An Audience with A Grand Mufti

The other evening I attended a local mosque to hear the "Grand Mufti of Bosnia", Dr Mustafa Ceric. The school kid in me was quite pleased to meet a Grand Mufti; it's one of those titles that is as snigger-inducing as it is mysterious. I found out later that a Mufti is someone who has the authority to pronounce a fatwah so I ought to be more careful.

Anyway, this senior Muslim cleric was visiting Birmingham as part of the programme of "Radical Middle Way" events to encourage sincere and committed Muslim faith robustly engaged in the plurality of Britain. Dr Ceric was fascinating: advocating personal piety in prayer and reading of the Qur'an, shari'ah law for governance in Muslim family and financial matters and thirdly, the exercise of reason in a confident encounter with the rest of society.

One neat observation on his part was that "Muslims like each other but have no respect for one other. Non-Muslims don't like each other but respect each other". In essence, he was saying that Muslims need to be credible in a society where you are valued by your learning and your productiveness. It is the combination of Muslim unity coupled with the use of wisdom and rationalism that will make them a force for good in wider Europe, so he says.

It's the kind of stuff that is relevant to the discussions on no-go areas. Here is a Muslim voice, speaking to a conservative, non-academic mosque community, and challenging Muslims that their faith ought to be outward looking and be able to learn from non-Muslims without needing to compromise. The issue is real, but there is hope in voices like Mustafa Ceric for the wider good. As Christians in Britain, and in the world, dare we pray for Muslims, that they may find a way forward; help them in this process so that the church might be a blessing to all? As hordes of teenage Muslims, in their sneakers, baggy trousers and prayer hats filed out in the rain, I wasn't sure how many of them got the references to Weber or even the wider debate to which Ceric's qur'anic references referred to so I remembered that grumpy prophet again: "seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

Comments

[Bishop Alan]

Sounds like a really interesting evening, Richard. I'm fascinated by that comment about Muslims/ non Muslims liking and respecting others. I'm going to have a think about that...

All best

+Alan