The Hindu Council UK expresses its deep sorrow and concern following the tragic stabbings in Golders Green yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their loved ones, and all those affected by this distressing incident. At times like these, we are reminded of the importance of compassion, unity, and vigilance within our communities.
Violence has no place in our society. We stand firmly for non-violence (ahimsa), mutual respect, and the protection of all people regardless of background or belief. We urge everyone to come together in solidarity, to support one another—particularly the Jewish community, which has recently seen a spate of violent attacks—and to reject fear and division.
We also extend our gratitude to the Jewish community’s own security and neighbourhood watch schemes and our London emergency services for their swift response and dedication. The police continue to face the incessant challenge of fighting terrorism stemming from extreme left-wing, extreme right-wing, and Islamist ideologies, now compounded by volatile world-conflicts, which sadly are becoming commonplace.
The Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley chaired a faith leaders’ meeting at Lambeth Palace last Friday, which was kindly hosted by Archbishop Sarah Mullally, to seek a way forward to quell this new violence against Jews and other worship houses.
The Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis spoke at length about the plight of Jews with the rise of antisemitic attacks and asked for Israel’s existence to be part of the conversation.
Representing the Hindu Council UK I thanked the Archbishop for facilitating this much needed meeting and pointed out that we had a ‘Faith Communities Consultative Council’ (FCCC), at the Government’s Communities Department which used to develop integrative policies through interfaith dialogue, and we desperately need to recover such a structure. The FCCC instituted top-down policies agreed by all faiths, leaving little room for weak social media ‘narratives’ which give rise to division and extremities.
The Archbishop Sarah Mullally assured that the Government is beginning to look into forming something of an interfaith nature again, and Sir Mark Rowley summed it as a possible way forward.
I remember it was the Archbishop Robert Runcie, back in the 1980’s who initiated the call for dialogue among all minority religions. Then Interfaith Network (IFN) was borne out of his initiative but over time the religious leaders felt that the IFN had been diluted to just a talking shop. Then Sir Tony Blair set up the FCCC at Government level for 6 monthly meetings of faith leaders under the faiths minister and that structure had real teeth to advance integrative policies.
Evidently now, the Government seems ill-equipped to understand the vagaries of faith and multiculture problems, as it recently imposed an anti-Muslim hostility definition on all communities, without an interfaith debate. No faith wants hatred or hostility against the other but equally their voices should not be suppressed.
The Hindu Council UK would support our new Archbishop to help recreate such a faith-based dialogue and policy landscape again at Government level. We trust the faith leaders we engage with to look after each other’s faith communities and develop mutually respectful and integrative policies, for the country.
Anil Bhanot
Managing Director
Hindu Council UK
[Hindu Council UK is a national umbrella body representing one million British Hindus through their temples and cultural organisations, estd. 1994]