LDMF ‘Meeting the Challenge’ Response
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Empowering people and respecting beliefs
The undercurrents of Liberal Democrat Constitution and any Manifesto Policy must aim to enable people to live by their faith and believes, and respect the different value systems of a Multi-faith, Multi-Cultural Society.
There is a fine line between Empowering and interfering in people’s way of life. Empowering means providing a system of government or provision in public services in such a way that its implementation or application allows local level flexibility of local decision making and variation of these being applied to people of different faiths and cultures without forcing these people to live against there culture or faith, i.e. liberating people!
This moves away from a concept that “one size fits all” or “centralisation of decision making” on issues those apply differently to different groups of communities. When clearly people of different faiths would like to lead certain aspects of their lives according to their values that are different.
We have to remember, that every citizen pays the taxes and has the same level of representation from the Government. The public services need to be provided according to the needs of its citizens and not according to the philosophy of the Ruing Political Party, which can never be the philosophy of all its citizens.
Every citizen deserves the right to live by his/her principles and values without interference from the government or being prevented by government.
Examples:
- If Muslims wish to celebrate Eid as its day of Festival, than they need the Holiday to be able to do so and our national Holiday system should cater for this.
- If the Muslim children in schools need their second language to be Arabic so that they can study the Quraan and Islamic History and theirheritage, than the Schools should have this as an option and not only French, German and Spanish as options.
- If the Muslim Women by faith require medical treatment to be administered by women and require the Hospitals to have separate sex wards, than, our Health Service should be organised to deliver these services according to the needs of the citizens where there are concentrated populations of Muslims.
- If faith communities believe in strong families based around traditional marriage system, both nucleolus and extended families, than government social services or fiscal policies should not work to dismantle families or family values through any form of political correctness from lobby groups who do not believe in traditional family systems. Allow those who believe if these families values to live by them.
- It would be unacceptable to have Gay teachers being forced upon the Faith Schools when it sits opposite to the beliefs and ethos of these Faith Schools.
- Larger houses for larger families to house extended families?
The Multi-Faith and Multi-Cultural Britain, and One-World Movement
In matters of Foreign Policy, it has become clear that a multi-cultural society has spoken out the ideas that in the name of national interest, our government can not go and rob the resources of other poor nations, invade or kill citizens of other countries, destroy communities and nations at will.
Instead there is a clear demand from the citizens of a multi-faith United Kingdom, to respect the resources and environment on the globe. We treat the Globe as our home and are able to overcome the narrow national geographical boundaries. The movement for Democracy is a challenge for Britain as much as it is for Iraq, Iran, Germany, North Korea or USA. None of us have got it right as yet.
The Animal instincts of Modern Media
The most difficult animal to tame if the “Modern Media”. Its culture has no boundaries of respect or self-discipline. It can act as a fire out of control hungry to consume anything in its path to keep aflame. The politicians, the Military, and any other power hungry force use media as the main tool to win power and control over others. The media does make or brake community relations of the societies and needs more stricter standards and external regulation, without which the chances of developing a peaceful and secure society would be difficult if not impossible.
The social agenda of Governments
The social responsibility of the haves to the have-nots is moral responsibility of the faith communities. If the government or other voluntary groups fails to match this responsibility than the Religious groups will almost certainly fill the gaps. So should the government replace this role of the Faith groups or empower/enable the faith groups to use their voluntary resources to deliver social deliverables.
The Peace and security for the society
The moral fibre of the society is best developed and nurtured by the faith communities. Should the faith groups be used to uplift the standard of public and social life or is the government or Politicians best suited to lead the moral standards? A good moral discipline of a society provides a basis of a peaceful and secure society minimising the crime and disorder in a society.
The Love of People
The faith community’s starting point is Love for all its citizens. Like a mother who loves all its children equally despite the children being all different from each other as five fingers on the hand. The Mother loves them if different measures according to their differing needs because not all of them have equal needs. Yet this is the best example of equality that would result all her children being brought to equal levels.
So this is the best model the governments can take in their social justice. Provide the redistribution to its citizens according to their differing “needs” and not according to equal measures. Does this mean “Means testing”? May be but without challenging individual dignities and without embarrassing individuals in the process.