成人快手

Good morning.

There has recently been a lot talk about 鈥楤ritish values鈥� and the need to instil such values into people who seem to think differently.聽 Whenever there is such talk, I get the impression that there is often an assumption that Muslim values are incompatible with British values.

A belief in freedom and personal and social responsibility has been mentioned by politicians as some of the values that we should promote.聽 But those are also Islamic values. Many Muslims will say they are already enshrined in Islamic scriptures.聽 As such, they see no inherent conflict between their faith and British values.

The issue of great concern for many communities is not that they see a conflict between 鈥楳uslim values鈥� and 鈥楤ritish values鈥�.聽 It鈥檚 something much wider.聽 They see children of all backgrounds are growing up in a society where such a conflict is imaginary.

I believe that we cannot define British values by simply looking into our history because, as diverse communities, we have different memories of the past.聽 We should also look at what we are achieving here and now.聽 The values of any society must always be re-examined as society changes.

Our modern society is a product of internal revolutions and social protests which shaped the values that we now hold dear.聽 They did not evolve in a vacuum.聽 So we hope and pray that we will continue to resist the temptation to impose our views on others, and that we will learn to listen to each other.

So our prayer today is:
鈥淥ur Lord! Grant us the wisdom and strength to observe moderation in all our actions, and the speak the truth even if it be against ourselves. 鈥澛� Amen.