The Necessity of Interfaith Action in the Age of World Wars: A Muslim Perspective
(William Temple Lecture 3rd March 2025)
By Dr Amineh Hoti
I had the honour to be invited to speak to the William Temple Association in Bournemouth, UK, a Muslim speaker to a Christian audience. William Temple was the archbishop of Canterbury and an important figure in British history: he inspired the social welfare system in England (free healthcare and schools) because he believed that Christianity should be about social justice and about including all people, especially the underprivileged and poor. One of the leaders of the association had read about me in the Church Times and reached out to me. I agreed to speak and engage. Here are some of the raw thoughts I shared boldly with the distinguished, largely white, elderly English audience without holding back.
As a social scientist and an anthropologist, my ideas and conclusions are derived from three major research projects: my research across nine European countries in a research project called Journey into Europe led by Ambassador Akbar S Ahmed, my book Gems and Jewels based on the ten religious communities of South Asia, Pakistan, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Baha’is, Parsis, Sikhs, Kalasha, Jains, etc. and my PhD at the University of Cambridge on Pukhtun women from Muslim societies in South Asia, called: Sorrow and Joy Among Muslim Women: The Pukhtuns of Northern Pakistan (2006).
Our one shared World is shaken by extinction-level calamities and diseases like global warming, Covid, followed by fighting, wars, and bombing in and of Ukraine, the Middle East: Gaza, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and so forth, with the entire world watching live on social media. The wider world threatens to become involved and seems to itch to press its fingers on its nuclear weapons of mass destruction: America and North Korea, Russia and so forth. While climate change threatens human existence, diseases that kill human beings in masses, bombing human life on earth breaks all rules of war, killing human beings in masses, destroying the earth’s thin crust, polluting the air, and killing all living beings including children, women, elderly, and animals: cats, birds and other life, apart from disregarding all laws of human rights and God’s firm voice in the Talmud and the Qur’an to love, respect and save every single life.
Add to this, layers of painful collective human memory of each religious community’s trauma: the trauma of beloved young Jesus Christ, teaching compassion, love and mercy, standing boldly facing up to one of the most cruellest and oppressive regimes of world history and being punished in the most meanest ways. The trauma of Holocaust survivors and their descendants is still painfully alive in the collective memory of humanity, the Jewish community hold the pain of being persecuted throughout time, culminating in the worst experience when Hitler gassed, killed and destroyed all Jewish life. I witnessed and felt this pain and cried in my visit to Dachau in our research project, Journey into Europe.
For Muslims, who are facing the brunt of genocide and have been and are victims of the horrible term “ethnic cleansing” (in Gaza, in Bosnia, and many other parts of the world), it is a crime against humanity in itself. It is also triggering as it feeds into the starving of children from water and food and killing the males of the family of the holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in Karbala; the gruesome details make communities cry in trauma to this day as they re-live those painful moments every single year. Every cruel oppressive ruler is Yazid, and every injustice is Karbala. In each of these cases, the voices and heroes of gentility, compassion, humility stand firm against the powers of injustice, hate and destruction. This is no easy task, and many such brave people often lose their lives in advocating their point of view articulately to arrogant, mighty, power-hungry rulers. The pain of the Muslim community’s tragedy in Karbala clashes with the pain of the Jewish community’s persecution during the holocaust – and pain upon pain makes for a toxic agnatic relationship based in rivalry and hate.
Pope Francis has called what our world today is in: a Third World War. He called for brotherhood or Fratelli Tutti. Like Pope Franics’ calling, I am inspired by Archbishop William Temple who was known for his humanism and his work for the greater good of humanity. He is celebrated for his belief that Christianity has to be about social justice and care for those inside and outside “our community”: a world-wide brotherhood who acknowledge and recognize each other.
These figures call for brotherhood and humanity, is this then interfaith?
Interfaith - what is it?
What do you all think interfaith is?
Is interfaith genuine curiosity to learn to know about “the other” with respect, kindness and goodness despite what the media says about “them”? Would you say the definition of interfaith is a coming together of people of faiths and none in a respectful way to increase deeper understanding and ideally cooperation for the greater good of humanity and the world community?
It is ideally: To see the best in others and other faiths. Not to see the best in your own and measure that against the worst of “theirs”. But to meet the best of your faith with the best of theirs in friendship, kindness, hospitality, humility, and genuine goodness.
Interfaith, without action, is like fluff, it is no good, as is faith without action. That is not adequate belief. Belief or imaan with etiquette or adab is intrinsically interlinked. It is about reaching out in a hospitable, kind manner to work towards dialogue, sharing, working together, building relations
Why is interfaith important? Coming together can build friendships and alliances, it can build understanding, break down stereotypes and misunderstandings, it can build compassion, love, and peace and counter violence and hate that leads to genocide. The US, the UK, Europe, and Australia are home to so many diverse religious and ethnic groups and it is important to live together in understanding and mutual respect.
But the present interfaith can, and sometimes seems to be, hollow – such as the coming together of similar-minded people enjoying hospitality superficially. It is most effective if you reach out to the furthest, most difficult communities with perspectives most different from our own. Not the comfort zones, but the hardest areas to challenge you and expand you.
The three research projects that expanded me, and my mind, to see from the perspective of “the Other”, as I mentioned above and from which I draw my conclusions are:
- 1) Journey into Europe – led by Ambassador Akbar S Ahmed and his team, we travelled across nine European countries – which witnessed genocides and the holocaust vs La Convivencia in Spain. Reflecting the lowest levels of human behavior and the highest.
These books and films are excellent research material for discussions in interfaith dialogue, schools, universities, and other forums and conferences.
- 2) Sorrow and Joy Among Muslim Women – my PhD – previous studies stereotype Muslim women, my work saw them for who they are, stepping into their shoes with empathy and understanding.
- 3) Gems and Jewels — In my book Gems and Jewels (2021), which is about the ten world faith communities, I was confronted with my own ignorance and stereotypes of other faith communities fed to me by the media and my wider Western and Eastern education and various Eastern and Western cultural beliefs. Each faith community was surrounded by unhealthy and unhelpful stereotypes, such as Parsis are fire worshippers which they are not or Buddhists are statue worshippers, which they are not, or that the Kalasha are “kafir” which they say they are not, or Western media stereotypes such as portraying Muslims as terrorists, which they are not, in fact Islam is based on balance, mercy and compassion, the opposite of terror. The lives and legends of Sufi scholars such as Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Waris Shah, Bulleh Shah, Rehman Baba and so many others are rich, sophisticated material for legends of deepest love. Similar stereotypes of Hindus and Christians and other faiths were also challenged. So, the journey to meet, hear, and engage with different faith communities for me as an author was a very productive journey to break down my own and society's constructed barriers and then convey the stories and voices and perspectives to the readers of the books I wrote. At the core of all the faith communities is a belief that human beings must live a responsible life, remembering they are under the gaze of God, and ideally in service to all of humanity with humility, regardless of their religion or country. Compassion, love, and respect for self and other human beings, and Love for God emerge as the main themes.
Love for God
One common theme from my book that emerges is a deep and sincere love for God that each of the ten faith communities expressed to me. Here in specific, as a Muslim, I want to dwell on the nature of God primarily because the image of Islam is so maligned, misunderstood and misrepresented. God’s first quality is Rehman, the Most Merciful. He is Al-Muhyi (المحی). This divine-attribute means ‘being the maintainer of life’. According to the Holy Qurān, as in the bible, if anyone kills a single human being it is as if they are guilty of killing the entire body of humanity, and the one who saves a human being is credited with saving the whole of humanity. Here, the quality of Al-Muhyi is applied to those who protect the lives of human beings. They save human beings from being killed. They abolish disputes, contentions, rivalries, and hatred. By doing so, they are basically receiving their share in the divine-attribute of Al-Muhyi from God Almighty.
Human, in the image of God
In the Abrahamic faiths there is great respect for human beings as they are made in God’s image and are God’s best and beloved creation. The former Chief Rabbi Sacks’ work focused on the sacredness of the human, from “our own” community and from “other” communities. In Islam, a human being, especially one in sync with the divine, is God’s viceregent on earth! Allama Iqbal, South Asia’s foremost poet philosopher and poet said, “Manliness is to respect man, be aware of the value of man.”
آدمیت احترام آدمی
باخبر شو از مقام آدمی
Iqbal reiterates that respecting human beings is respecting ones Lord. Humiliating human beings is like humiliating the whole of humanity and disobeying the Creator. Since God Almighty’s manifestation inhabits the human soul, a human being’s respect is obligatory and all humans must be honoured.
Maulana Jalāl ad-Dīn Rumi stated, “If the celestial light of Allah Almighty had not manifested itself in the body of Adam, why would have angels cared to bow before mud and water?”
گر نہ بودے ذاتِ حق اندر وجود
آب و گل را کے ملک کردند سجود
Maulana Rumi’s couplet gives us an understanding of the difference between Iblees (Satan) and Jibrael (Gabrāʾīl). He says that Iblees became ‘Iblees’ because he saw Adam’s body as mud and water only. He failed to see his spirit and he ended up becoming Satan. Amongst the angels, it was first Gabriel who bowed in prostration. Gabrail was not looking at the mud and water of Adam’s corporal frame. Gabriel along with other angels witnessed the spirit about which the Holy Qur’ān declares: I will breathe my soul into it.
So, if Jews, Christians and Muslims share the same God of Mercy then why is there sometimes conflict and hatred? My subject, anthropology, may explain the cousin rivalry called “agnatic rivalry” in which cousins develop rivalry because they fight over the same resources. The very first example of sibling rivalry is Kane killing his own brother Abel when he was driven by jealousy.
Above, we saw a mere reflection of God’s nature: God reminds us to show mercy to those on earth so that He who is in Heaven will show mercy to us. God with His elegant divine virtues is the perfect mentor; the believer, only with the virtue of humility, can, as Maulana Rumi and Allama Iqbal stress, align with those virtues of God that impact other human beings such as mercy, care, and love for humanity. God is the most merciful (Rehman), the most compassionate (Raheem), the Beloved (Wadud). Humans are urged to adopt the attributes of the Beloved and show those towards humanity to attain peace and mercy. Maulana Rumi teaches that embodying the qualities of mercy and kindness, makes people humble in front of God in their relations to others and hence eradicates prejudice, anger, and hatred from the hearts due to the presence of divine mercy and love for all humans, animals, plants, and living creatures. God wants peace amongst His nations. And rejects brutality, injustice and oppression: zulm.
Imam al-Ghazālī in his famous book Iḥyā‘Ulūm al-Dīn or “The Revival of Religious Sciences” writes about the attributes of God, the divine attributes which are encouraged in humans, the believers. The person who is aware of the might of God and wants to attain His mercy and closeness must strive to embody higher divine qualities to harmonize him or herself with divine-morality, reflecting God’s qualities such as promoting knowledge, beneficence, courtesy, virtue with others, mercy upon the creation of God and advising them, enjoin good deeds and forbid immorality. Striving towards such higher qualities and embodying them in our interactions with other human beings harmonizes us with the divine-morality to our own benefit. We lose when we show lack of courtesy, mercy, and goodness: the loss is our own.
The Correct Use of Power
The conception that power itself creates the entitlement for its arbitrary use—i.e., the belief that might is right—is in direct conflict with the Islamic concept that power is given to us to protect the weak and the oppressed. The Prophet Muḥammad (ﷺ) asked us to “help” our brothers, whether they are the oppressors or whether they are oppressed. Since this was directly a maxim of the Jahilliya which the Prophet had worked hard to eradicate, the companions were surprised to hear this. The Prophet smiled at the expected question: “How can we help our brother, when he is acting as an oppressor?” and replied, “Help him by stopping him, by preventing him from oppressing others”. In general, The Holy Qurʾān and Ḥadīth show clearly that power is given to us to help the oppressed, and not to oppress others. Similarly, the Prophet Muḥammad (ﷺ) provided for us the perfect model of the Servant-Leader. He taught us that the leadership of a group is not given to us to lord it over the people and assert arbitrary authority. Rather, the leadership is meant for the service of the group.
The Qurʾān (Al-Baqarah:193) explicitly states that there should be: [فَلَا عُدْوَٰنَ إِلَّا عَلَى ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ…] “…no aggression except against the oppressors”. But if one were to label a whole group of people for the criminal activity of a few and then label and bomb the entire group indiscriminately, that double aggression too is counted as extreme oppression, twice over. God says in the Holy Qur’an, “Do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just” (Al-Mai’dah:8). And a famous prophetic saying is, “The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.”
All humankind are Neighbours to each other:
Mercy and compassion are crucial concepts in Islam, especially to parents, the people and communities weaker than us, and to neighbours (An-Nisa:36): God’s name is the Most Merciful (Rehman) and His prophet is a mercy to all of humankind and all the worlds. The Angel Gabriel’s most frequent message from God to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was often of compassion towards neighbours. Love and respect for humanity is emphasized. Parents and neighbours are to be treated with respect, those who believe in Islam “must not mistreat their neighbours” said the holy Prophet for whom moral values was paramount and who specified that if one is preparing food, one should add a little extra in it so one can share it with one’s neighbour in need because neighbours are even closer than blood relatives. Islam teaches the importance of humanity and compassion towards all members of all societies in everyday life: be kind and helpful to orphans; be honest; be just; be patient and compassionate towards neighbours; bear witness; behave kindly with animals; be merciful towards enemies; be polite; be helpful; negotiate disputes between people; behave kindly with all humans. The prophet teaches to be good and compassionate to people of all faiths.
Neighbours are forty houses on all sides, regardless of what faith they belong to. Neighbouring countries come in this category but neighbouring countries today are locked in a rivalrous enmity, such as North America and South America; Britain and France; Israel and Palestine; India and Pakistan; North Korea and South Korea, and so on and so forth.
Yet, if we go back to the teachings of the beloved prophets of God their message of love your neighbour is central. Reflect on this powerful message of the Prophet of Islam about Christians, which I think reflects his inclusive and protective attitude to all people, even of different faiths:
“This is a message from Muḥammad …as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.
Verily I…and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God/Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them.
Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.
No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet (Muḥammad, ﷺ).
Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight.
The Muslims are to fight for them.
If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.
Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).”
Mercy and compassion towards prisoners
Recently we have seen images of “prisoners”/ “hostages” being exchanged from Gaza and Israel and the treatment of them is a topic of burning discussion in social media. God, in the holy Qur’an, praises and loves “those who feed the poor, orphans and prisoners and do this only to please their God, not to get any reward in return nor expect any kind of gratitude, but only do this to please God.” (The Holy Qur’ān, Al-Dahar: 8-10). Prisoners of war should be treated fairly, keeping compassion and mercy in mind. The Prophet (ﷺ) stated, “Treat prisoners well”. He prohibited the use of archaic rules while dealing with prisoners of war. Under his military leadership, the killing of women, children and the elderly was prohibited. In addition to this, it was forbidden to destroy any place of worship or any crops. Furthermore, the mutilation of prisoners too was outlawed. “The elderly, any children, and women are not to be killed”. The Prophet (ﷺ) also prohibited acts of looting. Prisoners are often seen as criminals. This leads to mistreatment of the them. Islam discourages this and instructs its followers to consider prisoners as human beings and to treat them with mercy and compassion. One of the glaring problems of today’s justice system is that it needs to integrate justice with mercy and often the justice system lacks the practice of mercy.
Mercy and compassion are values which form the pillars of an ideal society. It has been highlighted that in dealing with all humanity in every capacity, mercy and compassion are important ingredients. Whether it be with the poor, orphans, prisoners, women, children, elderly, parents, relatives or neighbours. Oppressors or the zalim are the most disliked as they lack humility and operate from arrogance to oppress God’s people made in His image. No oppressor, whether Pharoah or Hitler, met a happy ending.
Conclusion
When bombs began to drop in the hundreds in the Middle East, killing Jews, Christians and Muslims, the interfaith people began to disappear in the woodworks, some said they did not get involved in politics, others withdrew and shut their curtains tight watching in horror and helplessly as the city of Jesus burnt to the ground and destruction reigned upon the Holy Land. All those who were meant to speak up lost their words, their courage and their strength. Forgetting that God said that those who show mercy to those on earth, God will show His mercy to them. Also forgetting that even in war it must be remembered that in our dealings with the perceived “Other”, the so called “enemy”, if we forget the humanity of the enemy we actually forget our own humanity. Jesus’ example, in this case, is one of the most outstanding in his grace, kindness and compassion, even towards perceived enemies: “to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke: 6:27-28). What we do to others is a reflection of what we do to ourselves: doing good to others brings peace to us and doing bad to others only harms ourselves.
In times of war, people get polarized into simple one or the other category or group but in reality we must remember the goodness, humanity, humility and mercy in dealing with others and ourselves and even if “our own people” do wrong we must call it out and not be blind and biased to the extent that we are now seeing on the world stage. By doing this we are not threatening any people but instead standing for the right and righteousness that God Himself loves in both the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an.
Are we to kill each other, as the first two humans: as Cane killed his brother Abel, because of anger, hate, jealousy! God says that the perpetrator only does wrong to the detriment of his or her own soul. For there will be judgment and there is a throne of justice and balance (adal o Insaaf) as everything is noted. Therefore, the oppressed must never lose hope and never despair in the mercy of the Beloved. Here even those who ethnically belong to a religion but are secular and not religious have many lessons to learn: the etiquette of war (not to harm women, children, the elderly, trees and plants, animals, not to destroy religious sites, etc.), the manner of treating other human beings by preventing cruelty and oppression (zulm), the inevitability of judgement, retribution, punishment, and worst of all, God’s legendry azaab (His anger and punishment), for the believers of all faiths believe that every breath of human beings is in His hands.
When God made humankind, the angels challenged Him: they will cause corruption on earth and will shed much blood, they said. But God believed that there is enough good in humanity and this will overcome evil and wrong as the good amongst us will serve others, help others, show compassion and be better than angels so He took the chance because God was confident in the best of us (The holy Qur’an 2: 30). As the story of human life on earth unfolds, we are yet to watch the interplay of that great and important conversation between beloved God and His beautiful angels. We have been instructed to challenge the stubborn pharaoh of our ego and to do righteousness and show mercy: In a similar state of humility, there is a beautiful Christian prayer: “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
In Journey into Europe, we travelled to Bosnia and interviewed, at Potacari, the likes of Khadija who lost 50 members of her family in the Bosnian genocide. These moments are the lowest of lows of humanity, but what gave me hope in humanity was when I heard of the concepts of Convivencia and Benevolencia also applied in Bosnia when Muslims, Jews and Christians were helping each other to rescue life and human dignity. Those are the moments that put interfaith into action and make interfaith action truly valuable.
My Concluding questions are: what did peacebuilders/ interfaith activists do/ can do in situations of wars? What happened to interfaith? Did interfaith leaders fail? What is their role in genocide? How should the human family react? Do interfaith activists have a strategy? How do we ensure “all” human life, dignity and property are safe? And that “Never Again” means never again for every human community.
After seeing so much death and destruction in the twenty-first century as we are now seeing, if there is hope, and there is, then it is to be found in the nature of the Creator of humankind, God, the Most Merciful, Most Compassionate, the Most Loving and we as His creation and believers of all faith communities must and will ultimately reflect those innate qualities. So let us go back again and again to remembering God’s voice, reflected in all our faith communities’ Holy texts. God is Rehman, Raheem – the Compassionate and Merciful – but also the Adal (just) and the Qahar the forceful and overpowering. The Abrahamic God loves the compassionate ones, the gentle ones, the kinder ones amongst us and hates transgressors, the arrogant oppressors. Parallel to the religious notion of God and humanity, let us remember the charter of human rights, the constitutions of our nations in which all people are equal and have a right to life, dignity and property. Let us remember the concepts of love in our faiths, we are commanded to love all of God’s creation and to give human’s dignity, and see human life and property as sacred, and knowing these ideas and embodying them, herein, lies hope for interfaith action amongst the family of the great Abrahamic religions.
(Some parts of this piece are inspired by my forthcoming edited book on the Seerat, Jewelled Paths)
