Prince Charles warns social media is fuelling religious divide
THE Prince of Wales has warned that social media is stoking division between religions by amplifying a “fear of difference”.
Visiting an Islamic centre in Oxford, he said there had “perhaps never been a greater need for cultural connectivity” amongst practitioners of faith.
“In the world in which we now live, with fears about ‘The Other’ – whether that be Sunni, Shia, Jew Christian, Yazidi, Hindu or Buddhist – stoked and spread through social media, and amplified by those who would seek to suppress understanding rather than promote it, there is an urgent need for calm reflection and a genuinely sustained, empathetic and open dialogue across boundaries of faith, ethnicity and culture,” he said.
“We need to rediscover and explore what unites rather than what divides us. And that involves a recognition that we have all learned from each other and should continue to do so.
“No one culture contains the complete truth. We are all seekers. And our search is, or should be, a collective human enterprise.”
The Prince was opening a new building which is to become home to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, a recognised independent centre of the University of Oxford.
He has been patron of the centre since 1993 and spoke of his pride in what it has accomplished over the years. The organisation was granted a Royal Charter by the Queen in 2012.
Prince Charles recalled the organisation’s beginnings in a wooden hut and praised the design of the new centre.
The Prince maintains a keen interest in architecture and famously described a proposed extension to the National Gallery as a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”.
The Islamic Studies centre, with its minaret and courtyards, meets with his approval.
He said: “It requires extraordinary skill and sensitivity to design a new building, drawing distinctively from the architectural traditions of classical
‘No one culture contains the complete truth. We are all seekers. And our search is a collective human enterprise’
Islam, that can immediately appear so completely at home alongside the celebrated and historic university buildings of Oxford.
“This blending of styles, this symbolism, narrates a wider – and vital – message about the blending of culture and faith in contemporary British society.”
The Prince and the Duchess of Cornwall also visited Oxford’s market.
At Colombia Coffee Roasters, the Prince said he could not drink a lot or he “might get palpitations”. He also declined a salted caramel brownie, joking: “It would finish me off.”
The couple also visited a florist, where the Duchess was presented with a bouquet featuring flowers used in her wedding day arrangement.