Archbishop's peace plan snubbed by Muslims

Islamic scholars boycotted talks between Muslims and Christians called by Canterbury Archbishop.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has been making earnest efforts to defuse the growing international tensions between Christians and Muslims following the September 11 attacks on the US in 2001. He has been the first to fully extend his support to madrassas that some others regard as teaching obscurantism and making the young unfit for the British society. But, Dr Williams experienced a setback when Islamic scholars boycotted top-level talks between the two faiths.

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This has surprised many. Only a fortnight ago, Dr Williams was forthright in supporting "madrassas" saying they were "nothing to apologise for". This was in utter defiance of the thinking here that madrassas could turn out to be like those in Pakistan, that have churned out the Talibans. In fact, he rued that such schools run by various faiths have faced problems after the September 11 terror attacks. A couple of schools set up by Muslim groups were accorded state funds and given recognition before the 9/11. But since then there has been a sort of lull.

The Archbishop said Muslims and members of other faiths should be able to continue setting up schools that are eligible for state funding and support, otherwise members of other religions would get "more isolated and ghettoised". Speaking at the Association of Anglican Secondary School Heads annual conference in Exeter, he pointed out that after 9/11 "it was suddenly a
good deal easier to associate religious conviction with terror and bigotry" He was apparently referring to the current general feeling that Islamic fundamentalism is behind terror attacks.

But then Dr Williams has now experienced a setback and possibly been made to realise that it is impossible to separate education or social values from the tenets of a faith. Muslim academics abruptly withdrew from a two-day meeting set up by Dr Willimas up with Anglican delegates in New York in protest at the appointment of the worldwide Church's first actively homosexual bishop. The talks were supposed to coincide with the second anniversary of the attacks and were to include a visit to Ground Zero.

Some of Dr William's delegates got stranded in America. The Muslims blamed the American Episcopal Church's decision to confirm Bishop-elect Gene Robinson as Bishop of Hampshire.

Bishop Nazir Ali, who is an expert on Islam, said that the issue of homosexuality could seriously undermine relations between the two faiths. He said that the Muslims were prepared to talk to Christians because both religions were founded on revelations from God.

"The Muslims can't understand why Christians are ignoring the revelations given to us. This is very serious in the present international situation."

The same international situation could negate the support of Dr Williams to madrassas. The general feeling, including in some quarters in the Government, is that the alienation felt by Muslims in particular is because of the early education based on basic madrassa curriculum.

In fact after the race riots in north England cities, analysts said that the youth were alienated because a lot of them were being sent to Pakistan when very young to study in madrassas. It is also believed that most Talibans were madrassa products.