Prayer for the Day

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Prayer for the Day: 15/11/2022

15/11/2022

BBC Radio 4 - Prayer for the Day, 15/11/2022

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Muneera Pilgrim.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Muneera Pilgrim, poet, writer and broadcaster.

Good Morning

Though it is not a holiday to be celebrated, November is Islamophobia awareness month and organisations and individuals across the country are bringing awareness to the high numbers of hate crimes that Muslims face and are asking the tough questions about what can be done to tackle hate of this kind. Hate and prejudice is not something only Muslims face or any faith group for that matter. Hate is an issue that has managed to spread itself right across the multitude of existence, and in many cases seep into everyday practices mimicking cultural norms.

It is normal to be suspicious of those who are from different countries, or those who don’t speak the same language as us. It is normal to judge those who have a different skin colour from ours. It is normal to resent the poor or despise the rich. It is normal to have fixed assumptions about gender and the roles that people should play. 

Maybe phobia is the perfect lens through which to talk about different iterations of hate because it seems to be rooted in fear. Fear or gain, the fear of change, and the belief that someone who is different to us wants to infringe upon our freedom and our rights. Or a way to gain from other people is by igniting fear based on those differences.

My prayer today is that we are discerning, Dear God in all your glory, allow us to be awake to the ways in which fear can be fed to us as a distraction, let us be people of hope and enlightenment rather than of fear and hate.

Ameen

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