麻豆社

Good morning

On Sunday I was with 50 Jewish and Muslim women from around the UK - in London for our annual meeting. At 11 o鈥檆lock we stood in silence for Remembrance Sunday, shoulder to shoulder. It was powerful thinking about those who had gone before us.
We often face scepticism and even hostility for the work we do and I found it very moving standing together in that moment.

We were not aware that a bomb had exploded at the same time, in Liverpool.

As the story unfolded I was somewhat relieved that only the bomber had been killed. The anxiety built as I wondered who did it. Were they claiming to be Muslim? Was it connected to Remembrance Sunday? It鈥檚 hard to fully describe how it feels going through those kinds of thoughts. Would I and other Muslim women be a target because of the actions of others? What role will the person鈥檚 mental health have played? It now appears the man in the car was someone who had been drawn to Christianity. How would Christians be feeling? How will all of this play out in our conversations over coming days?

The most encouraging part of these last few days for me have been the messages of solidarity coming from faith communities in Liverpool. As the Bishop there said, they must now stand on the friendships and connections that have been built over the years.

A few years ago I was invited by the Liverpool Region Mosque Network to speak at an event in Ramadan on Pier Head, the place where, over the years, migrants have landed and emigrants have started their journeys to America and beyond. Thousands of people from all over the city, all backgrounds, all ages, came to share food together at the blessed time of breaking the fast.

Liverpool has always been a place of arrivals and departures for people from around the world. One of the very early UK Muslim communities was in Liverpool in the 1800鈥檚. It looks likely that the person who exploded the bomb, was an asylum seeker. Given the city鈥檚 history, I鈥檓 trusting that the people of Liverpool will make sure that the actions of one person will not stop it being a place of welcome and hospitality, in the way it has always been and will send a message to the whole country that we must all do the same.

The Qur鈥檃n talks about celebrating diversity. As one of the women reminded us at the weekend, it鈥檚 when things get tough that we must work even harder to bring together people from different backgrounds; to not shy away from those differences; to have those painful conversations and so develop bonds of trust.

That is how we build our resilience - together.

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