Yesterday at the Chilcot enquiry (which has been set up to find out the lessons learnt from the Iraq conflict), the walls resounded to a withering and devastating testimony from the former head of MI5 – the internally (UK) focussed security service. Eliza Manningham-Buller told the Chilcot inquiry that civil servants were frightened to speak Read More
We have all heard the same phrases in one way or another. ‘I have black friends down the road and we have nothing against them. But the family down the road do not fit with our area. They are………different.’ It is funny how this statement seems to have the same meaning generation after generation yet, Read More
Recently, we (www.faith-matters.org) launched a booklet on the Righteous Muslims which looked at the history of those people deemed to be Righteous by Yad Vashem and who had saved Jews and others from death by their actions. They did this without the promise of money, personal gain or through external pressure applied to them. They Read More
Five years ago, I had a crazy idea and that was to leave my job and to undertake a programme which commemorated 60 years after the Holocaust and 10 years after the massacres of Muslims in Srebrenica. The physical journey was to start in Fieldgate Street where the Fieldgate Street Synagogue and the East London Read More
Tomorrow, millions of us go to the polls to deliver a verdict either for change or for more of the same. Yet many will try to reflect on the benefits that they have had over the last 13 years through this Labour Government; some will know that there will be tough times ahead; some will Read More
The defection, two days ago, of senior Cabinet member Cllr Brian Haley to the Liberal Democrats spells disaster for the future of Labour in Haringey. And Rightly so! Labour has been in power for nearly 40 years but has failed to address problems with deprivation, poverty and failing services. Residents in Haringey now have to Read More
Having worked on supporting better Jewish and Muslim relations for the last 7 years, I can honestly say that I have felt despair over the last week. Once again the Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock mosque compounds in Jerusalem have been drawn into the politics of those who want to make it Read More
In 1858, the last great Mughal ruler of India was violently sent into exile into Burma where he eventually died in exile in 1862. A liberal, cultured and deeply cohesive community in Delhi which was nurtured by Bahadur Shah Zafar, (the last Mughal of the line of the Timur (Tamerlaine) line which had been in Read More
So many blogs, articles and ‘specialist’ pieces make the case that Jews and Muslims are increasingly becoming suspicious and fearful of each other. Polar stories make out that both communities just see each other through the prism and lens of the Middle East and when Gaza’s and Jenin’s take place, both communities increasingly caricature each Read More
IRAN ATTACK IS ON THE HORIZON The issue of Iran’s nuclear programme has been raging as a political debate for the last 3 years. There have been moments when it looked like Israel might launch a strike though the United States has been the alternative vehicle through which diplomacy has been used as a carrot Read More