Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali and Rehman Chishti MP: The Medway towns can provide a great example of communities working together

Michael Nazir-Ali was the Bishop of Rochester from 1994 until 2009 (pictured right), and Rehman Chishti is the Member of Parliament for Gillingham and Rainham (pictured left).

After the disturbances in some of our major cities during the summer, we were both concerned that Medway (comprising five separate towns: Gillingham, Rainham, Chatham, Rochester and Strood) should directly address some of the factors which were perceived to have led to the riots.

The Leader of Medway Council, Rodney Chambers, and Rehman Chishti MP sent out invitations to a wide range of community organisations, churches and faith communities, universities, colleges and schools, the police and social service delivery agencies to a community gathering in January. The community seminar was led by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester.

This was very well supported by different sections of the community, and a number of objectives were identified for the prevention of social erosion and the strengthening of society. Many of those attending agreed that too much emphasis on autonomy had led to individualism, selfishness and greed. It was pointed out that we become who we are through our relationships, and the importance of interdependence and partnerships was seen as crucial for community building and, indeed, self-understanding.

Michael Nazir-Ali: Let us care for the ill and vulnerable - not help them to die

Michael Nazir-Ali is Director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy & Dialogue, and was formerly the Bishop of Rochester.

Time and again, Parliament has refused to relax the law on assisted suicide.  Having failed there, attempts were made to get around the law by persuading the Director of Public Prosecution to revise guidelines about who might be prosecuted for helping a relative or a friend to end their life.  A relentless campaign has been kept up in the media inspite of the thinness of the medical, legal and moral arguments which are regularly brought up in support of changing the law.  The refusal of professional bodies to endorse this agenda has also not deterred the enthusiasts for legalising assisted dying. Now we have an "independent" commission, reported to have been packed with supporters of euthanasia and funded by people like Terry Pratchett, known to be advocates of changing the law in this area.

To be fair, even such a biased commission has not been able to ignore the abuses which will take place if the law is changed. They did not like much of what they saw at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. It seems they were appalled by the width of the law in Holland, where even children are allowed to request an assisted death and where you could be helped to die if you are depressed. They were not very impressed with the situation in Oregon either.  Yet having seen the large problems in three of the leading providers of assisted suicide, they are still able to recommend it for terminally ill patients in the UK who have a year or less to live.  Whether the safeguards they prescribe are enough will be debated in the days to come.  But my question is whether legal provision for assisted dying is necessary at all.

Michael Nazir-Ali: How do we give our young people the values they need?

Michael Nazir-Ali is Director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy & Dialogue, and was formerly the Bishop of Rochester.

Someone said recently, in the aftermath of the rioting, looting and killing" "this is what a godless society looks like". It is certainly true that we have created a situation where people have only material and financial expectations.  Even the 'Body and Soul sections in the newspapers are mainly about the body.  Quite apart from the spiritual dimension, there has been little emphasis on growing as a person, on integrity, on commitment in relationships, on a concern for others and on the importance of contributing to society.  The stress on personal fulfilment has led to selfishness and greed and to a neglect of the sense of mutual obligation which lies at the root of every kind of social organisation.

Codes of moral conduct have all arisen within the context of the great religious traditions; whether it be the Torah of Judaism, the Laws of Manu of Hinduism or the Shari'a of Islam.  In Britain, for centuries, moral conduct has arisen from the Judaeo-Christian vision of the Bible and, specifically, the Ten Commandments. It is true, of course, that non-believers can be moral, even more so than believers, but this is usually within the context of an existing tradition.  What made Britain great was a sense of responsibility, of accountability to one another and, ultimately, of having to answer to God, the very source of our existence.  It is the loss of this framework that has led to the darkness we have all been experiencing.  Instead of finding numerous excuses and denying the real origin of our problems, we should make the recovery of such a framework central to the task of the moral and spiritual regeneration that everybody now thinks is necessary.

It has been well said that the task ahead has to begin with properly functioning families.  Parents have to be not just at home but actively engaged in the all-round development of their children. The State cannot and must not attempt to do this job for them. Some single parents, single for no fault of their own, do a heroic job in bringing up their children. They would usually be the first to say that it takes two to do it. Children are not little grown ups. One of the problems has been that society has often treated them as such. The human young need a long period of maturing and this is why life-long bonding is needed between the parents. All the research is telling us that children relate to fathers and mothers differently and each relationship plays a distinctive role in their growing up.  We desperately need a basis for inter-generational communication that is not just about acquistion and the fulfilment of desire. It must also be about restraint, giving-up for a greater good and sharing.  The Ten Commandments and Jesus' summary of them about loving God and neighbour would be a suitable place to begin.

Michael Nazir-Ali: We must not give up in Afghanistan and let the Taliban return to power

Michael Nazir-Ali is Director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy & Dialogue, and was formerly the Bishop of Rochester.

The death of Osama Bin Laden, whilst certainly a landmark in the struggle against extremism and terrorism, is also responsible for much facile optimism, even among senior politicians.  It has provided fresh oxygen for the "Little Englanders", as indeed for "Monroe Americans", who believe that the arch-terrorist's passing has put a decisive end to the extremist threat to the West. Whatever lip service they may pay to a continued presence of advice and assistance in the region, at the back of their minds they believe that we should now withdraw our troops from Afghanistan and leave that benighted area to its own devices.

Such an understanding of the post-bin Laden situation is very misleading and dangerous.  There is plenty of hinterland from which al-Qaeda can recruit in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The madrassas remain unreformed and flourish, the various lashkars (or extremist militias) continue to operate with near-impunity both within Pakistan and across the border, and the Taliban in either country are far from defeated. Not only that, but al-Qaeda, and its various affiliates, now pose a threat from the Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Gaza and even Egypt.