Anti-mosque and anti-Islamic sentiments: can Islam be singled out like this?

This article has appeared in the Ballarat daily newspaper, The Courier, to-day.  Ballarat Interfaith Network was on to this early this morning and, during to-day, will work out a considered response.  This blog does not want - at this stage anyway - to give acknowledgment to this group and therefore will not name them here nor will a link be given to their website.

However, one thing this post will do is to look briefly at anti-mosque sentiment in Australia.

The Australia First Party is a well known extreme political party in Australia. More could be written about them, particularly their involvement in the Cronulla riots of 2005, but this site does not want to enter into such a discussion.  More could also said about an historic organisation with a similar name and similar prejudices. 

As for Islam in Australia, this Wikipedia site provides a diversity of information both historical and contemporary. 

The movement toward building a mosque in Ballarat has been a slow but progressive one.  Students from overseas came to the University of Ballarat where prayer facilities were established.  The small number of local residents were able to join in.  Because of the close proximity of Ballarat to Melbourne, it has also been possible for residents here to participate in mosques there.  Ballarat Muslims have held land for a while and are now moving towards the reality of a building by going through all the local government processes that everyone has to pursue.

Ballarat Interfaith Network has friendship with a number of Muslims in Ballarat.  We have also, courtesy of the Shepparton Interfaith Network, visited the mosque at Muroopna in Shepparton.

Shepparton is a diverse city and region - with four mosques.  Below is a video of that mosque and what happens there.  On our visit, we were warmly and hospitably received - and had the most beautiful lunch of Turkish food.  We were presented - without charge - with our choice of books relating to Islam.  The video below was taken from the website of the Shepparton Interfaith Network.

All religions - or, at least, a lot of religions - have those within who are 'extremist' or have other adverse characteristics.  If we were to ban or bar them from having facilities, it would be a bare landscape indeed.  Think of some of the adverse behaviours being brought to public view from within some Christian denominations and cultures at this time.

There are many beautiful and wondrous things within Islam.  They are worth exploring.  One particular Islamic contribution is being seriously explored these days by many outside Islam. It is Islamic finance and banking.  The Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) have prohibitions against usury.  Judaism and Christianity have 'fallen by the wayside' in a manner of speaking on this topic and its adherents do get involved with financial transactions involving the charging of interest.  Islam is the one 'hold-out' on this and, in this era of ever-diverse financial products, there is currently widening interest  - even from main-stream banking organisations - in Islamic finance.

Finance, Economics and Faith - interest and usury in the traditions.

For many years now, the world-at-large has been preoccupied with finance and economics.  Now finance and economics are never far from the forefront of daily life - but with the Global Financial Crisis (the GFC) and nations and individuals plunged into poverty money and its associated category headings.

The list of headings is long.  The list of countries doing it tough is long too.  Can faith speak to money?  Has faith something to say about finance and economics and governance?

You may have heard or read this story before, but it still has some impact in the re-telling.
A few prominent clergypersons were invited to the Oval Office to meet with the President.  Rev. William Sloan Coffin, then Senior Pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, was one of those invited. President Reagan patiently explained to the visiting pastors why these cuts were necessary, in his view, to balance the budget.  Rev. Coffin replied, “Mr. President, it is up to us to proclaim that ‘Justice shall roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream.  Your job is the plumbing.”

The Rev Dr Susan Brooks Thistlewaite uses the story in a blog post from her blog #Occupy The Bible.

That story reflects one Christian attitude to finance and economics.  The Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Islam, and Christianity - each have injunctions against usury.  Usury is the charging of interest although in some interpretations this becomes the charging of 'excessive' interest.  Islam is the only faith of the three which adheres to injunctions against usury.

People of the Jewish faith have become associated with finance, banking and usury - not least because of this family.  Not all Jewish people are bankers or people connected with finance and economics - but a lot of them are.  

The writer of this article says : Christian ethics has failed in one of the most overlooked, if not ignored, civil and human rights issue in the world today. 

In each of the three faiths, there are strong ethical dictums relating to the alleviation of poor, to hospitality, to consideration of the other as one would consider him or her self.  

But where does this leave ordinary folk trying to negotiate their ways through modern economic life while maintaining an ethical faith and lifestyle?  And what happens in other faith traditions?  Below are some selections for further reading.  

Readers of this blog might like to write to us at ballaratinterfaithnetwork@gmail.com and let us know their thoughts.  

• Should interfaith networks start talking about this and begin to shine some light on the teachings of the different faith traditions and how they work themselves out in modern life?  
• Should faiths bear a common witness against poor governance both of civil society and corporate entities?  
• How would this be done effectively?

Further reading

Usury

Your faith, your finance :  a guide to money faith & ethics

Face to Faith: once confined to religious debates, the word 'usury' is making a welcome return to politics

Call and response blog: usury

Is anti-usury activism anti-semitic?

Buddhist economics: money and interest - How money & charging interest debased Buddhism

Faith and Finance: is finance a morality free zone?

Last year, I attended a one-day conference on Islamic Finance.  I learned a lot.  The Abrahamic faiths - Judaism, Christianity, Islam - each have injunctions against usury yet only Islam, now in these modern times, refuses to have anything to do with the levying of interest.  How this is handled across the world in Islam is most interesting - and it is attracting increasing interest from the mainstream non-Islamic world.

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/courses/islamic-finance/postgraduate 

http://islaminaustralia.com/2013/12/29/australias-first-guardian-to-launch-islamic-pension-in-january/

http://www.smh.com.au/business/westpac-to-offer-islamic-banking-20100211-nv86.html

The world has suffered much during the Global Financial Crisis. One would have to go a long way in the world to find societies and individuals who have remained unaffected by the GFC.  This means that communities of faith have had to live out their beliefs, consider their beliefs in the light of the impact of the GFC on the world.  There are periods when matters of money are put to one side and remain in the shadow of more emphasis on the core teachings of faith and spirit.  However, communities of faith have highlighted during this dismal economic period issues of justice and ethics and the living of a good life.  Communities of faith have hardly tried the financial centres of the world at a religious court but they have increasingly, around the world, spoken out on the GFC and related economic matters.

God's economics: a pastoral letter for 2014

The Church and the Global Financial Crisis

False profits: a Jewish response to our financial crisis

The economic crisis and the crisis of character

Archbishop of Canterbury calls for debate with Islam to establish "just" interest rates

Solution to financial crisis is in the Quran

Global economic crisis and economics of faith (2)

Monetary moral guidance basis for inter-faith religious dialogue

Taking a hint from the last of the links above,

is it time for a wide-ranging interfaith dialogue 

on the topic of

Faith, Morals, Finance?

Virtue, Fortune and Faith

Faith & Finance: Value Guided Pursuit of Interests

The moral debt of finance

Finance: a morality free zone

THINKING POINT >>>

Religion does think about money.

Consider the linked images

based on a the search terms

faith finance

Mixed messages?