Author: regan

Introduction Happy Valentine’s Day everyone and thanks to Lord Wei and Jubilee Plus for having me. It’s a year to the day since I went to the Vatican. To say clearly that Britain does do God. And that Europe should be proud of its Christian heritage. Some said that arguing for Christianity at the Vatican was like taking tea to china. They were right: last Valentine’s Day was one big pro-faith love-in. With the largest ministerial delegation ever to visit the Vatican. Further strengthening the UK’s bond with the Holy See. Do good There is one big reason why I made the case for faith that day. Why I continue to do so in my role as Minister for Faith at home… And why, as a Foreign Office Minister, I have made freedom of religion and belief a priority… And that’s because people who do God do good. In other words, very often faith is the basis for good deeds. It influences, it inspires, it impels at every turn. We may see the manifestation of faith as a crucifix around a neck, or a spire on a skyline – which of course it is. But too often we overlook the practical manifestation of faith. The mother and toddlers’ groups, the school assemblies, the fundraiser days, the 98 million hours churchgoers spend volunteering each year. For me, that’s the most powerful manifestation of faith: The collective demonstration of people’s individual beliefs. Church Social Action Survey And here we are today with the proof before us. I must congratulate Jubilee Plus for pulling this research together. And showing that the hours donated by church volunteers have increased by 36% in the last 2 years. That each church in this country delivers, on average, 8 social initiatives in our communities. With more diversity in the projects delivered and 74% of them self-funding. This signifies what a crucial role faith communities play. And it reminds for of something the ever-wise Lord Indarjit Singh said to me: That faith reaches areas of need that government cannot. Which is what churches, synagogues, temples and mosques have been doing since time immemorial. Our approach Under this government you have a Minister for Faith – the first ever such position. And a government which gives faith a seat at the Cabinet table. Not a privileged position but that of an equal informer in the debate. Ladies and gentlemen, in this government we split our approach to faith into 3 clear categories: First, faith for faith’s sake – supporting everyone in their right to follow a faith. Second, tackling intolerance – cracking down on hatred and bigotry against those who follow a faith. And third, faith-based social action – championing and supporting those whose faith motivates them to do good works. Together in Service Let me take the last point first. We have shown with our Near Neighbours programme, which has delivered 400 faith-based social action projects through inner cities… …that working together, using the networks of faith communities, we can make a big difference. And we relied upon these networks during A Year of Service, which marked Her Majesty the Queen’s 60 years of service to our nation… …by helping and promoting small projects, often uniting different faiths, throughout the country. So today it gives me enormous pleasure to announce that we will be building on that, by launching a joined up faith-based social action initiative for the next 3 years. We are calling the programme Together in Service. It will continue the calendar-based model of different faiths taking it in turn, one each month, to highlight all the work that it does and encourage new volunteering efforts. There will also be a Together in Service Fellowship of willing volunteers around the country, and a grants scheme to kick-start new multi faith projects. We will shortly be launching a competition to identify an organisation to lead the programme. And I know you will be as excited as I am about this opportunity. Conclusion However big or small the state is at any one time. And whatever colour of government we have in at any one time. I believe there will always be a place for faith. It’s why we must value it. It’s why we must support it. And it’s why we must celebrate it. Thank you once again for having me.

Baroness Warsi with His Holiness Pope Tawadros II <:figcaption> Your Majesties, your excellencies, it is a pleasure to speak at this OIC Heads of State meeting – and a privilege that I’m the first British Government Minister to do so. I am delighted to be here in Egypt, which among many other things is the home of Al Azhar, the ‘Manaratul ‘Ilm’ for many Muslims across the world. I was deeply honoured to have met his Eminence the Shaykh Al Azhar yesterday and His Holiness Pope Tawadros II today. The invitation to speak here is a clear demonstration of the strengthening bonds between the OIC and the UK. I am grateful to our hosts, Egypt, who have of course taken over the OIC’s presidency this year. I said at the meeting of OIC Foreign Ministers in Kazakhstan in 2011 that we in Britain are deeply committed to building our relationships with the Muslim world. I am particularly pleased that we were able to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the OIC at the UN General Assembly in September. This would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of His Excellency Secretary-General Ihsanoglu – whom I am sure you will agree has steered the OIC towards being a relevant and important player on international issues, and whom I personally consider to be a friend. Freedom of Religion or Belief We have heard today about many important issues. But I want to focus on one. One which threads into so much of what we have discussed. One which is in itself a challenge, but that if we get right, will unlock solutions to so many other challenges we face. That issue is Freedom of Religion or Belief. Islamophobia Now, I know that the OIC has for many years been concerned about the scourge of Islamophobia, or anti-Muslim hatred, and other hate speech. As a practising British Muslim, as a proud member of a minority faith in a majority Christian nation, and as a Government Minister, I am also deeply concerned about this issue. But concern alone will not bridge divides. The question is, how do we address this scourge? How do we defeat it? I believe that the answer is to tackle religious intolerance head-on where and when it occurs, and to protect the rights of all in society. UK experience In the UK we have sought to do exactly that. We legislate against incitement to hatred on the basis of religion or belief, be it behaviour that is anti-Muslim or intolerant of any other religion or belief. But legislation is not the only answer. While incitement to religious hatred remains an offence in Britain, a blasphemy law once on our statute book was abolished in 2008 – in part because we felt it was incompatible with the freedom of speech. To truly achieve societies that are founded on tolerance and acceptance, on love and understanding, we need more than just legislation. We need to nurture these values, to engrain them into the way we look at the world. There are no short-cuts here. It requires patience and time, sometimes a generation or two. So in the UK we are seeking to combat negative media stereotypes… To develop resources for teachers…To support victims……and to improve hate crime reporting. Building a pluralistic society But it’s not just about dealing with incidents when they arise. If we want to truly defeat this scourge we must put in place the building blocks that support a pluralistic society based on tolerance and inclusion. A society where respect for the right to Freedom of Religion or Belief is universal. One in which people are free to make the basic choices of how they decide to live their daily lives. Those choices might include whether to be guided by one faith or another, or no faith at all…Whether to go to a church, a mosque or a temple…Whether to wear a cross around their neck, or to cover their head with a hijab or a kippah…Whether to read the Bible, the Torah or the Quran……or to send their child to a religious school or keep a religiously-proscribed diet. In short, this is all about real life. It is about the choices that people across the world, myself included, make every day. Over the past two years, people across this region have taken to the streets calling for dignity, for freedom, for jobs…demand for basic rights. And of these, the Freedom of Religion or Belief is absolutely fundamental; a universal right for all. And yet people across the world are still denied this basic freedom. They can be victimised or unfairly imprisoned simply for having a religion or belief, and some pay with their lives. For me, being a Muslim is about humanity. I believe that human rights underpin Islamic values, and that those rights are not limited to a specific religious belief or ethnic grouping. This is what motivates me to speak as passionately as I do about the rights of Christians, Jews and others of faith, or indeed of no faith – as I do about the rights of fellow Muslims. The basic duty of governments is to provide security for their people. That responsibility can have no exceptions. So if there is just one message that I hope you will take back from my contribution, it is the universality of Freedom of Religion or Belief. Your Excellencies, some peddle the notion that people of different faiths and beliefs cannot co-exist peacefully, with respect for each other’s views. This misguided notion is held in the West, as it is in the East. Some use political ideology to justify this viewpoint…others use extremist religious views. But I reject that notion. I reject it because history tells us otherwise, and I reject it because of my own experience. The UK’s culture of tolerance The UK is by no means perfect. But I am proud of its culture of religious tolerance; of its position as a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious state. It is a country in which people have traditionally been confident of their nation’s Christian heritage and cultural identity. That confidence, together with a history of freedom of speech, has I believe made Britons open to the identities and religions of others. So yes, I accept that there are challenges in tackling this problem, and that overcoming them is not easy. But I have seen through my own experience that in Britain we are rising to them. Consider this simple question: in how many other countries could someone like me, the daughter of a poor Muslim immigrant, rise to a seat at the Government Cabinet table? I believe that we can build consensus and lead efforts to influence cultural norms in our countries in support of religious tolerance. Tolerance between religions, but also tolerance within religions. UNHRC Resolution 16/18 and the January Ministerial And the foundation has already been laid. UN Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18 on combating religious intolerance, now under the umbrella of the Istanbul process, provides a strong basis from which to work. UN member states have all jointly signed up to a call to action to implement the resolution. But what we need is greater political will. Since the meeting in Istanbul in 2011, the discussions and debates on this agenda had only taken place within UN fora or among experts. I felt that we needed to go further. Two weeks ago I hosted a high-level meeting in London on this very issue. I was delighted that His Excellency Secretary-General Ihsanoglu was able to join us, along with Ministers from Canada, Pakistan, the United States and representatives from a wide spread of other countries. I hope that the discussions we had in London will be the beginning of this dialogue. A dialogue in which we speak with confidence and openness, learning from one another and sharing best practice about how we have tackled these issues in our own countries. I am grateful that His Excellency the Secretary-General has agreed to host the next meeting as part of the Istanbul process. This is important, because an honest, open and frank dialogue on Freedom of Religion or Belief and tackling religious intolerance is something we must sustain. Conclusion Your Excellencies, we live in an interconnected world; one in which we can communicate more quickly and over greater distances than we have ever been able to in our history. I believe that it is outdated to view this world through the prism of Christians in the West and Muslims in the East. This is simplistic and historically untrue. Solutions that accept the reality of the pluralistic nature of our nations – long-term solutions – may well be led by Christians in the East and Muslims in the West. By people of faith across the world. Because, like the OIC, I don’t accept that religion is constrained by national boundaries. We need to continue to span these boundaries, to build a better future for our people. It is why as a Muslim from the West, representing the United Kingdom, it is a pleasure and a privilege to be invited to speak and be allowed to play a small part in reaching out to better understanding.

It’s nearly 2 years to the day since I made that speech about Islamophobia. At the time I talked about the scourge of anti-Muslim hatred. From violence on the streets to vitriol online. And, dare I say it, derogatory comments at the dinner table… When I said that Islamophobia had ‘passed the dinner table test’. I meant anti-Muslim sentiment had become so socially acceptable, it could be found even in the most civilised of settings. I got a fair amount of stick for making that statement. There were those who denied the problem existed. There were those who said talking about it was dangerous. But let me tell you what’s really dangerous: It’s when people are treated differently because they hold a different religious belief. It’s when a country turns a blind eye towards that discrimination. And it’s when we allow a perception of a people to become so entrenched that extremists are able to capitalise on it. Because any form of prejudice, bigotry or discrimination is wrong. It’s unBritish. And our desire, our duty and our passion to tackle intolerance is what brings us together tonight. Statistics Let’s look at the situation today: The Association of Chief Police Officers has, for the first time, started to disaggregate the hate crimes reported to police in 2011. And early indications are that 50 to 60% of reported religious hate crimes were anti-Muslim. I don’t need to give you story after story about the mosque that’s been attacked or the women who have had their headscarf ripped from their heads, or abused for wearing religious dress, or the discrimination in the job market or the online abuse. MAMA can do that. These are the problems they record and the people they support every day. Reporting incidents and recording them, as MAMA does, is crucial to tackling this problem. Not only does the data start to show the extent of the problem. It also tells agencies where support is needed. It shows policy makers and authorities where intervention is required. But it’s early days. The data we have is limited. We need more detailed and consistent and accurate statistics. So it’s down to everyone to do their bit to identify anti-Muslim hatred and log it. That’s why, last year, Eric Pickles and I wrote to every mosque registered with the Charity Commission asking them to help to record anti-Muslim incidents. It’s why this government supports MAMA and the True Vision website for reporting hate crime. It’s why we have ensured the police record hate crimes based on the 5 strands of equality. And it’s why we are committed to doing whatever we can about the unacceptable scourge of anti-religious hatred. Perception of Muslims But today I want to focus on a problem that is particularly concerning. Something which I believe is paving the way for anti-Muslim hatred: The negative perception of Muslims. An underlying, unfounded mistrust. A misinformed suspicion of people who follow Islam. It’s not anti-Muslim hatred itself but it can all too quickly create the conditions for prejudice to become accepted in our society. Research by the excellent Dr Matthew Goodwin and Dr Chris Allen lifts the lid on this, showing attitudes towards Britain’s Muslims. Look at their recent polling – indicative data from a recent online YouGov survey. Just 23% of people said that Islam was NOT a threat to Western civilisation. And only a mere 24% thought Muslims were compatible with the British way of life – with nearly half of people disagreeing that Muslims were compatible. Perhaps most disturbingly, nearly half of people polled thought there would be a clash of civilisations between and Muslims and other Britons. This echoes previous research by Clive Field, whose polls suggested that up to one-fifth of adults were ‘strongly Islamophobic’. My fear is this: that seeing one community as the ‘other’ is a slippery slope. That it will enable extremists to advance their twisted interests unchecked. And I don’t have to remind anyone what happens when an unfounded suspicion of one people can escalate into unspeakable horror. Myth busting Now it’s our duty to counteract this perception of Muslims. To those who say that there is a conflict of being loyal to Britain and a Muslim, you have to look no further than Mohamed Farah. Our national hero is a practising Muslim. The double gold medallist saw no conflict between crossing the finish line in the Union Flag and dropping to the ground in prayer. In fact, he showed how seamlessly religion and patriotism can go together. He made that point when he curtly told one interviewer ‘look mate, I’m British’. In fact, British Muslims actually express a stronger affinity with the UK than their non-Muslim counterparts. As one survey revealed, 83% of Muslims said they were proud to be British, compared to 79% of Britons overall. And far from being anti-British as some, particularly the far-right, would have you believe. Thousands of Muslims from the Commonwealth fought alongside the Allies in both the world wars. These patriots fought and died for the freedoms we all enjoy today. People like my 2 grandfathers who fought for this country long before my parents came to its shores. And you will therefore understand why I will not take lessons on loyalty from those on the extreme right. Who demonstrate the ideology of intolerance – the very fascism that my grandparents fought all those years ago. So it is our duty to demonstrate our shared history. And that’s something I’m particularly committed to doing in the build up to the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Of course, there are lots of misconceptions about all religions. There will always be those who manipulate and distort religion for their own ends. And there will always be those who give these people a platform. So they can peddle hate and present the ugly face of faith distorted. What I most object to is when people present the worst interpretation of a faith and compare it to the best characteristics of a nation. And from that deduce that the faith and the nation are incompatible. That’s what’s being done in some quarters, and it’s feeding into this negative perception of the religion of Islam. In 2011, the Prime Minister talked about those who ignore this distinction between Islam and Islamist extremism. About those who argue that Islam and the West are irreconcilable – a clash of civilisations. These people, he said, fuel Islamaphobia. And we, like David Cameron, should completely reject their argument. Media Sadly, much of this negative narrative is being perpetuated by certain sections of the media. Research by Dr Chris Allen shows that 74% of people claim that they know ‘nothing or next to nothing about Islam’. While 64% say what they do know is solely acquired through the media! His research shows not just the surge in stories about Muslims after 9/11 but the enormous weighting towards negative stories. Lord Justice Leveson’s report event revealed journalists were encouraged to make up stories about Muslims. And concluded that the unbalanced reporting of ethnic minorities was endemic. But there is good news. We have an excellent – albeit small cohort – of people who are willing to discuss this issue. People like Peter Oborne, Mehdi Hasan, Ian Birrell, Oliver Wright and others. Journalists and editors who are willing to devote their column inches to this issue. And I know many have been brave in covering this story today. Conclusion So 2 years ago I spoke about anti-Muslim hatred and was told it didn’t exist. Two years on, I want us to take stock. So we can look at the problem and look at what needs to be done. So we can celebrate the work being done by journalists, by agencies like MAMA, by academics, by police and by politicians. And where we all vow to come together to tackle this scourge. I have often said that an attack on a church is an attack on a gurdwara, or a mosque, or a synagogue. Likewise, I believe an attack on a Muslim is an attack on a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu or a Sikh. An attack on one faith is an attack on all faiths. And an attack on faith is an attack on freedom. And I sincerely wish that on the issue of this hatred, anti-Muslim hatred, it wasn’t me taking on this mantle. It would be a more powerful message from a non-Muslim, someone for whom this is not personally painful. The fact is that everyone should have an interest in this issue. It’s not just a matter for Muslims or a matter for people of faith. It’s a matter for everyone who cares about Britain being the modern, equal, fair society that we want it to be. After all, anti-Muslim hatred is a form of prejudice. And there should be no place in Britain for this prejudice. I believe things can be better. I think more can be achieved and I know we can lead on this issue. As a Foreign Office Minister I know we are respected the world over for our robust stance against hate crime. Our religious freedoms are the envy of the globe. Let’s strengthen that reputation by proving that we once again can rise to the challenge and stamp out this new and rising form of prejudice.