Recent terrorist outrages remind us that we still have a lot to learn about the way religion can be manipulated to justify the killing of innocents.
For some, what sometimes passes for religion is in fact a complex mix of superstition, rituals, culture and group history. Ethical teachings are extremely easy to state, but difficult to live by, and in practice sometimes greater emphasis is placed on culture, rituals and a perversely unifying belief that God favours one faith over that of others.
This belief has led to barriers between our different faiths and a naive belief that the Creator has favourites and takes sides regardless of merit. As Guru Nanak reminded us, the one God of us all is not in the least bit interested in our different religious labels, but in what we do to serve our fellow beings.
Bigotry is often found in religious texts where hostility was countered with reciprocal hostility.
Assumed superiority leads some to believe that God looks favourably on those who kill and murder in His name, and to horrendous crimes and savagery not only between faiths, but within the same faith.
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Today, despite the lip service to interfaith understanding, there is virtually no dialogue between faiths to explore and understand their different religious teachings.
I have been a member of the government-funded Inter Faith Network of the UK (IFN) since it was founded in 1987, and of other bodies committed to religious dialogue. Meetings rarely go beyond pious statements and academic discussions on safe peripheral concerns. The one taboo is exploring the teachings of sister faiths.
Religious leaders come together, deplore the violence in the world, share tea and samosas, and then go back to their congregations to stress the exclusivity of their teachings.
I find this a great pity. Understanding different faiths will help us to recognise ignorance that easily offends. I once attended a meeting of the Three Faiths Forum where Christians, Jews and Muslims were talking in a superior way about the three monotheistic faiths. The opening line of Sikh scriptures is: “There is one God of all humanity.”
We need to be bold enough to break down false barriers of superiority between our different faiths to understand that we often share common teachings. In doing this, we will also find negative cultural practices such as discrimination against women and others. Looking afresh at religion in this way is not easy. It requires religious leaders to declare that oppressive cultural attitudes and historical enmities embedded in religious texts have no relevance to the world of today.
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Secular society, which sometimes shows an aloof superiority to religion, should also encourage more open dialogue. With the best of intentions, we skirt around questionable beliefs and practices by using camouflage words to address symptoms, rather than looking to the underlying causes of violence and hate. Words such as “Islamists” (insulting to Muslims), “radicalised”, “extremist” or “fundamentalist” are loaded euphemisms, devoid of real meaning. The absurdity of such language is illustrated by a visit to my home by two Scotland Yard officers early one Sunday morning in the mid-1980s after I had spoken out against, now proven, Indian government involvement in mob violence against Sikhs. I was asked
if I was an extremist or a moderate. I said that I was “extremely moderate”. Confused, they then asked if I was a fundamentalist. I replied: “Well, I believe in the fundamentals of Sikh teachings, like the equality of all human beings, gender equality, concern for the less fortunate. Yes, I suppose I am a fundamentalist.”
If religions presume to tell us how we should live, they must be open to discussion and challenge. The same openness will help to bring valuable underlying ethical guidance, the essence of true religion, back to the fore in helping us all to work for a better, fairer and safer world.
Lord Singh of Wimbledon is a journalist, broadcaster and crossbench peer