Watching the One Love concert in Manchester on television last Sunday evening while the news of Saturday's terrorist attack in London's Borough Market was still being broadcast, it felt like the extremes of love and hate were being demonstrated in parallel.
People sang in Manchester
in a display of unity and peace. In London, stories of bravery and human
support were recounted as names of the victims were announced. In both
cities people stood connected in defiance of the ideology of hatred which drove
men to kill indiscriminately.
But as the news reporters pack up their cameras and the concert stage is
dismantled, we need to turn our attention to the lines of division within our
society. These divisions are accentuated by extremists who believe there
is only one truth, and that this truth requires them to become extreme in their
beliefs. We have seen through the history of mankind that those who
educate the young can influence their beliefs and behaviour when they grow
up. If we allow our children’s education and other activities to be
segregated along faith lines we are creating the roots of division and the
potential for extremism in our society.
If however we bring our children up in a society whose philosophy
reflects our national values of respect, honesty, democracy and freedom, we can
expect different results. If we educate our young people to be tolerant
and kind, we can hope that they grow up with these characteristics in their hearts.
If we embrace all beliefs and traditions in the spirit of being one community,
we can create connections across faiths that gives our society hope of a way
forward from bombers and murderers to people living together in harmony.
Fundamentalist religious views, in my experience, are premised on the
notion of being right, of being the chosen ones, of polarisation. I held
fundamentalist Christian views in my teens, and believed that we were right and
others therefore were wrong. That God had chosen us – and by implication,
that He had not chosen others. I now have no religious beliefs, and
cannot see how any god could watch the hatred and suffering in so many parts of
the world and be described as righteous. But my experience as a zealous
teenager taught me that such polarised beliefs are both seductive and a
powerful influence on one’s behaviour. They dominate one’s life, one’s
judgements about what is right and wrong, and one’s actions as a result. No
doubt the murderers in Manchester and London believed their actions were
justified. Such beliefs are promoted
through a complex array of websites, social media, peer groups and others. It’s up to all of us to build on the most
positive and inclusive elements of our society, to facilitate better
quality conversations about beliefs and values, and to strengthen the
connections between different communities rather than drive division.
We need to go back into our schools, and help our young people to think
for themselves, to challenge myths, and to be exposed to many different views
of religion. Our schools should create space for debate, encouraging
students to challenge and appraise the views of others, both face-to-face and
online. We owe it to them to give them a view of a society
where people respect those who are different, whom they don’t understand, and
whose views they disagree with. Our schools, our community groups, our
churches, mosques, temples and synagogues, are the battleground for our
society’s future. We cannot let them be taken over by the voices of bigotry and
the ideology of fundamentalism of any sort.