Mike Frankl, from Beth Shalom attended an Iftar at the Cambridge Guildhall in March, where he gave this speech:
Distinguished guests and friends,
It is a huge honour and privilege to be invited to speak at this multi-cultural Iftar hosted by the Mayor of Cambridge and the Cambridge Muslim Community.
A few months ago another trustee of Beth Shalom and I were given a guided tour of the magnificent new Mosque by Imam Madic, Abdul and two of their colleagues, Kashif and Fezaan. We spent a wonderful two hours together learning a little about each other. After that meeting we formed a small WhatsApp Group called “The Children of Abraham”. Ishmael and Isaac were the sons of Abraham and the forefathers of Islam and Judaism.
I have been asked to talk about “fostering unity through faith”. Chapter nineteen of the book of Leviticus tells us to “love our neighbours as ourselves. I am the Lord your God.”
My experience of working with all faiths is that good relationships are born through close working together of individuals, getting to know each other, trust and co-operation.
Over the last three years there has been a significant increase in interfaith activity in Cambridge, involving the Bahai community, Sikhs, Hindus, Jains, several different churches, and both the Muslim and Jewish communities and now the work is co-ordinated by the Woolf Institute.
We hope joint projects will continue to bring more and more people together so we can all learn and get to know each other better, our traditions and our beliefs.
Multi-cultural events such as this evening, leaders like Mayor Thittala, Reverend Bonney and Imam Madic and my friend Abdul Kayum Arain will help make this happen and I look forward to us all working together to create greater understanding and friendship.
