Reflections on the Glasgow portion of the James Parks Morton Interfaith Sister Cities Exchange * The Rev Chloe Breyer, Executive Director of the Interfaith Center of New York * September 24, 2011
When we set out to create a three-way sister city exchange with Glasgow, Barcelona, and New York, we thought that these cities challenges of immigration, security, and religious diversity in a Western democratic context could benefit from the sharing of best practices. As we conclude the third leg of the exchange in Glasgow, this has turned out to be true.
Coming from New York City, the visit to Glasgow has provided me with some important challenges. Watching the Strathclyde Police presentation about history of sectarian conflict in Western Scotland and the work they are doing in cooperation with community groups to address this conflict, was impressive. Hearing from the leadership of the Glasgow Central Mosque about their monthly meetings with police and shared concern for the safety of the community, gave me the impression that there might be more constructive relations between minority religious communities and law enforcement here than in New York. I was especially impressed by hearing that the former Chief of Police at the Glasgow Airport was of Pakistani origin as well. The Interfaith Center of New York has long talked about the importance of working more with the NYPD. This experience has offered me motivation to work harder for more positive religious community/police relations than currently exist in New York City at the present time .
In other areas, I have felt that our experience of interfaith relations in New York City has something to offer. One of the great things about travelling with a diverse delegation—along gender, ethnic and religious lines— is that we have been in the position of prompting and witnessing honest and self-critical reflection within the religious communities we visited. For example, our delegation’s asking basic questions about men and women’s roles in worship in an orthodox synagogue we visited prompted a reform Jew in Scotland who was also present to air his alternative views on the subject—showing firsthand the diversity that exists within religious traditions as well as between them. Likewise, in our meeting with the Imam and lay leadership at the Glasgow Central Mosque, I was struck when the Imam started asking our Moroccan Muslim representative from Barcelona what the challenges were for the Muslim communities there. Rabina Naiz, founder of Turning Point for Women an agency that supports Muslim women experiencing domestic violence in New York asked the Imam what his community did for women victims of domestic violence. Such a question coming from a non-Muslim might have appeared to reinforce existing stereotypes about Muslims (why for example do we not ask these questions in a Roman Catholic church?) however, coming from a co-religionist it had an feeling of authenticity that prompted genuine reflection. I found personally it a challenge going into the Mosque and Ortodox Synagogue spaces that that divided men and women. I shared my views with my Muslim colleague from New York, Sarah Sayeed. She informed me that she had already shared her report, “Women Friendly Mosques and Community Centers: Reclaiming our Tradition” a report conducted by Women in Islam in New York with Farkanda Chowdry who is in the process of founding a Muslim Women’s network in Glasgow.
As the final leg of this three way exchange concludes, I am struck by the how the exchange has helped deepen and inspire the work that I do in New York as I realize both the differences and similarities of interfaith work in Glasgow and Barcelona.
