Any Radio 4 Sunday aficionado may have heard an interview with a rabbi, a C of E vicar and an imam in which each was asked about the impact of the pandemic on their worship and their religious communities. All stressed how important it is normally to be together, talking of religious practices which rely on the community dynamic particularly during special festivals. In the Communion service Martin referred to plans for churches in our cluster to meet with local Muslims to understand each other and our respective faiths better.
Recently I have been fortunate to have a colleague from the dermatology department shadow me once a week. We have learned a lot from each other about medical practices but also about life in different communities. My colleague is a devout Muslim from Pakistan but she has lived in a number of countries including Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Austria and has a very cosmopolitan approach to life. We were discussing bullying to which her son had been subjected . It was of the very modern type conducted by social media in which a rather forceful girl in his class demanded all the members of the class sign up volubly to a contemporary campaign. Those who did not would be considered social pariahs. His friend, a Christian, would not sign up because he considered the campaign to be contrary to his Christian beliefs. Her son did not want to support the campaign because he could not see the point, The boys are 14. My colleague and I discussed how easy it would have been to attribute the bullying to racism (one boy Pakistani origin, one African), sexism or religious persecution. None of those would have been correct. She told me of her own experience of bullying in hospital which similarly could have been mis cast. I discovered misconceptions I had about the practice of Islam which clearly had to do with personality and not with religion. Her life in Saudi Arabia was very different from life in Pakistan, not least in the way they lived during Ramadan. It seemed politics in Saudi are rather different from those under the secular government in Pakistan, hence a very different approach.
I’ve just watched an episode of Michael Palin’s travels in Africa. He has travelled thousands of miles and is still surprised by people and shaken out of his assumptions about their lives. We have a lot to learn.
Jill Pipe