George Gispert-Sauch S.J.

With a long experience in the field Dr Ataulat Siddiqui gave a lecture in the Hall of the Vidyajyoti Faculty, Delhi, on “Muslim-Christian Relations in the West” on November 5^th, 2009. Focussing mostly on the historical development of the relations between both communities in the U.K., he spoke of three different periods:

1. Migration of  Muslims from Arabic-speaking countries and Turkey, started the 19^th century, concentrated in Liverpool. The migrants assimilated British cultural forms, but maintained the Islamic faith. The churches did help solve this problem of space for worship and community life.

2. From 1947 the migration was mostly from South Asia, and was initially a migration of temporary workers whose hearts remained in their home countries. The churches used the experience of retired missionaries in Britain to mediate an understanding of Islamic culture and religion to the civil society.

3. From 1976, after the Festival of Islam, attitudes improved. In the mid-eighties formal dialogue were initiated in Leicester and other places, dialogue about the concrete problems both communities faced with a reflection on what they could contribute to solving them. Mosque and Church began to meet at this level, and at the social level and even in sports. This created a much needed atmosphere of trust.

Dialogue consists of both telling and listening: we often fail to listen what the other says. The roots of our fears of the other are the memories of the past (’conversion’, ‘colonization’, ‘terrorism’…). We need to exorcise them and uproot the fears, before we can become co-witnesses of the faith in God to a world sliding into atheistic materialism. The document “A Common Word between You and Us” is valuable, but remains a document of intellectuals. Centred in the love of God, it must spell out that  such love demands justice.

Dr Desiderio Pinto chaired the session.

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