Over the years I’ve met a great number of people who have been involved in interfaith work. I’ve met some outstandingly intelligent people who’ve been connected to interfaith, and who can be honest about their faith, and listen to honesty from others even when it is critical, challenging or even painful. I see honest friendships and discussion between people of differing peaceful belief system as a way of healing some of the hurts of the past and also as a way of walking a genuine path of peace. I can’t help but respect those of honesty and good character who are involved in intefaith.

Unfortunately such bright and honest people are I’ve found very much in the minority when it comes to the interfaith crowd. The bulk of those I’ve encountered who are involved in interfaith could fairly be described as ‘nice, but dim’. Those of you who are of a certain age will remember a character from the Harry Enfield Television Programme called Tim Nice-But Dim, a posh nice young man with very little between the ears. It is this character’s image that repeatedly pops up into my mind when dealing with interfaith types. Too many of those who I’ve met who do interfaith stuff are too wedded to a ‘fluffy bunny’ view of life, are limp minded happy clappy Vicars, or are Left wing Rabbis. These groups allso contain those who are often painfully anxious to avoid giving offence, are middle class Lefties, or are unrealistic unworldly Quakers desperate to see not one jot of bad in anyone.

If you behaved in the real world as many of these interfaith types do when in their groups or organisations then you’d probably be metaphorically slaughtered. You’d be ripped off at every turn because of your naivety, you’d be impoverished, hurt and humiliated. If you went through life thinking that there is good in everyone or that the world is fluffy or you would do almost anything to avoid giving offence or causing a confrontation, then you’d be a target for every conman, thief and criminal for miles around. As with life so it is with interfaith groups.

A lot of the interfaith groups that I’ve encountered over the years appear to be almost totally controlled and dominated by these naïve, middle class Lefties, who have a seriously unrealistic view of the world. Everything that is said to them they seem to take on trust, in the interests of ‘peace’ of course. If these groups were just peaceful Christians, Jews, Sikhs and Hindus doing their stuff and getting on together then there would be nothing to worry about. But, the problem comes when you inject Islam into the multi-faith mix. The non-Muslim members of these interfaith groups can end up fawning over local Islamic ‘community leaders’ because they can then tick the box marked ‘Islam’ on their list of religions that they are doing interfaith work with. They believe that by being nice to Islam and making sure that it is not ‘offended’ in any way is a big step on the path to peace. They could not be more wrong.

These Imams and ‘community leaders’ feed the representatives from other religious paths a completely false view of Islam, a view of Islam as a religion of peace. Accompanying these dishonesties about Islam are sometimes veiled threats from the Muslims such as ‘the community may not like this or that’. This carries the unspoken but plainly understood message that ‘cohesion’ will break down if the Muslims wants are not catered for. It helps to understand that there are a lot of people for whom ‘peace’ is the most important thing in the world, even if it is the temporary and chimera-like peace that is bought by appeasement. Many of these people fold like a paper napkin when confronted with Islamic demands.

Unfortunately what goes on in interfaith meetings doesn’t always stay in interfaith meetings, as those involved will go back to their churches or synagogues or temples and regurgitate the dishonest guff about Islam to their co-religionists. This has the very negative affect of promulgating further the dishonest view of Islam that had been originally planted by the Imam or Islamic community leader.

The ‘nice but dim’s’ are, because of their naivety, a real danger. They buy into the dishonest statements about Islam for what they feel are the highest of moral and spiritual reasons, but by doing so they fail to challenge what needs to be challenged. They end up making people less wary than they should be about the ideology of Islam and in some cases even end up trying to silence those with views of Islam that are more critical. I believe that it is a terrible moral sin to tell someone that a situation, or an ideology is safe when it is not. I fear that there are many people who have listened to those who’ve taken on board the ‘religion of peace’ lie, who will either get a rude awakening about the true nature of Islam or who will end up as victims of Islam.

As I said in my opening paragraph, I believe that interfaith, done right and with the right people with the right attitudes can be a force for good. I believe that the reason for the success of groups like the Council of Christians and Jews for example has been honesty and mutual respect. Despite the tragic and often violent way that Christians have treated Jews in the past, productive links have been made between the two faiths because of the work of the CCJ. Honesty, as we can see from this example even when painful, can build bridges. I don’t feel so confident when it comes to Islam. With Islam we have the problem that there is very little institutional and theological honesty from Muslims that we can rely on, and very little respect for non-Muslims. Too often Muslims in these interfaith groups tell non-Muslim people what they want to hear, and not the truth.

Good interfaith work takes mutual honesty, mutual respect, shared goals and a recognition of the one-ness of humanity. None of these positive and necessary traits do we get from the ideology of Islam. Islam is not here to work with other groups, it is only here to expand Islam and oppress and ultimately destroy these other groups and belief systems. The Nice But Dim’s of the interfaith movement have been comprehensively conned by the followers of Islam, that’s pretty obvious to me now, as it has become obvious to many others. The question is do we let these Nice But Dim’s, these victims of ‘the Great Islam Con’ deceive the rest of us as well, or do we challenge them? If we choose not to challenge them, and sign up to be as comfortably numbed by lies just as they were, then we will have only ourselves to blame when the smelly brown ordure hits the fan. I for one, will not be fooled by Islam or its forked tongued messengers and I hope that many more people start to be much more cynical about Islam and what it is, rather than imagining it to be something that it is not. The truth about Islam may be uncomfortable but believing the lies told about it means almost certain death.