The Three Faiths Forum was set up ten years ago in an attempt to bridge the differences between the three Abrahamic religions and to encourage warmer relations between Jews, Muslims and Christians. Today dozens of interfaith groups are attempting to promote the dialogue. But rarely have relations between the faiths been as tense or the need to allay suspicions as pressing.
The forum, the idea of Sir Sigmund Sternberg, aims to encourage “friendship, goodwill and understanding” between the faiths, and works with local, national and international religious leaders.
Within Britain it has been particularly successful at fostering links between Christian, Jewish and Muslim professionals, doctors and lawyers in particular, who hold meetings, arrange joint discussions on the role of faith in professional life. The forum has also arranged twinning — or tripling — links between churches, synagogues and mosques.
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At international level it has been active in trying to intervene in conflicts fuelled by religious differences, especially in the Middle East. In Turkey, for example, where tensions between the majority Muslims and proselytising by the small number of Christians have led to violent incidents, the forum is hoping to arrange seminars and discussion groups to promote the kind of tolerance that will be essential to Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.
At the professional level, and in small groups, such ecumenical initiatives can boast success. What is more difficult is to halt the growing hostility at street level, and especially the widening rifts between Jews and Muslims and Christians and Muslims.
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Since the 9/11 attacks, and particularly in Britain after the bombings in London in 2005, public hostility to Islam is rising, while Islamist extremists have distributed pamphlets and tapes that are openly anti-Semitic. Interfaith dialogue has become an important plank of government policy to counter the appeal to young, disaffected British Muslims of extremist preachers. Outreach programmes in urban centres with large Muslim populations have been set up. Christian clergy have been co-opted to promote joint social programmes. And recent guidance by Muslim groups on the proper running of mosques lays an obligation on all Muslim communities to engage in interfaith dialogue at local level.
The forum is co-ordinated by Sternberg and, until his death earlier this month, Sidney Shipton, who have been active in ensuring that there is a Jewish voice in such efforts to counter extremism. Both have attended meetings at Regent’s Park mosque, have spoken at meetings of Muslim professional groups or given support to events such as Muslim Awareness Week.
They also underline the importance of promoting tolerance and understanding at school level, concentrating especially on faith schools where pupils are confronted with questions about their beliefs and such issues as the appropriate role of beauty, modesty and clothing.
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The forum runs a series of workshops for schools, intended to complement religious education of citizenship programmes. Called “Tools4Trialogue”, the four sessions include panel discussions, textual readings and cultural events led by representatives of each of the three religions.
“A lot of the banter you hear about other religions is based on ignorance,” said Shipton. “Islamist extremists have never met a Jew, and imagine only stereotypes. Once you have formed a link, worked together in dialogue or on a project, things change. This is the best kind of interfaith.”
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The forum was born of its founders’ conviction that Islam, the largest minority faith in Britain, must be included in the longstanding dialogue between Christianity and Judaism. The Council of Christians and Jews was unwilling to bring in Islam, and so the Three Faiths Forum was set up with its three pillars represented by Sternberg, the Rev Dr Marcus Braybrooke and the late Dr Zaki Badawi, whose sudden death in 2006 has left it without a strong Muslim component.
Dr Badawi’s widow carried on his work until her death, and the forum is now hoping that another senior British Muslim will join them. Until then, there is, inevitably, a glaring gap.
Recently it has sought a more global approach, asking embassies in London to host conferences on relations between faiths and the role of religion in diplomacy today. And last week it launched the Undergraduate ParliaMentors Programme, an initiative to nurture future politicians and community leaders from the three Abrahamic faiths. Nine MPs from all three major parties will each mentor a group of three students — one Christian, one Jewish and one Muslim, meeting with them monthly.
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As with all such programmes, funding is always a limitation. Much of the forum’s budget is underwritten by Sternberg. Recently the forum has attracted money for specific projects — the Home Office and the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund gave a grant last year to launch a youth and education department, known as 3ff.
But if funding is short, enthusiasm is not. Sternberg, now 86 and still attending the World Economic Forum summits in Davos — which he persuaded some years ago to include faith leaders — is determined that the Three Faiths Forum will play a role in bringing out the common links of the Abrahamic faiths and reducing the friction between faiths that have, over the centuries, been at war with each other as much as they have lived in peace.
How you can get involved:
The Forum puts out regular bulletins on its work and recent activities. These can be found at: www.threefaithsforum.org.uk . Those interested in the Forum’s youth division can find further details at: www.3ff.org.uk
Other organisations promoting inter-faith dialogue are:
St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace (www.stethelburgas.org ) and the Cambridge Interfaith Programme (www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/cip /)