9/11 ANNIVERSARY

By Andrew Carey

7/26/2004

A nasty piece of spin in the Sunday Times this week. Readers will need to know that Christopher Morgan is an old friend of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and was in fact his best man. A pattern is emerging that new initiatives from Lambeth Palace are trailed by Christopher Morgan in The Sunday Times — a seeming favouritism that other newspapers deeply resent.

Morgan reveals that the Archbishop of Canterbury is marking the third anniversary of 9/11 with a speech to praise Islam at Al-Azhar university. Morgan even apparently knows the content of the speech stating that the Archbishop will speak to his Muslim congregation of the common ground between Christianity and Islam through their shared inheritance as "children of Abraham."

The story it must be said, is genuinely newsworthy and controversial because it marks the anniversary of the Islamist terror unleashed on the United States of America.

But the whole tone of the report suggests that this lecture is of groundbreaking significance, whereas in fact Rowan's predecessor, who is criticised later in the article, lectured twice at Al-Azhar University (in 1994 and 1999) and established several important dialogues with Islam, including the Building Bridges seminar which Morgan disingenuously credits to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

It is in this sense that I believe it to be a nasty piece of spin. Readers will expect me to say that given my relationship to Rowan's predecessor. Naturally enough I object to this from Morgan's report: "Muslim leaders believe Williams' address will repair some of the damage done to relations by a critical lecture from Lord Carey, his predecessor. Earlier this year at a seminar in Rome, Carey accused Muslim societies of being authoritarian and committed to power and privilege. He also criticised Muslim leaders who failed to condemn suicide bombers unequivocally.

"In a rare clash among the higher echelons of the two faiths, Muslim leaders rounded on Carey, accusing him of bigotry and religious prejudice. Carey seemed bemused by the reaction."

The report aids and abets this strange idea that criticism of Islam is out-of-bounds. So-called Muslim moderates need to have the maturity to accept well-intended criticism rather than petulantly claiming victim status every time someone points out a few home truths. After all, Islamic leaders throughout the world are only too happy to attack western values and describe America as "the Great Satan."

I cannot believe for a moment that Archbishop Williams will duck the issues by delivering a lecture which minimises the major points of difference between our faiths. If he does then he will let us down badly. A speech which only emphasises our common inheritance and points of agreement will amount to nothing less than a betrayal of Christian minorities persecuted in countries like Nigeria, Pakistan and indeed deprived of their human rights throughout the Middle East.

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