Face to Face & Side by Side
Eating together, sharing our lives, engaging with the challenges our society faces, and planning to make a difference. As Muslim and Christian leaders in Luton all these things are important to us. So last evening some thirty of us gathered. Its the second time we have done so in four months, and we plan for it to become a regular part of life together.
The focus of our time last evening was Roseann Taylor ( @roseann42350945 ), whose son Azaan was murdered in a knife crime in Luton in 2018. Roseann is a Christian, her son was a Muslim. Her story is one of the support my friend Sujel gave her through the time Azaan’s body was held by the coroner, and then as she sought to honour Azaan and his dad’s Muslim faith and her own Christian faith in his funeral and burial. It is a heart rending story, but doesn’t end there, as she tells how she and Sujel have since worked to tell her story and challenge knife crime.
When we gather it is sadly always against the background of a world out there where our story is not the one that dominates the headlines. This time our minds were still focused on the Hanau Germany terror incident involving the death of ten people at the hands of an extreme right terrorist. So as Christians we presented a letter of support to our Muslim friends and asked them to take it to their wider community.
Face to face conversation. Side by side working together. Trust, mutual honour, lots of laughter, and care for one another. Its not hard really to aim at a better world.
