially becoming different sort of agency than interreligious and skills represented the aspect of understanding. Instead, interfaith relations personal responsibility she focused on the catalyst for are potentially becoming the catalyst because of the need to place young people for articulating the social role of public, in jobs, other community-based workers articulating the social voluntary, and religious institutions and concentrated on aspects of responsibility role of institutions” organisations and the responsibilities related to their own work, such as better and rights, and thus political and social financial management, or becoming more significance, of individual citizens. These respectful and gaining more self-control. For the interviewees, though, the third relations promote the value and presence relationship with public institutions still of what Michael Sandel calls the ‘civic However, staff at organisations argued that remained under-developed. Its weakness, idea of freedom’, which occurs through better financial management, behaviour however, has left open the possibility for the engagement with others on an equal level or personal motivation was only possible evolution of a civic culture derived from the and with a collective valorisation of the through building relationships on an questions being asked about first, integrating public good. individual level. In the research, these relationships existed, although certainly not Further reading always, between faith- and community- based organisations and individuals. Clarke, J., Gewirtz, S. and McLaughlin, E. (eds.), 2000. New Managerialism, New Welfare? New York: SAGE. Sen, A., 2009. The Idea of Justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Relationships also existed between Slay, J. and Penny. J., 2013. Surviving Austerity. London: New Economics Foundation. organisations, or across faith and civic Williams, A., Cloke, P. and Thomas, S., 2012. “Co-constituting Neoliberalism: Faith-Based Organisations, Co-option, and groups. This was, in part, because of Resistance in the UK”, Environment and Planning, 44(6) p.1479–1501.

PERSPECTIVES 27 Faith at the Fringe?

By Mike Levy, Keystage Arts and Heritage Culture

Does the largest arts festival in the world have room for the spiritual or religious?

With over 3000 performances in nearly Trust Saltmine 200 venues on offer during its three-week annual run in August, I was excited to try and find out.

he Edinburgh Fringe began as just that, an amateur adjunct to the Tmain International Festival which was launched in Scotland’s capital city back in 1947. It was part of a post-war Britain that sought to provide a platform for the human spirit. What was not planned was the uninvited group of eight theatre companies that turned up to gatecrash the Edinburgh caption International Festival (EIF). These unofficial shows were outside the EIF’s organisation. One included a performance of the medieval morality play, Everyman, not in Edinburgh but 20 miles away in Dunfermline Cathedral.

The growth of the Fringe, since 1947, has been phenomenal. The 2014 programme is as thick as a telephone directory. The reason for the Fringe’s gargantuan size is that it remains an open-door festival. There is no John Newton, Amazing Grace quality control or theatrical jury to judge the worthiness of a new play or production. This John Newton, Amazing Grace was performed saved Amazing Grace to the powerful means that playwrights and performers can at the beautiful Church of Scotland place ending of the two-act play. The play did try out their ideas but on the understanding of worship in Palmerstone Place by the not duck religious argument including a that they may only attract the average Saltmine Trust, a Christian charity which powerful portrayal of Newton’s shipmate audience of the Fringe: six. according to Rachael Orrell, its CEO, Joe, a staunch Atheist. We were also “believes in the power of drama and seeks treated to one of Newton’s published A request to the Fringe Press Office to to be theatre with a message”. Their play sermons and his wrestling with an shortlist Fringe plays with a spiritual, ethical could not be more apt to this aim. Their increasingly troubled conscience. Looking or religious dimension came up with fewer five talented actors-cum-musicians told back on his life on the slave ships, Newton than 40 shows (less than 2% of the total). the powerful story of Newton’s life as an says, “It put bread on my table but could This may be a sign of the times – perhaps in 18th century slave trader who saw the light not feed my soul.” Newton was initially these grim political days, people need bread in Africa and was brought back to Christ. attracted by Evangelical dissenters but and circuses rather than serious discourse. He went on to assist Wilberforce in the persuaded into the Church of England Nonetheless, a few days at the Fringe threw anti-slave trade and become a noted writer by his devout wife Polly. Enlivened by up a few excellent (and some slightly less of hymns with his close friend William beautifully sung sea shanties and hymns, the good) shows that grappled with questions of Cowper. His most famous work was, of production successfully carried its message faith, religion and identity. course, the title of the play and the cast in a popular and endearing format.

PERSPECTIVES 28 A glance through the Fringe programme showed that the word ‘God’ appeared a half dozen times in the title of shows. God on Trial was a dramatic retelling of the story of Jewish male prisoners at Auschwitz who decide to put their Maker in the dock. The charge was that God had broken the covenant made to the Jewish people by allowing the Nazis to commit genocide. The prisoners put forward their arguments, raising fundamental questions concerning religion, morality, and the purpose of human existence.

The God Box was a gentler but no less affecting piece. A one-woman play written and performed by Mary Lou Quinlan (and her director Martha Wollner), it was a loving epitaph to Quinlan’s recently deceased mother and father. Beautifully No Guts, No Hearts, No Glory performed and assisted by subtle sound effects and images, she tells the story of a hard and like the characters they portray, There was no shortage of tear-inducing loving family but one that almost suffocated found their voice. They express their faith drama in Anka’s Story. This contemporary in its eternal optimism. Hers was ‘a family (and strong feelings of sisterhood for the ballet was devised and performed by a never allowed to be ill’ or for bad things Muslim victims in Gaza) while demanding group of young dancers from Cambridge. to happen. Though somewhat smothering, that they have the freedom to choose – With original music by another fellow it was a loving family that respected its whether to cover their hair or not, or to student, they tell the jaw-dropping story Catholic roots: “my mother had the saints determine their destinies. It was a noisy, of Anka Bergman, the Czech Jew who on speed dial”, Quinlan tells us. She had energetic piece of theatre that is likely to gave birth to a baby in Mauthausen a saint for every one of life’s challenges, create waves when it transfers to theatres in Concentration Camp, just a few days before though Mary Lou hardly remembers ever Manchester and Bradford. liberation. In a series of 14 short scenes, going to church. Her mother and father’s the dancers convey the tragic but in many slow decline and painful deaths are a Quieter but no less engaging was My Rabbi, ways heroic story of the survival of Anka terrible challenge but we are taken with her a two-hander written and performed by (and her daughter Eva). The ballet attracted on her own journey to acceptance of their Canadians, Kayvon Kelly and Joel Bernbaum. pretty full audiences and a five-star review loss. It is terribly moving and would bring They play former close college buddies, from a national newspaper. Among the tears to anyone who has lost a parent and heavily into booze, women and blokish many poignant scenes was a Shabbat candle is still yearning to hear their voice and have humour; they find each other after several lighting episode in which a Jewish family “one more hug”. years apart. Now one has become a is begged for bread by a cousin whose Reform rabbi, the other a devout Muslim. postcard has arrived from Auschwitz- Punches not hugs were on offer at No Guts, Can they restore their friendship amid Birkenau. A food parcel is duly sent but No Hearts, No Glory. This remarkable piece the stereotypes they have of each other? the cousin is dead well before it arrives; of theatre was set in a real boxing gym out Their different directions have cut a deep the whole thing was a heartless exercise on a distant council estate and featured five gash between faith and friendship; Israel/ in PR by the Nazis. Anka’s Story throws up young Muslim girls from Bradford. Never Palestine, resistance or terrorism, form an so many ethical issues around survival, the before on stage, the schoolgirls auditioned invisible separation wall in their old ties maintenance of culture in extreme adversity to take part in a touring show that asks but the deaths of their fathers have pushed and the warmth of human kindness in the them to don the gloves, train hard and learn them back together. What started as most bestial circumstances. the pugilistic arts. As they skip, spar, throw punchy comedy quickly turned to powerful air punches, run up and down and batter and provocative debate in which the To find out more about the Edinburgh the punch bags, they each reveal what it characters deepest fears of each other’s Fringe, please see: is to be an Asian Muslim young woman faiths were brought to the surface. https://www.edfringe.com in 2014. They tell of the opposition to When the Muslim friend commits suicide, their interest in boxing from their menfolk, the young rabbi is racked with guilt for For more information on Keystage Arts neighbours and parents. The actors, none allowing his prejudices to get in the way and Heritage, please see: of whom have boxed before, have trained of human interaction. www.keystage-company.co.uk

PERSPECTIVES 29 Culture Mortram was direct: heseekstoprovide Mortram When asked abouthismotivations, own homes, tellingtheirown stories. ofpeopleintheir and whiteportraiture in life”. The effect isstriking: boldblack meets: ways we“in thesamerandom do Marginalised voices and peoplethatsuffuseshiswork. him. Itisthissensitivitytobothplace his contextandwiththosearound re-engage himselfwithhiscreativity, Mortram begantheprojectto a degreeinfineart.Feelingisolated a full-timecarerforhismother,leaving returning tohishometownbecome lives. Mortrambeganthisprojectafter by theparaphernaliaoftheirdaily in theirownhomesandsurrounded his subjectsininteriorlocations,mostly internal lifeofitsresidents:shooting landscapes andexpectationstothe turns hiscameraawayfromfamiliar the Norfolkcountryside,Mortram town Dereham.Althoughlocatedin project basedinhisruralhome- Inertia, adocumentaryandportrait and bloggerbehind Jim Mortramisthephotographer By Alice Sandham&CarolinaGonzalez-Carvajal ofJimMortram the Photography fromaSmall Stories Town: PERSPECTIVES 30 R photograph thepeoplehe photograph or subjects, hechoosesto ather thanseekingoutpeople Small Town

mum”. AndIsaid“Iloveyou”.she“Yes,knowyoudo”. When wesaidgoodnightonthephoneshe“Goodbye,mydarling”. AndIsaid“Goodbye, David: listen andsee”. This communication has to do, isjust to “engage, communicate, he does, others andwhatheencourages that allofushave andthatwhat stories believes mainstream media”. Mortram peoples arepresentedwithinthe an imbalancetotheway marginalised voices heard” andindoingso, to “redress tohave their with littleornoopportunity tothoseinmy“a platform community “I livewiththenotionthatphotographs, stories, us bring “That wasthelasttimethatwereallyhadaconversation properconversation. closer together, apart” rather thandividingusfurther photographed and tolisten.photographed almost tositquietly withthe person it invites theviewer notjusttolook, but istheway qualityofhiswork A striking disability, bereavement, poverty, loneliness. with anumber oftaboos–mentalhealth, engages is oftenchallenging: Mortram one would hope, empathy”. This empathy “and thatisoneofunderstanding, and, mind:an intendeddestinationinMortram’s Jim Mortram

http://ow.ly/B4LPM http://ow.ly/B4ME6 Amy: “I went to see Dad in prison, I had not seen him for the longest time. When I got there I was angry with him, I didn’t want to talk to him. Then my Auntie gave us some time to like be together while she went to talk with one of the Prison wardens that’s in there. I just sat there talking to him about why he’s in there and what he’d done and asking him for the truth.”

Influences Mortram’s photographic influences are numerous: W. Eugene Smith, Don McCullin, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Brenda Ann Kenneally, Darcy Padilla, Eugene Richards; all of whom, Mortram believes, have had a huge impact on his “understandings of morality and empathy”. Notably, many people are reminded of the work of depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange. Mortram agrees that she was an inspiration: “One of the first documentary photographers I recall witnessing was Lange. I was still at Art School, facing what I felt would be another monotone, passionless lecture about contemporary art. I was pretty turned off by the money aspect, the business of art, so I’d left to walk around the city and, as one does from time to time, stumbled across an old book store where I found a book about the New Deal and depression era. Lange http://ow.ly/B7FEe was on the cover and had plates within, Simon: “Plans are so hard to make when you live in a constant state of fear, always at the mercy of I was stopped in my tracks, those images a seizure when least expected… There are some people out there that are really stupid with all they burned into me, felt closer to me than talk say about epileptics. I’ve had people put dog mess on my windows, banging on my windows and walls of millions of pounds for a canvas”. at night. I had my blinds down and I just took no notice.”

PERSPECTIVES 31 Words with images to attempt to control misunderstandings, this loneliness to be highly destructive: There is a distinct sensitivity to context in assumptions, judgements”. For Mortram, this “compounding mental illness, feeding or the format of his work: all of the images commitment is also informed by his life as acting as a catalyst for it to take root”, it in Small Town Inertia are accompanied a Carer: “It’s certainly taught me that it is exacerbates a sense of isolation in which by texts describing the situation of the not always my voice that is of most import, people feel that “no one is listening to person photographed, often in their own that you need to shut up and listen, to [them]… the effects are disastrous, it’s words (in this article you can read the appreciate and understand”. as though one were free, yet confined texts in full by following the link on the to solitary confinement, a prison without right hand side of each frame). Mortram Loneliness walls”. Austerity has compounded these says that his own personal experience By bringing themes of loneliness, poverty problems. Mortram sees it as a cruel and of isolation has meant that he is more and social exclusion to the fore, Small Town intended “twist” of the current economic sensitive than most to the dangers of Inertia challenges long-lived stereotypes crisis that systems designed to support misrepresentation: “Context, for sure, regarding rural communities. Isolation is a the most vulnerable are now “prone to is everything… in no way did I want to huge problem, Mortram says, “communities punish those within society that require set images adrift into circulation with no disintegrate, fracture, many are isolated the most help, the most care, and the explanation… photographs that people within their own home, yet feel content as most support” resulting in “the poor could bring their own assumptions to, or the TV is always on, constantly shaping a turning on themselves, blaming themselves their prejudices… their testimony is a way reality rather than reflecting it.” He believes for a failing system”. http://ow.ly/C431E Kirsty: “Mum had epilepsy and we moved house when I was very little, two years old and I think the stress was too much for her. She forgot to take her meds and was washing her hair in the bath, had a seizure and she drowned. All I really know about her was that she loved roses… Me and my brother used to go into foster care a lot because dad couldn’t cope with us because of his alcohol. One day I must have pissed him off and he passed me the house phone and said: ‘Ring the welfare people’ and I didn’t want to but he did it, just for me to go, mind you, not my brother. So, I went into care. That really messed me up, I was 14.”

PERSPECTIVES 32 http://ow.ly/C42QO Karen: “We have people on the dole who donate a loaf of bread every week and it’s helping them feel good, as though they can and are making a real difference to the people’s lives around them… It’s really all about normal people taking the chance, making the opportunity to care for the wider community around them, not relying on big companies to do something or, as is evidently the case, to not do anything about these things. It’s for people that can’t afford to donate money regularly to a charity.”

Reaching out people being handed soup at a stand in of doing what you can, where you can, Despite this, there are a number the Haymarket (a public meeting point with whatever is available in his subject of examples in Small Town Inertia of in the centre of Norwich); she says that matter: “We might and surely should people reaching out, offering support “their image stayed with me”. When she have contempt for the barbarous world or material help to those around them. got home, she discussed with friends events that we are so impotent to do One photoset documents The People’s “how hard it must be to go without food anything to resolve, but, we can have a Picnic: an informal grassroots collective on a regular basis” and decided “we were vast impact within our local community, that provides home-cooked meals to the going to do something about it”. our own street. Even if you just help a homeless and hungry of Norwich using neighbour, not for any other reason than ingredients donated by fellow residents. As with Mortram’s decision to take you’re able to, that’s a positive… this is Karen created the project with friends up photography after returning to what human beings can and should be after she noticed a group of homeless Dereham, there seems to be an ethos doing, being there for one another. ”

PERSPECTIVES 33 http://ow.ly/B7GMP Stuart: “My mother lived here by herself while I was overseas but she needed help… so I came back in 1999 to look after her. And then she died in 2003, in this house. I’ve more or less been here by myself for the last seven or eight years, something like that… When I get in it’s like an oasis but when I’m out it’s terrible. And I regard that road there as a catwalk. I hope I’m not being paranoid but every time I walk down that road everyone stares at me, and I find that horrible.”

Social media Listening doing so, provide vital insights into often This ethic can be seen in Mortram’s It is testament to Mortram’s work that his misunderstood, often misrepresented, chosen means of dissemination: social images never feel intrusive. As much as the situations. His images invite us to “enter media. It is moving to see how different viewer is taken aback by the vulnerability and listen”, in the hope that, by this people engage with the images on the of these stories, there is also a clear sense consideration and closeness, we might “see, Small Town Inertia blog; offering messages of the dignity of those who participate just as I have, to better understand, of encouragement and even practical help and the privileging of their voices over to better appreciate and ultimately find to those who are documented. Mortram the viewer’s own assumptions. It seems some commonality”. “After all” Mortram describes social media as vital to what essential to Mortram’s work that people concludes simply, “we all face the same he does: “without it, I’d only have the few who are accustomed to being reduced great dramas; talking about them, instead people around in the village to share my to one-word labels are instead allowed of burying them, is a far more healthy work. I’ve always looked at online life as to articulate their own stories and, in approach to life”. a total extension of ‘real’ life; it’s all about people, relationships and community”. The contrast between the intense interiority of the lives he photographs in comparison to the openness of their dissemination To see the full collection of images and read more about Jim Mortram’s work, please via social media is striking: Mortram in see: http://smalltowninertia.co.uk/. More information can also be found at the some ways acts as a representative or Aletheia Photo Collective, an independent collective of photojournalists covering under- interlocutor from one world to another. reported stories: http://aletheiaphotos.com/

PERSPECTIVES 34 The Book Shelf Culture Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

In each edition of Perspectives, a guest shares their favourite and most formative books. We hope this inspires us all to widen our reading, thinking and knowledge.

Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis is the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. He is only the 11th Chief Rabbi to take office since the office was introduced in 1704. Rabbi Mirvis was installed on 1 September 2013 in a historic ceremony attended by HRH The Prince of Wales, the first time that a member of the Royal Family has attended a service for the Installation of a Chief Rabbi.

Ernest Hemingway wrote, “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” I have been blessed, over the years, to have had many wonderful books as my ‘friends’ and they have become an integral part of my life. Here are just a few:

The Talmud The key lessons I draw from his epic To Turn the Many This is a predictable work for me to life story are that resilience, sincerity, to Righteousness, include. Nonetheless, I cannot overstate and conviction make good leaders great; Rabbi Joseph Hurwitz the significance of the contribution that the ultimate leader is one who moves This short book, which had a profound study of the Talmud has made to my life beyond consensus to courageously break impact on me when I was studying for and the lives of countless people over new ground; and it can sometimes take the Rabbinate, is the text of the final the ages. a long while, but the invincible nature sermon delivered by Rabbi Joseph of hope, decency and human dignity will Hurwitz prior to his death in 1919. The As the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, inevitably triumph. author, who was the head of an ascetic the Talmud, which includes the Mishna community in Novardok, Russia, issues and Gemara, explains and interprets the a rallying call for more educators to laws of the Torah and records the Oral Man’s Search for Meaning, reach out to those on the fringes of Law that accompanies it. It is the ultimate Viktor E. Frankl religion. Rabbi Hurwitz advocates a life encyclopedia of Jewish knowledge. First published in 1959, Frankl’s classic of deep humility coupled with altruistic Studying the Talmud does not come work is an all-in-one memoir, introduction devotion to the practical and spiritual easy – most of it is written in the ancient to logotherapy and deeply impactful needs of others. He encourages children Semitic dialect, Aramaic, which Talmudic guide to life. Chronicling his horrific to achieve proactive involvement in the students need to master in order struggle for survival during three years in community at the youngest possible to properly grasp the essence of its Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration age. He highlights the importance of teachings. Alongside the Torah, the Talmud camps, Frankl focuses on the “hard self-growth and development, while informs, guides and inspires me every day. fight for existence”. I have derived being totally committed to the growth these inspirational lessons from Frankl’s and development of others and he work: hope can triumph in the face of teaches that the welfare of others by far A Long Walk to Freedom, unimaginable loss; we can transcend supercedes any honour due to oneself. Nelson Mandela suffering through setting “the will to Having been born and brought up in meaning” as the basic motivation for Apartheid South Africa, Mandela’s human life; our response to human evil account of the experiences that helped must primarily consist not in talk and shape his destiny resonate deeply meditation, but in appropriate action; with me. Members of my family are and we need to endow our children mentioned in the book for the role with something to live for and not only they played in helping Mandela’s cause. something to live with.

PERSPECTIVES 35 Presenting Tales of Wisdom with Luqman Ali Culture In conversation with Trisha Kessler

Surrounded by books, overflowing with Did you ever long to just stay still? poetry and stories from around the No, because I found it all exciting. I always globe, I sit with Luqman Ali and begin seemed to be on the road. My father a journey into philosophy, spirituality, was an artist, an artisan jeweller who was dreams and a hopeful vision. With friends, passionate about working for himself and Luqman founded the Khayaal Theatre I often travelled with him as he was selling Company in 1997, a professional theatre his works at arts and craft fairs all over the company committed to representing Eastern seaboard. We also moved where a rich repository of stories, wisdom the work was available so we lived in and humour from Muslim communities Washington, D.C., Georgia as well as Texas. around the world. His work is pioneering I was mostly home-educated so there was and provides an interface between British flexibility. The only time I spent in formal theatre and classical Muslim literature, schooling was a couple of years at a US with contemporary relevance. public high school, where I experienced theatre for the first time.

I would like to begin by exploring Living and studying in such disparate those influences that helped shape places must have placed you in the your passion for theatre and heart of vibrant communities with their storytelling. Having travelled and studied so much own cultural heritage… I had an unusual childhood, one that from an early age, I presume you I was very fortunate that the community encouraged travel at a young age to study spent a great deal of time studying in that I grew up in was a very mixed and in different countries and cultures. I am a cross-generational settings and among cosmopolitan community with many second generation African-American of different cultures? international connections. There was always parents who embraced Islam in the late I think this was a critical part of my a movement of people coming back and 1960s, at a time when Islam was fairly new childhood and significant for me in terms forth – Europeans, Africans, Arabs, Pakistanis, to African-American communities. Studying of development. When I started studying Iranians, Native-Americans. Because of this new faith was integral to the way we Arabic I was with students of all ages, the this, I was exposed to people of many lived in a passionate convert household. majority adult, and that was pretty much nationalities who all brought stories with My father was a founder member of what how it was throughout my education. I them, shared them and had honed their was (at the time) a significant African- guess I was of a precocious nature where craft, so I listened and imbibed it all. American Muslim organisation on the East it didn’t matter to me, as I thrived in Coast of the US, the Islamic Party, and in that environment. However, it was only after experiencing my upbringing, I was exposed to a new theatre at school that I began to understand and developing Muslim community. As their Moving to Pakistan was significant as it was the connection between storytelling and first-born, they sought many opportunities my first experience of a foreign country and theatre. Having been exposed to oral for me to study Islam and Arabic, as well non-American culture as well as my first stories of different cultural and faith origins as the traditional Islamic sciences. I began foreign language. Although I started learning – Pakistani, Persian as well as Jewish and my studies in Arabic at the age of four to read and write Arabic when I was very Muslim, I saw how theatre could work with and moved to Pakistan when I was eleven young, I had little experience of speaking it. I these stories to communicate inclusivity. At years old to study philosophy, Islamic law also needed to be conversant in both Urdu the end of my studies in Farsi in Isfahan, I and Arabic, as well as Urdu and Punjabi, and Punjabi to get around; immersing myself chose to write a play instead of a thesis and followed by further studies in the US, the in these languages and cultures laid the although this was not a traditional route, it UK, and Iran where I learnt Farsi. foundations for the work I do now. was successful. At that point, I realised that

PERSPECTIVES 36 Souk Stories by Khayaal this was something I wanted to do within It seemed to me that there was a need have no problem with a virtues based the Muslim community: to develop theatre for a rebalancing through an embrace discourse but many of those with no faith, and storytelling from the wide repository of of narratives of wisdom and virtue, as especially on the liberal end, tend to have inclusive stories across the Muslim world as expressed by our poets, such as Rumi, who reservations about it because they find the a cultural art form, which serves to educate celebrated inclusivity. Stories and poems word ‘virtue’ loaded with sacred/religious and empower the audience. from across the Muslim world can offer connotations. narratives, which counter an increasing What was your vision for the Khayaal susceptibility to radicalism and extremism How easy was it to establish the Theatre Company? that, at present, offers increasing numbers theatre in the UK? When I came back to the UK in the of Muslims a stronger narrative. So many I began working with Muslim youth early 1990s, I was aware that the media of our stories can guide us towards an organisations in the early 1990s and, portrayed Islam in a very negative light and, interaction and dialogue with wider society although I argued the case for theatre and as a consequence, the Muslim community and rather than seeing ourselves through storytelling, I didn’t get very far. Theatre was feeling vulnerable. As it struggled to competing and conflicting identities, as a cultural medium struggles to find a respond, a number of us in the community let us engage in stories of inclusivity place within the Muslim community and were conscious of a much deeper problem: and universality. the idea of performing tales from the that of an imbalance towards dogma and depth and breadth of the Muslim world doctrine, at the expense of stories and You speak of virtue, although it is an on the stage seemed strange to many. In dreams. We felt that the Muslim community underused word these days. Can you fact, there is no other theatre company had failed to nurture and develop its explain a little more your thoughts on that does what we do in a consistent and cultural heritage in the form of perceived the concept of virtues? dedicated manner. wisdom from stories and dreams and I see virtues as those traces of the divine instead had focused on doctrine, dogma and breath, as a result of which Genesis says Khayaal1 came out of the inspiration of legalities. This was not exceptional to the UK that we are created in God’s image. a number of different people and places. Muslim community but a challenge facing Generosity, courage, patience, fortitude, We were actors, designers and writers many Muslim communities across the world. magnanimity, prudence are all reflections of who were involved in or re-embracing Stories, which once nourished communities virtue. For me, the dream of virtue is about Islam and, therefore, wanted to use our and offered an inclusive worldview, were re-valorising these virtues with currency skills to share our cultural heritage with no longer appreciated and understood for in our modern world. In order to do that, our audiences. I was coming from a much what they could offer. In many ways, science we’ll need to tell ourselves virtue-laden more philosophical point of view and and technology had become the currency stories. The challenge is how can we speak bringing my interests in the Humanities of knowledge in the community at the about virtue in an increasingly secular expense of stories, and, in a wider sense, environment where there is a preference 1 Khayaal means both ‘imagination’ and ‘shadow’ the humanities. for values. I have found that people of faith in Arabic.

PERSPECTIVES 37 as well as Islamic Studies to bear on the What do you hope your impact understand as devotional work is something company. Our first production was called has been? new and they do not expect to find the Conference of the Birds in 1998. It was On a conceptual level, we hope that our something contemporary within it. Working a piece of literature, which we were drawn work in some way, has helped the Muslim with young people is a key part of our work to because it had had some prior exposure community in the UK to rebalance itself. and we see it as preparatory work for a through the theatre director, Peter Despite our size and the challenges facing future vision in which many more people Brook, who had taken it to Africa. We us, our works have actually had a wide from the Muslim community are engaging in produced it on a shoestring with a cast of impact in the UK and overseas. We have the arts. We have just finished working with thirteen from a mixture of backgrounds, had requests from all over the world to over 900 children between the ages of six nationalities and faiths. It ran for two weeks help mentor others and to establish similar and eleven at the Living Islam Festival where at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill Gate and theatre companies. I like to think, and in fact we introduced them to drama workshops. sold out. Naively, we thought the company we have evidence to the fact, that we have would be embraced and supported and inspired a lot of new thinking and offered Our plan for a larger production is exciting. understood for what it was – but it wasn’t. a different path into the Arts, away from We are looking at the story of coffee and Although people appreciated it, we still extremism. Before we did our first play, want to tell the story in a way that hasn’t struggled to get funding, as there were many could not even imagine that Muslim been told in theatre before, certainly in the virtually no Muslim grantmakers for the literature and British theatre could actually way we intend to tell it. By focusing on the arts. We had to rethink, realising that we meet and converge. This very synthesis controversy of coffee in the 17th century needed to work on a grassroots level and integration that we exemplify is the and juxtaposing it with the controversy of to introduce the concept of theatre as a message in many ways. coffee in the Muslim world between the cultural and educational arena and tool 15th and 17th centuries, we want to draw within the Muslim community. What are the particular challenges you out interesting parallels with contemporary face in developing the work of discussions about the Muslim presence in And so your next productions were the theatre? Britain. The discourse in the 17th century was working within the community itself? Funding is always a challenge for us. In terms dominated by the distrust of coffee and how Our work has two strands. One is working of demand, we could reach an audience its introduction to society was a conspiracy with stories and tales as they are told on of 30,000 people a year but in reality, by Muslims. Equally interesting is how, for the paper and page, performed as period because of limited resources, we can reach 250 years, Muslims debated about whether adaptations with the addition of theatrical about 20% of this number. Whilst we have coffee was lawful (religiously permissible) direction. We also take the kernel of huge demands for our work from schools, or not and arguments sometimes ended in some traditional work and adapt it for a colleges, festivals etc., there remains a violence and chaos. The reflection of this contemporary setting, which is evident in failure in the Muslim community to invest story on contemporary discussions about two of our productions, Hearts and Minds in culture. I am always saying to Muslim the challenges of modernity is particularly and Sun and Wind. audiences that there have been three places striking. In the end, coffee was integrated of convergence in British society – the into society and contributed hugely to the Sun and Wind is based on the story of what church, the pub and the theatre. It is hugely development of the city of London. became known as the ‘White Widow’, important to engage in the theatre as a which portrays a woman who is coming medium, for it was through theatre that Talking to Luqman, it becomes clear that to terms with the reality that her husband the audience first imagined the ‘other’ in its storytelling is integral to both the way was a suicide bomber and the impact of representations of Muslims and Jews. we perceive our world and how we live this on both her and their son. Produced with each other. And as I thanked him for with a Muslim community organisation What are you working on at the his time – he added one further hope, after the 7/7 bombings in London, it is moment and have you any future plans to revisit the Conference of the Birds and both a reflective and spiritual piece. It is a for further productions? work with artists of other faiths, to take a powerful play, which was performed for We are presently running a workshop for Jewish journey and a Christian journey of four or five years all over the country, for a young people in Woking focusing on three quest and to produce an integrated piece wide range of audiences. Hearts and Minds poems from different culturally linguistic of work, which celebrates commonalities was different as it was targeting 12–16 traditions, Urdu, Punjabi and Arabic. They on the quest of self-realisation. He grins year olds, exploring issues of identity and are poems of devotion to Allah or to and says that some of his friends think he the challenges young Muslims face in the Prophet, offering guidance on virtues is delusional and a dreamer. I think he is society. Again, it played to wide audiences and ethics. An Elder sings each poem in inspirational. in schools and communities and was also a traditional style, and all participants are taken up by both the Police Force and asked to produce dramatic responses to For more information on the Khayaal Central Government Departments as a the pieces. This can be quite challenging Theatre Company, please see: training tool. as the concept of dramatising what they http://www.khayaal.co.uk

PERSPECTIVES 38 Roohi exchange a few letters and keep hope alive. Love and poetry flourish in Book Review the few spaces that are left between The Book of Gold Leaves the spreading fear and harsh realities of Culture life under occupation. After such a long By Mirza Waheed period of waiting with such excruciating patience, their marriage seems (and feels Reviewed by Dr Manali Desai, Department of Sociology, to them) almost anticlimactic. Under University of Cambridge occupation, Shia-Sunni differences seem irrelevant; both families agree to the The Book of Gold Leaves is a beautiful, vivid wedding but it is to be done without much novel about love, waiting and resistance ceremony or display. Thus Roohi and Faiz in the blood-soaked terrain of Kashmir are eventually united. valley during the 1990s. Faiz, the young artist and protagonist of the novel, takes Waheed’s writing is at its strongest when a long journey from his uncertain, almost he portrays the growing resistance within shy demeanour to a confident soldier who the community, and in particular, the seeks to avenge the violence that has slowly anger and steel will of its young girls and engulfed his world. When the violence, women. Waheed describes a “quietly in a double and brutal twist touches the angry” head girl, Shireen Shah, who slips a woman he loves, it would seem that only photocopy of her essay “Not All Uniforms one resolution is possible. Set against the are Welcome in Schools” under the backdrop of the Indian army’s invasion Major’s door. Meanwhile, School Principal of Kashmir, the novel allows us to see Shanta Kaul, for whom Major Kumar how violence leaves no one, not even the harbours a secret desire, bluntly asks him: perpetrator, untouched. Although at one “Please don’t misunderstand me, but have level a story of love and waiting, Waheed you ever considered going back?” reveals the casual brutality of occupying violence, its seeping quality, and its power The army doesn’t go back. Instead, there to destroy intimate worlds. night, he walks away from home to join is deep infiltration in the community the resistance fighters leaving behind the which comes back to haunt the central The novel begins with an evocative safety of his family, and Roohi. characters of the novel. In the end, description of Faiz’s papier-mâché artwork Roohi’s family is destroyed by a single which he crafts in solitude. Along this The novel is so evocative because its sense act of unwitting betrayal, and there is work which he does for a living, he is of impending doom emerges so gradually no turning back. The refusal to allow a busy painting a masterpiece in secrecy. and imperceptibly. The bulk of the novel decent burial for a valued member of the The brushstrokes and colours are lovingly charts this journey, both an individual one community has fatal consequences. depicted, almost in harmony with the and a collective one that the people of lush and beautiful landscape of Kashmir. Kashmir, caught between the occupying The novel is a deeply passionate A shy, young boy who lacked interest in army and militants, were forced into. The but ultimately dark portrayal of the the formal rigours of schooling, Faiz, a jolt from the warmth and intimacies of consequences of occupation. The Sunni Muslim, falls in love with Roohi, a daily life into a world in which violence disruption of everyday intimacy, and Shia. The novel describes the slow, shy becomes a way of life – to be avoided, yet its resilience in the face of everyday courtship of two utterly devoted young encountered, resisted, mourned, and militarisation is beautifully rendered. people in brief glimpses, reflecting the feared – is palpable. These small and large solidarities, and furtive, stolen moments they share in fear betrayals, render the characters in this of disapproval from their families. In the final part of the novel, Faiz’s return novel – and in the wider landscape of to his village and his beloved family Kashmir – human in the face of crushing Rather quickly, this reverie is disrupted and Roohi is described with a sense of violence deployed by faceless commands by an act of violence in which Faiz’s urgency. The dangerous return, and the from above with a relentless logic seeks godmother, Faaté, is killed along with possibility of being found and killed are to, but cannot destroy the people who are several schoolchildren. This is the ever-present, darkening what should have in its way. moment at which Faiz, gripped by fear been the culmination of a long period of and rage at witnessing the killing, makes waiting. Through the long, cold winter The Book of Gold Leaves is published an uncharacteristically bold decision. One months when they were apart, Faiz and by Penguin, ISBN: 9780241968109

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Students Visiting Fellows Rodrigo Garcia- Commerce. This year, Diane completed Ana Echevarria Velasco: PhD student an MA in Middle Eastern Politics and Ana Echevarria will Rodrigo Garcia-Velasco Economics at the Centre for Near and join the Institute from was granted the Woolf Middle Eastern Studies at the Phillips- April to May 2015. She Noticeboard Institute Cambridge University Marburg. Here she undertook is a Senior Lecturer of Scholarship. His PhD introductory studies in political science Medieval History in project, which is supervised by Professor and region-specific research and continued the Department of Medieval History and David Abulafia, and co-supervised by Dr her language training in Arabic, Hebrew Palaeography at the Universidad Nacional de Esther-Miriam Wagner, will focus on the and French. Educación a Distancia in Madrid. She is also formation of frontier communities in Spain the Review Editor of the journal Medieval during the period of Christian expansion Diane comments: “Understanding Muslim- Encounters (Brill), devoted to issues of over the previously Muslim-dominated Jewish relations in an area where religion interreligious contacts. Her field of research is territories of al-Andalus, between the has a high influence on daily politics the relations between Christianity and Islam eleventh and thirteenth centuries. By has been my motivation to apply for in the Iberian Peninsula, with an emphasis examining a series of understudied the University of Cambridge MPhil in on issues such as polemics, conversion and documentary sources, he will explore the Middle Eastern Studies (Specialisation: the situation of religious minorities under strategies employed by the Christian settlers Muslim-Jewish Relations). I am hoping to Christian or Muslim rule, depending on the to accommodate the heterogeneous concentrate my research on the Jewish century. She is organising a conference for Muslim, Jewish and Arabised Christian population in Tunisia; their role during the 23 – 24 April 2015, together with Nora autochthonous peoples. recent transformation processes and their Berend (History), on an Arabic Collection position in society during and after the of Canon Laws (known as al-Qawānin, in Rodrigo studied at international schools in revolution. I am very much looking forward Arabic, kept at the Monastery of El Escorial Spain, where he first developed his interest to beginning my work, knowing I will be Royal Library, Spain), composed around for interfaith questions, before moving to able to rely on the vast opportunities 1050 C.E., which is a compilation and England to study his undergraduate degree and resources the Woolf Institute is translation of the Latin versions of Visigothic in History at the University of Oxford. offering in this area.” canon laws enforced in the Iberian Peninsula Rodrigo’s interest in both the Christian from 600 to 700, and transmitted thereafter and Islamic medieval Mediterranean Asmaa Zein Rimawi: under both Christian and Islamic rule. subsequently led him to undertake an MPhil student MSt in Medieval History at Oxford, before Asmaa Zein Rimawi is Hanan Hammad completing an MA in Near and Middle undertaking the MPhil Hanan Hammad will join Eastern Studies at SOAS, London. in Middle Eastern the Institute from May Studies (Specialisation: to July 2015. Hanan is Diane Schumann: Muslim-Jewish Relations). After spending an assistant professor MPhil student her undergraduate years studying the of history of the Diane Schumann is a relationship between medicine and law Middle East at Texas Christian University. student on the MPhil in medieval Muslim societies, her senior Her primary research focuses on the in Middle Eastern thesis – a project on infertility treatments socioeconomic and cultural development Studies (Specialisation: in these early societies – encouraged of the modern Middle East with special Muslim-Jewish Relations). She began her her to explore the influence of science emphasis on gender, sexuality and popular Bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Studies on religious law in other monotheistic culture in modern Egypt. She is currently at the University of Bayreuth, which she religions, primarily Judaism. During her writing a book on the late Egyptian starlet completed as a dual degree in cooperation MPhil studies, Asmaa plans to shift her Layla Murad (1918 – 1995). Murad, who with the University of Chester. Her focus from the pre-modern to the has been one of the most remembered dissertation explored how English and modern, and specifically, to the Middle celebrities in 20th century Arab musical German students perceived the country East after the First World War. She hopes cinema, was born Jewish and announced of Lebanon as a tourist destination. After to explore the impact of the dissolution her conversion to Islam in 1948. She studying Arabic, she spent three months and reconstruction of the Middle East prematurely retired in the mid-1950s, in Cairo undertaking an internship at on desires for statehood, as well as the against the backdrop of the Arab-Israeli the press and media department at the influence of various forms of nationalisms conflict and the consolidation of power of German-Arab Chamber of Industry and on these movements. the Nasser regime shortly thereafter.

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MSt DISSERTATIONS A SELECTION OF RECENT AND FORTHCOMING STAFF The following MSt dissertations are graphic novels, focusing principally on PUBLICATIONS now available to borrow from the Woolf G. Delisle’s Jerusalem, S. Glidden’s How Institute. They are a valuable resource to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, Dr Gorazd Andrejc˘, ‘Wittgenstein’, for further study and cover a diversity and H. Pekar’s Not the Israel My Parents in F. Sleap and O. Sener (eds.), of subjects and disciplines. A full list can Promised Me. Dialogue Theories II (London: be found in the Cambridge Theological A critical analysis of recent developments Dialogue Society, 2015). Federation Library Catalogue: in the Anglican Good Friday liturgy http://affint-newton.lib.cam.ac.uk. relevant to Jewish-Christian Relations. To borrow a dissertation, please contact Dr Gorazd Andrejc˘, Wittgenstein and Interfaith Disagreement: A the Office Manager, Tina Steiner: A critical analysis of the reception of [email protected], +44 (0)1223 741 048. Philosophical and Theological Simon Wiesenthal’s Sunflower with Perspective (Palgrave MacMillan: particular attention to its significance The utility of Novak’s notion of forthcoming in 2016). natural law as a ‘border concept’ for Jewish-Christian Relations. between Judaism and Christianity for A critical analysis of the representation Dr Shana Cohen, ‘The Politics of ethical co-operation between Jews of the assimilated Jew in British popular Social Action in Morocco’, Middle and Christians. A critical analysis. culture: Robert Henriques. A case study. East – Topics and Arguments, Special A critical comparison of the religious/ Issue on the Middle Class, 2 (2014), From mission to dialogue. The Verein scriptural motivation of Jews and 74 – 82. der Freunde Israels in Basel as a critical Christians in social justice initiatives case study. working with European Gypsies, Dr Shana Cohen, ‘Grasping the Travellers, and Roma. ‘Under the Fatherhood of God and the Social Impact of Global Social Brotherhood of Man’: a thematic analysis Policy: How Neo-liberal Policies A critical analysis of early eighteenth- of Children to Palestine’s cinematic Have Influenced Social Action in century Irish conversionist pamphlets. endorsement of Israel in Postwar America Morocco’ in Alexandra Kaasch and A critical analysis of perceptions through the films Tomorrow’s a Wonderful Paul Stubbs (eds.), Transformations of the Holy Land in contemporary Day (1949) and The Magnetic Tide (1950). in Global and Regional Social Policies (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 175 – 200.

ONLINE RESOURCES Dr Edward Kessler, Jesus: the Man The Woolf Institute is proud to offer Playing and Praying? Sport and who Changed the World (Stroud: a wide range of online audio visual Religion in Britain Today The History Press, 2015). recordings of lectures, interviews, and https://vimeo.com/111398791 course sessions. Please visit the website Dr EM Wagner and Dr Dotan to watch and listen again: Muslim-Jewish Relations Panel Series: Arad, Wisdom and Greatness in One http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/ Exploring Identity Place: the 15th Century. Alexandrian resources/audio-visual.asp https://vimeo.com/89908737 Trader Moses Ben Judah and his Circle (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). Assessing the Impact of Interfaith RECENT HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: Dialogue, with Adam Dinham and Dr EM Wagner, Dr Yousef Meri Taking Difference Seriously: A Toby Howarth and Dr Camilla Adang, ‘A Matter Transatlantic Education Conference https://vimeo.com/88755940 of Script? Arabic and Judeo-Arabic https://vimeo.com/100425158 Muslim-Jewish Relations Panel Series: in the Genizah Collections’ in Muslim-Jewish Relations Panel Series: The World of Commerce and Trade Muslim-Jewish Relations in Past and Cultural Interactions https://vimeo.com/79871383 Present: a Kaleidoscopic View (Leiden: https://vimeo.com/95384755 Brill, forthcoming).

PERSPECTIVES 41 COURSES

Online Short Courses Bridging the Great Divide: the Applications accepted throughout the year Jewish-Muslim Encounter The Online Short Courses offer a unique opportunity to engage in An e-learning programme: the study of relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims within an 12 January – 26 April 2015 e-learning environment. The course fee is £95. The fee includes online access to the course and the course materials, individual tutor support and This fifteen-week course is taught in feedback, and a Woolf Institute Certificate of Completion. partnership with the School of International Current courses: Service at the American University in Is Interfaith Dialogue Important? Washington. In this course, participants explore the meaning of ‘interfaith dialogue’, The course explores the history, culture especially in the context of Abrahamic faiths, as well as learning about and theology of Muslims and Jews, reflecting different perspectives as to its contemporary relevance. both on similarities and differences as well Shakespeare and the Jewish-Christian Encounter: Beyond The Merchant as the major challenges. Assisted by leading of Venice scholars in Europe and the US with a wealth This course focuses on the Jewish-Christian encounter as portrayed within of experience in the field, the course will also the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Participants will view offer strategies for building bridges between the texts and characters in various formats including the plays themselves, the communities. the graphic novel and on canvas. The course fee for Woolf Institute students is Jewish-Christian Relations in the English Novel £465. Bursaries are available. The deadline for Engaging with texts from five nineteenth-century authors, participants the submission of applications is 5 December will explore a number of key issues that reflect the relations between the 2014. Late applicants should contact Dr Emma Jewish and Christian characters. Harris directly: [email protected]

studying For further information: For further information:

lf relations http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/study/e-learning/ http://www.woolf.cam. between short-courses.asp ac.uk/study/e-learning/ Jews Christians mj.asp nstitute

woo i & Muslims

MPhil in Middle Eastern Studies Woolf Institute Cambridge Scholarships (Specialisation: Muslim-Jewish Relations) PhD scholarships for students interested in Jewish-Christian- The MPhil degree programme, established by the Faculty Muslim relations. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES), University The Woolf Institute, in partnership with the Cambridge of Cambridge, consists of three papers, each assessed Commonwealth, European and International Trust, offers the by an examination or a 5,000-word essay, and a 15,000- Woolf Institute Cambridge Scholarships. Each scholarship will word dissertation. cover the full cost of studying for a PhD at the University of Cambridge, and will be tenable at any of the thirty-one Applicants are required to apply to the University by Cambridge Colleges. the published application deadline (see FAMES website: http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/). Applicants are required to apply to the University by the published scholarship application deadline (2 December 2014). Depending on the number and quality of the applicants, Applicants are encouraged to contact the Woolf Institute the Woolf Institute will offer one bursary (£9,000) or two prior to submitting their application to discuss whether their bursaries (£4,500 each) to contribute to the fees. If applying research proposal is relevant to the Institute’s focus. for a bursary, submit your application by 2 December 2014. For further information: Contact Dr Esther- http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/ Miriam Wagner: study/postgraduate/phd.asp [email protected]

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studying

lf relations between Jews ChrPERSPECTIVES 43 istians nstitute

woo i & Muslims Highlights Calendar

Muslim-Jewish Relations Islam and Judaism in Film and Art in Panel Series European Politics Israel-Palestine Following a successful first year, the Muslim-Jewish Relations Panel Series Muslim-Jewish Relations Panel Series Woolf Institute is delighted to continue George Joffe (University of Yael Friedman (University of the series of open panel events Cambridge), Atif Imtiaz (Cambridge Southampton); Stefanie Van de examining themes in Muslim-Jewish Muslim College) Peer (University of Stirling), Gabriel Relations in 2014/15. Held in 18 November 2014, 17.00, Varghese (University of Exeter) collaboration with the Faculty of Asian Room 119, The Alison Richard 10 February 2015, 17.00, and Middle Eastern Studies, University Building, Cambridge. Rooms 8 – 9, Faculty of Asian and of Cambridge, these events explore Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES), historical and contemporary Jews, Christians and Muslims: Cambridge. dimensions of Muslim-Jewish Relations Minority Transformations and and showcase original research. the Crossing of Boundaries Addressing Extremism: Edward Kessler What Works? Themes include: 20 November 2014, 19.00, Shiraz Maher (King’s College • Islam and Judaism in European Politics Leeds Trinity University, London), plus speaker, tbc. • Film and Art in Israel-Palestine Conference Suite. 12 February 2015, • Modern Jewish and Islamic Philosophy Seminar Room, Faculty of Sociology, Is Interfaith Dead? Life in Cambridge. the Age of Global Religions Trust Panel Series Edward Kessler Minorities in The Woolf Institute is hosting a 2 December 2014, 17.00, Contact Conference series of panel discussions in 2015/16 Keble College, Oxford. Convenors: Ana Echevarria, examining the theme of trust. The Nora Berend panel series, chaired by Lord Ian Blair 50th Anniversary 23 – 24 April 2015, – former Metropolitan Police Nostra Aetate Westminster College, Cambridge. Commissioner – will explore trust Edward Kessler in three different contexts: Trust in 15 January 2015, Modern Jewish and Public Life, Trust in Religion, and Trust University of Vienna. Islamic Philosophy in Business. Muslim-Jewish Relations Panel Series Trust in Public Life Moshe Behar (University of The first panel, Trust in Public Life, will Trust Panel Series Manchester), tbc. be held at the House of Lords on 21 Lord Paul Bew (Chair of the 12 May 2015, 17.00, January 2015 in front of an invited Committee on Standards in Public Rooms 8 – 9, Faculty of Asian and audience of 40–50. The second panel, Life), Baroness Ruth Deech (Chair Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES), Trust in Religion, will be held in summer of the Bar Standards Board), and Cambridge. 2015, and the final Panel,Trust in Camila Batmanghelidjh (Founder of Business, will take place in the City in Kids Company) Ludwig Wittgenstein and 2015/16. The panel series has 21 January 2015, Interreligious Communication developed out of the Woolf Institute House of Lords (closed event). Convenor: Gorazd Andrejc˘ research project Intelligent Trust and 24 – 25 June 2015, discussions will reflect the project’s Etty by Susan Stein Westminster College, Cambridge. preliminary findings. Theatre performance 28 January 2015, Great Saint Mary’s Church, Cambridge. Woolf Institute 12 – 14 Grange Road Cambridge CB3 9DU United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1223 741 048

Reg Charity No. 1069589 For full event details, please see: www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/events www.woolf.cam.ac.uk [email protected] or scan the QR code with your mobile

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