Justice and Peace campaigners look at 'Extremism'

NJPN quarterly meeting

Justice and peace activists from around England and Wales gathered in London on 11 May for their quarterly meeting focusing on 'Extremism in 2024'.

They heard Margaret-Ann Fisken and Melanie Nazareth speak to the topic, in the light of the considerable discord and deliberate use of inflammatory language within all sections of our society, fuelled by irresponsible reporting by sectors of our media and the inaccurate labelling of many who are rightly concerned about the state of our common home. Linking very much into this is the new definition of extremism and how this is being used to discredit those exercising their democratic right to peaceful protest, and what the implementation of this definition could mean in practice and specifically to the growing global climate emergency

Margaret-Ann Fisken is a retired barrister and mediator. She has a long-held passion for issues around racial justice and served as Chair of CARJ from 2002 - 2011, and as Moderator of the Racial Justice Network of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI). She has also worked closely with the Bishops' Conference on migration issues, especially the integration of migrants, as a member of the Caritas Europa Migration Commission.

The new definition of extremism updates the one set out in the 2011 Prevent Strategy which speaks of 'British values'. Margaret-Ann highlighted the difficulties resulting from the use of terms such as 'British values,' which are subjective concepts and open to different interpretations depending on where we sit within our society. Whose values? Who decides" Whose values count?

Melanie Nazareth now spends most of her time as a grassroots organiser helping people of faith find their place in the climate movement. She came across Extinction Rebellion in 2019 and found herself unexpectedly called into activism. This journey has led her from a career as a lawyer to studying theology, ecology and ethics, and to working with Christian Climate Action and now also Green Christian as the Church Engagement Officer.

Melanie highlighted a grassroots setting, with stories of how individuals and groups campaigning on the climate crisis found themselves being arrested, charged, bailed and sometimes imprisoned for exercising their democratic right to make their voices heard in a just and peaceful manner.

The presentations disturbed and challenged those present and set the context for group discussion which created a lively buzz around the room. The main outcome from the group session was to ask what is our response as people of faith in such disturbing times? The overwhelming answer was that we take our responsibilities seriously and use our many gifts and blessings to listen, dialogue, engage in synodal listening, with all who wish to confront the narrative of fear and hate being used to divide our society.

As Church, we must use our prophetic voice to call out all who seek to divide for whatever purpose. We must hold all in positions of power, political, civic and religious to account for what they do and say, or crucially what they omit to do and say. What a powerful witness, if all people of faith and goodwill could make common cause and imagine the impact we could make. We must not lose hope. As Pope Francis writes so eloquently, 'Let us Dream'

Link: www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/