Commission on Interfaith Relations launches at House of Lords
Faith leaders will join academics and charity experts on a tour of the UK to learn how global conflicts affect community relations
Muslim, Jewish and Christian faith leaders gathered at the House of Lords on Tuesday to launch a project that will see them travel the UK with academics and charity experts to gather information about how global conflicts affect relations between communities.
The Commission on Interfaith Relations: UK Faith Groups and Global Conflicts was convened by the Woolf Institute, an interfaith charity based in Cambridge under the patronage of crossbench peer Harry Woolf.
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It aims to publish a “playbook” by May 2027 to help local authorities and leaders “respond effectively during times of global conflict”. Its findings will also be presented to the government and the general public.
“We are living in an uncertain time. Events overseas transfer immediately into the UK, onto our smartphones and the smartphones of our children,” said the chair of the commission and Woolf Institute president, Ed Kessler, at the launch.
“An incident in Kashmir is quickly felt on the streets of Bradford. We saw it with Gaza. Protests were launched very quickly on our streets, which was very uncomfortable for the Jewish community.”
Labour MP Afzal Khan said that he welcomed the commission and that it would have “its work cut out”. He also encouraged his constituents in Manchester to take part in the group’s consultations on topics including media misinformation, transnationalism and faith leadership, which will take place across England and Wales throughout the next year.
“When solutions come from below, they are solid,” Khan said.
The project has the support of the faith minister, Miatta Fahnbulleh, who replaced Wajid Khan in a reshuffle last year. Daniel Zeichner, the Labour MP for Cambridge, will chair a parliamentary working group to communicate the commission’s findings to the government.
The launch event included a panel discussion with faith leaders, who agreed on the need to increase the public’s faith literacy and invest in interfaith dialogue.
“If interfaith relations are frontline work, they must also be treated as professional work,” said rabbi Charley Baginsky. “It requires people who are trained to listen well, to convene well and to stay when things become uncomfortable.”
Saifullah Nasser, an imam, added: “Instead of asking people to get on better, the commission will assess the underlying impact of fracturing relations in the UK and test the mechanisms by which overseas conflict gets imported to the UK.”
