The Movement for Reform Judaism

Eulogy by Sir Sigmund Sternberg Delivered at the Memorial Service for Sheikh Dr. M.A.Zaki Badawi
16 March 2006

We are here to mourn a friend and a colleague — and there is none who will not say we have need of him now more than ever.

At a time when angry rhetoric fills the air and we seem as a society divided without hope of repair, we desperately need

· the quiet reason,

· the compassionate humour,

· the worldly experience of Zaki Badawi.

Who can deny that, with his passing, Islam lost a dedicated leader and spokesman.

Certainly, the world of interfaith endeavour has lost a prime advocate of respectful and purposeful dialogue, and I am bereft of a true friend and trustworthy associate of many years.

But none of us has suffered so grievous a loss as Maryam, Zaki’s devoted wife and confidante of many years.

Hazel and I were privileged to share their friendship and know from the intimacy of that relationship how close they were.

It is a matter of great pride to all of us in the Three Faiths Forum that Maryam has agreed to join our advisory committee and that we can continue to benefit from the wisdom of a Badawi in our midst.

My relationship with Zaki in the sphere of inter-religious dialogue goes back many years before we established the Three Faiths Forum in 1997 together with the Rev Dr Marcus Braybrooke.

The Forum itself was our response to the refusal of the then leadership of the Council of Christians and Jews to contemplate the establishment of a Muslim component in that Council.

It is a bitter irony that the establishment of a Christian-Muslim Forum in this country was celebrated on the very day that Zaki was taken from our midst.

Indeed, he had been scheduled to be a prime speaker at the inaugural session.

The day of his death was also the day of one of the major achievements of the Three Faiths Forum.

On that very day, we received notice of a Home Office grant to enable us to initiate an educational programme to promote interfaith understanding amongst young adults.

How pleased Zaki would have been with that.

Our co-operation in interfaith endeavour stretched across many continents and we travelled together to promote its message in many European cities.

The global aspect of his commitment to dialogue was to be seen in his chairmanship of the Abrahamic Forum of the International Council of Christians and Jews, the umbrella organisation for 36 affiliates on every continent.

Zaki was no obsequious machine man, as many of you will know.

He told The Guardian in an interview,

“I am naturally a rebel. I have always refused to be deferential, even to heads of state. Irreverence is part of my Islamic culture…”

He gloried in his Islam and was its proud representative.

This has been recognised, most unusually, in an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons, in which MPs of all parties put on record their recognition — and here I quote —

“of his immense contribution to community relations and interfaith dialogue both in the UK and across the world; his belief that diversity strengthens and enriches society and that there is no contradiction in being both Muslim and British.”

The Bishop of Oxford, Bishop Richard Harries, in his “Thought for the Day” BBC broadcast said that Zaki, more than anyone else, worked towards an Islam that sat comfortably with British values.

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, in his remarks at the memorial service held last month, spoke about “building a ‘spiritual humanism of peace’ for Britain, a framework of belonging that allowed people of all faiths to feel they had a stake in British society because they knew that their values were respected”.

He said that Zaki knew that “such a framework was vital to overcome the sense of alienation felt by many Muslim youths, an alienation that left them vulnerable to a false religion of hatred and violence and force.”

Those of us who labour in the demanding but not always appreciated sphere of interfaith relations have long had cause to be grateful to the Royal Family.

The encouragement given to us by their interest and, not least, their attendance at our events is a powerful incentive not to give up when the going gets tough. And you, Sir, have taught us all something powerful on that score!

In that great book of philosophical thought, Kohelet or Ecclesiastes, the Jewish King Solomon reflects that

“Every man has three names: one that his father and mother gave him, one that others call him and one in the scroll of his own creation.”

Zaki Badawi wrote a scroll of which Maryam and his family can forever be proud.

He made for himself a name which will ever honour both him and them and all the works of his hands.

May his soul rest in peace.

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