PRESS RELEASE
The Muslim Council of Britain offers the following reflection of the ‘Bloom Review’, which is billed as an independent review into how government engages with faith. This is an important intervention and should serve as a starting point for discussion.
The Role of Faiths in Britain Today
We fully endorse the Review’s parting observation, that faith in the UK ‘is a force for good, and government should do more to both understand and release the potential of this fantastic resource.’ The report’s call for greater faith literacy is laudable within the government and public sector. Faith communities have a role to play in our diverse, multicultural and multi faith Britain.
Any follow-up of the Review must take care not to discriminate one faith community over another. The Review recommends expanding the role of the Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief to include the UK. Yet, the Envoy’s current focus abroad is on the persecution of Christian minorities, which is laudable, but often at risk of ignoring other faith groups.
The Bloom Review has a troubling focus on the problem areas of non-Christian faith minorities, and the anxieties that exist of such groups because of fear and suspicion. Despite abundant evidence, we are concerned that the Review gave less attention to extremism in some faith communities over others.
We are told that this Review relies on the four fundamental British values of freedom (individual liberty), democracy, justice (rule of law), and tolerance (mutual respect). It calls on government to be ‘be bold and courageous in not just upholding these values, but rigorously protecting them too’. Yet, in the past, these values have been weaponised to stigmatise minority communities and deployed arbitrarily and perniciously when engaging with Muslim communities.
We call for consistency: not only in the government’s own behaviour but also amongst its supporters in the media, it’s think-tanks and back-benches, sections of whom pursue regular discriminatory rhetoric that are certainly at odds with the British Values so cherished in the Bloom Review.
The report’s second recommendation called for the government to learn from the Faith New Deal pilot fund. While laudable, we note the government excluded any mention of Muslim groups in its June 2022 funding announcement.
Islam and Britain in a Multi-Faith, Multicultural Britain
Britain’s diverse Muslim communities and their faith institutions have made enormous contributions to wider society. Whether it be mosques opening their doors and breaking fast with fellow Britons, or whether it be the millions raised for charitable good causes, Muslim communities have sought the common good as ‘believers’.
This, even though Muslims continue to face discrimination because of their faith. Whilst the Bloom Review alluded to anti-Muslim hatred, and gave real world examples of this hatred, it fell short of exploring the structural reasons behind this: Islamophobia, which is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.
The lived experience of Muslims should be central to such assessments. For example, the Review singled out Muslims for only making 0.4% of our armed forces. The Review rightly calls on government to re-examine barriers to recruitment and retention. That should include discrimination faced by Muslims and other minorities.
The Review’s call for greater faith literacy in government is particularly true for British Muslims. Government engagement has been woefully inadequate and has been held hostage by divisive dialogues who insist on seeing British Muslims primarily through the prism of security and counterterrorism. We commend the Bloom Review for being more clear-eyed: not treating Muslims as second-class citizens but part and parcel of British society.
However, the Review is at risk of uncritically adopting the framing set by these divisive voices. The Review attempts to draw a distinction between Islam and ‘Islamism’, an ill-defined term widely used not only to describe the violent extremists that we all oppose but also to cast aspersions on those Muslims who are exercising their democratic right to disagree with the government of the day.
We are cautious of Recommendation Number 5, which calls on the government to learn from the experience of the pandemic ‘with all groups having the right to speak’. For too long government has attempted to pick and choose compliant interlocutors and exclude independent, democratic representative bodies such as the Muslim Council of Britain. This is at odds with its engagement of similar democratic bodies in other British faith traditions.
An independent faith champion (Recommendation 6) could work in principle, but steps need to be made to ensure that the person is truly independent and is relevant and accessible to all faith communities seeking support.
We also welcome the Review’s call to accelerate proposals to introduce Sharia-compliant student loans on equalities grounds and for the availability overall of faith-based student financed.
While there is a case for better safeguards for faith-based supplementary schools that are in an ‘out-of-school’ setting, we are curious why the Review excludes Sunday Schools for scrutiny compared to madrassahs. Any proposals should be non-discriminatory and ensure that there is a high-level of religious literacy among those setting safeguarding standards. Otherwise, we will have a continuation of policies pursued by those with little to no understanding of faith communities, driven by prejudices.
Zara Mohammed, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain said:
“The Bloom Review rightly acknowledges the diversity, vibrancy and importance of faith communities, and the invaluable contributions they and their institutions make to society. It needs to take the next step by seeking fairer treatment of those communities too. Sadly, government engagement with those faith communities has been wanting, if not discriminatory. It is time to press the reset button.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- For any media enquiries, contact: media@mcb.org.uk
- The MCB encouraged individuals from across our networks to give evidence to the Government’s Independent Faith Engagement Review. We hosted a webinar, in which a panel of experts discussed the importance of Muslim communities engaging in the consultation and detailed how to make a submission – available to view here.
- The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is the UK’s largest and most diverse Muslim umbrella organisation with membership spanning national, regional local organisations, mosques, charities and professional networks. It is independent, cross-sectarian and democratic with the leadership team accountable to the membership.