The Saracen and the Jew
Bubble — By Aled Edwards on December 22, 2009 7:00 am
Wales is no longer a land of stone subjugation
THAT NIGHT on the cold streets of Newport was a special moment in a small nation’s devolved history. It helped define who the Welsh are now as a modern, diverse and sophisticated people.
Fearing that the so-called Welsh Defence League would visit the city the following day with its own vicious brand of irrational minority hatred, a diverse group of people of different faiths and of diverse political persuasions met to hold a multicultural vigil. Quite spontaneously, when it was affirmed that all had a right to be different in Wales but that all also had a right to belong, Welsh flags were raised high in celebration. In a small but crucial way, this was nation building at work marked by a tolerance and a desire to include and to be included.
Observing the moment, a rush of memories came to mind: the memory of the brief address I gave in May 1999 in Llandaff Cathedral during the service to open the National Assembly, calling for a daring to imagine a nation that could be “built anew” and the painful older memory of the 1911 Gwent anti-Semitic riots in Tredegar, where our forefathers had indulged an irrational fear of the different.
Strangely, on seeing Muslims and Jews stand alongside each other in Newport, I recalled the words uttered by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd two months before his death at Cilmeri in 1282. From his court in Garth Celyn, Wales’ last native prince, wrote to Archbishop Peckham of Canterbury, complaining that the King was treating him and his people as he would “the Saracen and the Jew”. It’s a little know aspect of Welsh history that the financial cost of conquering and subduing Wales with so many castles led to the systematic expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290. For convenience, Edward I compelled the Jews of these islands to place a yellow marker on their clothing. Such truths are inconvenient as well as unpalatable.
I also remembered the more modern scathing criticism that David Lloyd George heaped upon Newport “Englishmen” following their rejection of his aspirations for Welsh self government, “Cymru Fydd” style, in 1896. He took his energies elsewhere.
Post devolution Wales has moved on so much at a national level. There has been some considerable healing of memories.
Two reports recently published in The Muslim News (27 November 2009) reveal a great deal about modern Wales. Abdul Adil records how the Muslim Council of Wales held a dinner to celebrate 10 years of Welsh devolution and how Rhodri Morgan had made an “emotional speech praising the diverse nature of Welsh culture and the rising threats to our multicultural Wales”. It was also noted that the National Assembly’s Presiding Officer saw the dinner as a “sign of the Wales of the future”. Such events were inconceivable in pre-devolution Wales. In the same edition, Aasiya I Versi placed an accurate title above the piece on the Newport Vigil: Night Peace Vigil Leaves Anti-Islamic EDL Voiceless. Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West, caught the mood of the evening. “The vigil was a wonderful occasion of groups of mosques, churches and political groups that are not often united in a wonderful spirit of solidarity.”
Such successful events could not happen without good community work on the ground. They are however enhanced considerably by a strong national lead. To his credit, it was Rhodri Morgan who called Wales’ major faith communities together in 2002 following the devastation of 9/11. Some of the faith leaders had already begun to work with each other within the emerging devolved space. A case in point was the pressure put on the Home Office to remove asylum detainees from Cardiff Prison in 2001. A strong alignment of NGOs, faith communities and all of Wales’ major political parties was seen at work. However, the creation of the Faith Communities Forum has proved to be a landmark event. Prior to the former First Minister’s intervention, Wales’ major faith leaders simply didn’t have each other’s phone numbers. Good conversations lessened the tensions experienced elsewhere following the 7/7 terrorist attack on London.
The skills acquired by key players in Welsh civic society around such transforming conversations have begun to be noticed by others. The US Embassy was represented at the Muslim Council of Wales’ devolution dinner. It is also significant that the Equality and Human Rights Commission asked Wales to host pioneering conversations between faith leaders and the gay and lesbian community last January. Such discussions can be difficult but they point towards a culture that can hold such conversations very well.
It would be a mistake to presume that the issues that belong to “the Saracen and the Jew” are peripheral to Welsh public life. During my year of office as Wales’ Commissioner for the Commission for Racial Equality the famous “Thomas Cook Affair” arrived unannounced on my desk. It appeared that a major international corporation had banned staff from speaking to each other in Welsh in Bangor of all places.
Constructive conversations with Thomas Cook, Welsh language pressure groups, the Welsh Language Board and Welsh Assembly Government facilitated by the Commission for Racial Equality resulted in a speedy and satisfactory resolution. A significant principle was understood. Preventing individuals from speaking to each other in their own language could be deemed to be an act of indirect discrimination. Perhaps of greater significance at the time was the realisation that the rights of Welsh speakers could fall within the compass of broader equality legislation covering gender, disability, religion and belief or sexual orientation. Welsh speakers may well have rights but they must be held, as all equality priorities, to the backdrop of what is “reasonable and proportionate” rather than what is absolute. Such conversations are new but developing.
Having had the privilege of serving on the All Wales Convention, I now fully intend not to speak further on the matter of holding a referendum on granting the National Assembly for Wales self standing primary law making powers. The decision regarding that matter rests with the politicians. I close, however, with a strongly held conviction that if power is to be acquired it must be acquired with a good end in mind. Welsh politics must be a place where people come together and where no-one gets left behind: be they Saracen, Jew, Christian or of no faith.
Much has been achieved on a national level during devolution’s first decade on building a genuinely inclusive Wales and the holding of transforming conversations. A great deal more has still to be done. Hardly anyone in the UK-based press however has noticed a change afoot. That is, with the honourable exception of The Muslim News.
Tags: All Wales Convention, devolution, inequality, religion
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11 Comments
Thanks for this column, Aled. We’ve decided to run it in the run-up to Christmas because of the powerful message of unity and charity which it conveys.
“Post devolution Wales has moved on so much at a national level. There has been some considerable healing of memories.”
We worked together back in 1997 in the hope that this would be the case. I am not a great one for nation building, but I do believe in social cohesion on a national level here in Wales. You are right to make the case that much has changed, much has healed.
A “transforming conversation” was held with the referendum electorate back in 1997. My hope is that a similar conversation can be held next year, informed by thoughtful pieces such as this.
Dolig llawen i ti, cyfaill.
Peace and goodwill to all men (and women) irrespective of race, religion, or language.
That is a Wales that I would be proud of.
The people of Wales’ victories over the English & Welsh Defence Leagues during 2009 might seem not that significant, minor local disturbances, but they may well be remembered in the future as combative and resilient expressions of the modern, radical and multi-cultural Wales.
Any social cohesion in Wales is due to the socialised welfare state, without which most of the rural and valley communities would be in a state of absolute penury and deprivation.
It is due to the fact that Wales has to, get that, HAS TO, fall onto the general taxpayers of the UK, and no doubt, should progress be maintained, onto the taxpayers of Europe. for it’s very existence under welfare terms.
The day that the UK is stupid enough to deliver law making powers, to this region, that involve the raising of revenue by that manage in Cardiff Bay, will be the day that the overwhelming bulk of the population of this REGION, takes action to put a stop to the ‘nation building’ nonsense we are being constantly beguiled with by those with NO true mandate for whatever it is they perceive as their idiotic birthright.
To perpetual chatter about what happened ten centuries ago bears absolutely no relationship to the 21 st century, nor should Westminster be charmed by so called academics, such as the one who wrote the rubbish commentary above.
Beyond the eastern and southern fringes of Wales, there is not enough population to see through such funding for what is being demanded, in the main the areas where whatever wealth does lie, are not particularly strong on devolution anyway, especially in the south east which gave a definitive NO when asked in the referendum in 1997, since when, our worst fears have been realised, we are being taken for a ride, which will ultimately conclude in our area suffering from the excesses of the language crazed nutters who current hold sway down in the WAG/Assembly corridors, as our taxes are raised to fund the garbage policies once the funding from the Eastern neighbour is curtailed, as it surely will be, once powers are devolved.
The current funding is constantly under debate and discussion over in the Capital, and sooner probably than later we may well see the level of funding drop, as Westminster, especially under a possible Tory administration in the not too distant future, tightens it’s belt .
Even the present administration is likely to get heartily fed up with the demands of this creation in Cardiff Bay, I fervently hope so, will do all I can to expedite the demise of the Devolved stupidity that is the WAG/Assembly, and look forwards to seeing Wales placed firmly as a area managed by local authority, as is the rest of the UK.
I think Morgan’s contribution breaches your comments policy in more than one way yet it gets through. I presume because it’s from the BritNat rather than the WelshNat end of the policical spectrum?
Efrogwr
I disagree. It may breach your sensibilities (in which case please feel free to argue against it) but it does not breach our Comment Policy
Best.
Adam
P.s on reflection, there was an uneccessary insult in the comment in question, which I have now removed.
“To perpetual chatter about what happened ten centuries ago bears absolutely no relationship to the 21 st century.”
Some English people, especially those of an establishmentarian outlook, are fond of their ´thousand years of history´ too.
Adam,
My sensibilities, we are agreed, are neither here nor there. Thanks for reflecting further, although when a commentator insults a contributor, I’m surprised that needs that much reflection.
Your comments policy says you “reserve the right to edit or delete anything that falls outside the ethos of the site. We expect those who comment to do so in a spirit of fair-minded inquiry”. Your comments policy also says you will generally not publish anything that is:
” * Defamatory, abusive, hectoring or ad hominem
* Racist, sexist or in other ways discriminatory
* Blatantly partisan, repetitive or off-topic.”
Yet you have left in:
“so called academics, such as the one who wrote the rubbish commentary above”
Nothing in Aled Edward’s CV suggest that he is an academic. “Rubbish commentary”? Well, I suppose where you draw the line at “hectoring” and “ad hominem”.
and also
“especially in the south east which gave a definitive NO when asked in the referendum in 1997, since when, our worst fears have been realised, we are being taken for a ride, which will ultimately conclude in our area suffering from the excesses of the language crazed nutters who current hold sway down in the WAG/Assembly corridors, as our taxes are raised to fund the garbage policies once the funding from the Eastern neighbour is curtailed”
“Language crazed nutters” Erm, right…. mutual respect, spirit of fair enquiry and all that. Not “blatantly partisan” and not “discriminatory”. Understood.
Efrogwr
See my earlier reply. I’ve looked at the comment, and edited where I deemed it appropriate to do so. Discussion about this is therefore concluded.
If you wish to take issue with the argument advanced by this commenter, and indeed his tone, please do so.
Adam
A thought provoking article, Aled Edwards. I’m not sure about any direct link between devolution and our multicultural ethos, but I guess that even if you are arguing that one man is responsible, initially, if that mas was Rhodri Morgan then maybe the link is closer than I have ever imagined. Thank you, and a Merry Christmas to you and everyone else, whether Christmas is their festival or not!
And in the Christmas spirit – morgan…
I’m afraid I don’t follow the relevance of your argument to the subject of multi culturalism, not to the efforts of Welsh people of different religions to understand each other, and to get to grips with such (religious) hot potatoes as homosexuality.
Neither do I see any reference to tax raising powers in the piece.
So, I shall only discuss the one paragraph of relevant comment (in my personal opinion), ie your first.
In what way is social cohesion solely due to the Welfare state? Is there something I’m missing, or do you need to be claiming something to take part in your local community?
Of course, there have been periods over the past decades when the Welfare state has “saved” certain areas from terminal population decline – I’m thinking especially of the 80′s pit closures in the valleys, for instance. I’m guessing that you could conceivable include EU money that keeps our agricultural communities functioning as “Welfare state”, but even these have barely supported “what was there before.”
As for the rest, I suspect that you have a message to sell, and have no real interest in what the discussion is that precedes your sale.
morgan’s post reminds me of the phrase ‘politics of the begging bowl’, associated I believe with Denzil Davies, former Labour MP for Llanelli.
I think we can do better than that..
Nadolig Llawen & blwyddyn wych i bawb yn 2010
CA Jones