Thought for the Day, 10 November 2009

Indarjit Singh

When a building is demolished in a city redevelopment, we see the surrounding streets and structures in a new light. It was, as we were reminded yesterday, the same with the demolition of the Berlin wall when East and West Europe saw each other for the first time for decades, as fellow human beings with similar aspirations and concerns.

On Thursday of this week, some of us will meet at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in London, to launch the first national interfaith week in England and Wales.The idea is to break down barriers of suspicion and prejudice in the hope this will enable us to see sister faiths in a more positive light.

It's a move central to Sikhism. Some 400 years ago, Guru Arjan the fifth Guru of the Sikhs included some Hindu and Muslim verses in our holy scriptures the Guru Granth Sahib, in an effort to show that our different faiths, while different in some beliefs and practices, have much in common. In another move, the Guru asked asked a Muslim saint to lay the foundation stone for the historic Sikh Golden Temple at Amritsar to show Sikh respect for the teachings of Islam.

Unfortunately, history has shown that attempts to increase tolerance and understanding are sometimes met with hostility and persecution. Two of the Sikh Gurus lost their lives in their attempt to build bridges between different faiths.

Today, there are still some who would like to see such barriers maintained and strengthened by claiming an exclusive franchise with God, that God is on their side, ; while dismissing others as heathens, infidels or kaffirs. Such people are entitled to their view. My objection is that this is not the best way to win friends and influence people in our shrinking and interdependent world where harmony and respect between our different faiths, and between religions and those in wider society is now more important than ever before.

My hope for Interfaith Week is that it will move us from the usual polite exchange of pleasantries, to actually looking to ways of replacing, what I believe to be false barriers of misunderstanding and prejudice that divide our different religions, with sympathetic understanding and true respect for different ways of life. Demolition of false barriers of belief are every bit as important as removing physical structures that seek to perpetuate political division.