34/05

24 March 2005

Speech by the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Muslim news awards for excellence, 23 March 2005

Assalaamu alaikum

Let me start by thanking Ahmed Versi and the Muslim News for inviting me to speak to you this evening.

I am delighted to have this opportunity to thank Ahmed and his dedicated team for making tonight’s event possible.

And it is a pleasure to be here with you tonight as you recognise and celebrate the invaluable contribution of members of the Muslim community to Britain.

British Muslims make a huge contribution to this country’s success - to our prosperity, our society and our culture. Islam is Britain’s second largest faith, and Muslims are involved in every walk of British life - from politics, academia, law, the arts and social services to humanitarian aid work, business and finance. As Chancellor, I want in particular to thank you for the enormous contribution the Muslim community makes to our economy. I have learnt much from your entrepreneurial flair and talent. And with business creation higher in the Muslim community than in many other sections of our society, British Muslims are playing a vital role in the next stage of Britain’s economic development.

But the contribution of British Muslims to British life goes far beyond the economic realm. Islam teaches us that we are all part of one moral universe, that humanity is intertwined and interlinked like different parts of a human body, reflecting each other’s condition. This is a universal moral principle we can all learn from. And in that spirit tonight, we are acknowledging and rewarding the width and depth of the care and compassion demonstrated by British Muslims right across our country.

In his book 'The Power of Myth' Joseph Campbell described a hero as someone who have given their life to something bigger than themselves.

So I want to honour you and members the Muslim community as our modern heroes: standing for the highest ideals, bearing burdens, and bringing hope to us all in Britain.

Of course, the relationship between Islam, Muslims and Britain is not a new one.

I am told that there is a coin in the British Museum dating from the reign of King Offa of Mercia in the 8th Century which because of what is believed to be the good trade relations between our nation and the Muslim nations of the East bears both the mark of the British isles and the shahada - the Muslim declaration of faith.

And, of course, in more recent times the links have become strong when – starting from rural areas of the Indian subcontinent in the 1950s - the largest migration of Muslims into this country began.

It was in areas like London’s inner city, the industrial towns of the Midlands, and the textile towns of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Scotland that the Muslim community first demonstrated their entrepreneurial spirit and their important contribution to the country we are all part of.

And it was also in these cities, whilst campaigning against poverty and for better access to education, that many Muslims quickly developed a strong bond with other like-minded people that desired to see the same changes in our society.

What we share in common is the belief in fair play, in social justice and in the equality and potential not just of some but of all.

And it is because of these beliefs that I can tell you tonight that this Government is determined to work with you to tackle Muslim unemployment and raise educational achievement amongst young Muslims. The new deal has already helped thousands of British Muslims back into work. The introduction of the minimum wage and family tax credits has helped countless Muslim families. And in the Budget last week I announced that we will set up new centres of vocational excellence in entrepreneurship to help young people from ethnic minorities and faith communities fulfil their ambition to set up in business.

On a wider level, this Government is also determined to help secure the future of all our children. Sure start and children’s centres are providing vital services and new opportunities to thousands of Muslim families. I know that in Tower Hamlets, for example, Muslim children and their parents are benefiting from the sure start crèche that has been set up as part of the London Muslim Centre. And as you will also be aware, I have introduced a new child trust fund for every child born since September 2002, as an investment in the future of all our children.

At the same time the government recognises the distinctive features of the Muslim community. That is why in the Treasury we have reformed stamp duty to facilitate Islamic mortgages. We understand the needs of the Muslim community in this area and we have learnt a lot from you. Removing tax disadvantages for Islamic mortgages was the right thing to do for the Muslim community but was also the right thing to do for our mortgage system as a whole. And in the Budget last week, I announced further measures to create a level playing field for other shari’ah compliant products.

All these measures are about achieving equality and social justice.

And it is for the same reasons that this Government has also established the first state funded Muslim faith schools; abolished the primary purpose rule - which unfairly affected ethnic minorities particularly Muslim communities; and introduced a raft of legislation against hate crimes, including the new legislation to outlaw religious discrimination in the workplace.

It is also under this Government that the first Muslim MPs have been elected, and the first Muslim peers appointed.

So we have achieved much together.

But we all still have much to do.

I know that for many people the last two years have been very difficult because of the decision to take military action in Iraq.

Let me say frankly that I understand and respect your views on that. But I also believe that despite our differences of opinion, we all want to see the same thing – an independent, peaceful and democratic Iraq.

And we also all want to see new hope in the Middle East. Tony Blair has made it clear that this issue is a top priority for the government with a clear commitment to a viable state of Palestine alongside a secure Israel. I believe that the recent Palestinian Conference held in London renews the hope for peace. It will not be easy, but I believe it is possible to make progress. And the Government will do everything in its power to make this hope for peace a reality.

And here at home, we as a government are also determined to bring in the new law against incitement to religious hatred - giving British Muslims the same protection already afforded to other communities. And we want to make sure that religious discrimination is outlawed in the provision of goods and services.

All these policies are about fairness not favours. It is about giving the Muslim community the same legal protection and opportunities afforded to other communities. It is about equality and social justice.

And all these steps are not about us – the government - or you - the Muslim community - doing the expedient thing. It is about together doing the right thing based on our shared values. In the end, despite what many may think, we know that the partnership between the Government and the Muslim community is not a relationship of convenience. It is a relationship of common purpose.

We share the same beliefs in the value of enterprise and fair play. But more than that – and what I want to focus on during the remainder of my remarks today – I believe we share the same basic principles about social equality and social justice - both within our own country and beyond.

It is in that spirit that you have asked me this evening to present the Ibn Khaldun award for excellence in promoting understanding between global cultures and faiths - because nowhere do we see this more clearly than in our common cause – tackling global poverty.

I know that one of the fundamental teachings of Islam is that of sadaqah - charity and assistance to those in need. The essential Islamic belief that ‘none of you is a true believer until you want for your brother what you want for yourself’ is a moral sense that we all need to share - a morality that leads us to conclude that when some are poor all are impoverished, when some are deprived our whole society is diminished, when some are hurt the whole society shares that suffering. That we are part of one moral universe and wherever and whenever there is poverty, deprivation and need, it is our duty to act.

I know I do not need to tell you about the intertwining of destinies and lives. The hadith (saying) of the Prophet Muhammad that “the ummah, the Muslim global community, is like the human body, when one part feels pain, the other parts must reflect that pain”, is a principle which applies to the whole of humanity, beyond the Muslim world - a truth that emphasises our duty to strangers, our concern for the outsider, the hand of friendship across continents. That says I am my brother's keeper, I will be your comfort.

The words of the poet Ghalib reinforce this:

‘My companion’s condition is a reflection of my soul’ he says, ‘my companion’s need unfulfilled is a blemish on my soul. The path I contemplate is only of use if it fulfils my companion’s need. Who then is my companion? Why, my companion is every creation of God’.

I believe that already this year the response to the tsunami - the modern world's greatest natural disaster - has demonstrated to us all the willingness of the British people and other peoples to come to the aid of fellow human beings who suffer. And a prime example of that generosity of heart was from within the British Muslim community.
Indeed, far from there being compassion fatigue, perhaps for the first time millions more people are understanding just how closely and irrevocably bound together are the fortunes of the richest persons in the richest country to the fate of the poorest persons in the poorest country of the world. As Martin Luther King put it, increasingly we can see ourselves as each strands in an inescapable network of mutuality, together woven into a single garment of destiny.

In my CAFOD speech last year, I recalled a poem by Dr James Stockinger, who wrote: 'It is the hands of others who grow the food we eat, who sew the clothes we wear, who build the houses we inhabit; it is the hands of others who tend us when we're sick and lift us up when we fall; it is the hands of others who bring us into the world and who lower us into the earth'

I was emphasising that we are in an era of global interdependence, relying each upon the other - a world society of shared needs, common interests, mutual responsibilities, and linked destinies. And so we have an international responsibility to those who need our help.

For it is precisely because we believe, in that moral sense, that we have obligations to others beyond our front doors and garden gates, responsibilities to others beyond the city wall, duties to others beyond our national borders as part of one moral universe - precisely because we have a sense of what is just and what is fair - that we are angry at the injustice and inhumanity that blights the lives not just of our neighbours but of so many people around the world. And that is why we are called to answer the hunger of the hungry, the needs of the needy the suffering of the sick whoever and wherever they are – and to see every death from hunger and disease is as if it is a death in our own family

In the last few years I have travelled to some of the poorest parts of Asia and Africa and I have seen poverty, desperation and despair from Indonesia to Tanzania, from Kenya to Mozambique.

No statistics however depressing can prepare you for the hopelessness and human loss that lies behind the numbers but I saw too amidst terrible suffering hope, optimism and a determination to see things change.

And from the suffering in Asia and Africa I have witnessed and the potential I have glimpsed it is our duty to act and to act urgently.

In Indonesia I saw young children being brought up in villages with open sewers --- bright-eyed but condemned to poverty because, try as they might, their parents could not earn enough money to feed and clothe them.
In Tanzania I saw 8, 9, 10, 11 year old children begging to continue in school - but denied the chance because their parents could not pay the fees.

In Mozambique young mothers desperate for their children to go to school waving their pay cheques of £5 a week - and raising their hands as one to complain angrily that they cannot even begin to afford the fees.

In Kenya children chanting free education - but secondary education forever beyond their grasp.

Yet surely it is our belief that every child is precious. Not just in our own country but across the world.

I know the importance Islam places upon the protection of children and particularly orphans. I am aware that the Prophet Muhammad as an orphan himself, emphasised the right of the child to protection, nurture and care.

And I say to this to you: justice promised will forever be justice denied until we fulfil our obligation to eradicate child poverty in every continent, every country, of the world.

Exactly five years ago in New York and in a historic declaration every world leader, every international body, almost every single country signed up to a shared commitment to right the greatest wrongs of our time.

The promise that by 2015 every child would be at school.
The promise that by 2015 avoidable infant deaths would be prevented.
The promise that by 2015 poverty would be halved.

This commitment was a bond of trust, perhaps the greatest bond of trust pledged between rich and poor.

But already, so close to the start of our journey, we can see that our destination risks becoming out of reach, receding into the distance.

And at best on present progress in Sub Saharan Africa:

Primary education for all will be delivered not in 2015 but 2130 - that is 115 years too late;
The halving of poverty not by 2015 but by 2150 -- that is 135 years too late;
And the elimination of avoidable infant deaths not by 2015 but by 2165 -- that is 150 years too late.

So when people ask how long, the whole world must reply:

150 years is too long to wait for justice.
150 years is too long to wait when infants are dying while the rest of the world has the medicines to heal them.
150 years is too long for people to wait when a promise should be redeemed, when the bond of trust should be honoured now, in this decade.

Martin Luther King spoke of the American Constitution as a promissory note.

And yet - for black Americans - the promise of equality for all had not been redeemed.

He said that the cheque offering justice had been returned with 'insufficient funds' written on it.

But he also said, ‘we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

And he said the time had come to ‘cash this cheque which would give upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice’.

In this way he exposed on racial equality the gap between promises and reality.

And in exactly the same way today’s millennium goals - a commitment backed by a timetable – are now in danger of being downgraded from a pledge to just a possibility to just words.

Yet another promissory note, yet another cheque marked ‘insufficient funds’.

And when we know the scale of suffering that has to be addressed, the problem is not that the promise was wrong, the pledge unrealistic, the commitments unnecessary but that we have been too slow in developing the means to honour, fulfil and deliver them.

In the past when we as a global community failed to act we often blamed our ignorance - we said that we did not know.

But now we cannot use ignorance to explain or excuse our inaction. We can see on our TV screens the ravaged faces of too many of the 30,000 children dying unnecessarily each day.

We cannot blame our inaction on inadequate science - we know that a quarter of all child deaths can be prevented if children sleep beneath bed-nets costing only 4 dollars each.

We cannot defend our inaction invoking a lack of medical cures - for we know that as many as half of all malaria deaths can be prevented if people have access to diagnosis and drugs that cost no more than twelve cents.

The world already knows we know enough. But the world knows all too well that we have not done enough. Because what is lacking is will.

That is why in 2005 – the year when Britain is president of the G8 and EU – the Government has put forward proposals

To write off the historic debt owed by the poorest countries to the richest including more of the debt they owe to international organisations;
To make real advances in trade negotiations with the richest countries opening our markets and supporting the poorest countries as they open theirs;
And to agree a comprehensive financing programme, doubling aid to halve poverty, so that developing countries have the resources they need to eradicate poverty and provide education and healthcare for all.

And when people ask whether we can make a difference this year, when they say that our proposals are too difficult, we should reply: in the words of the sufi Rumi: “conventional opinion is the ruin of our souls.”

For we may be powerless individuals but when we work together - each and all of us - we have the power to shape history.

My father used to tell me we can all leave our mark for good or ill - and he quoted Martin Luther King saying everyone from the poorest to the richest can be great because everyone can serve.

Tonight’s event recognises exactly that --- that we are at our best when we work together to serve others. And that this is only way forward for us as a country and an international community.

So our duty must be to raise international understanding; to reach beyond ourselves and beyond our borders; to embrace each other and in doing so make the world a better place. Maybe we cannot make this a world completely without suffering, but I believe we can reduce the number of children who are starving and malnourished, we can give more children the chance of an education, we can prevent thousands of children dying every day from preventable diseases.

There can be no greater challenge. But there can also be no greater opportunity for any government, any individual, to make a difference. In our time and in our generation, we must accept this challenge and say with vigour and optimism that – working together – we can make our world a better place.

Thank you.