‘DEFENDER OF ALL FAITHS’
As King Charles’s reign begins, leaders urge him to be…
SENIOR south Asian and black leaders have urged King Charles to make sure their communities continue to have a strong influence on Britain’s future.
While he was a prince, the new monarch was outspoken on issues which concerned him. They included the dangers of climate change, the benefits of organic farming, the perils of ignoring disadvantaged youth and promoting fairness and equality.
“We’re going to want King Charles to continue as he has, to have a huge amount of respect for all religions,” said Perry Barr Labour MP, Khalid Mahmood. “He has been very much engaged with all religious communities across the piece, and he’s had a very good attitude towards race and community relations.
“I’m sure he’ll want to keep that up and probably be more engaged in those communities than before. He has a different approach to issues, which would probably need more attention now.”
South Asian MPs, peers, faith and business leaders also paid tribute to the late Queen, who passed away last Thursday (8).
They expressed their admiration for her, and many told Eastern Eye her son will continue to unite communities.
“He is a monarch with whom the Asian communities will feel welcomed and respected,” said Seema Malhotra, the Labour MP Feltham and Heston. “I am sure he will continue to invite these stakeholders to events with prominent policymakers and public figures in the UK, where they can be the voice of the Asian communities in the room.
“Like his mother before him, he will also have to engage with grassroots community groups from across the spectrum of thought, and diverse backgrounds of Asian communities in the UK.
“I have been a long-time campaigner for equality in our public life and I am confident he will be a champion for a more inclusive and more equal Britain, confident in its place in the world and a force for change through a strong and growing Commonwealth.”
In a BBC interview, the new king acknowledged that he could no longer be as outspoken as he was as heir to the throne.
He also said he would have to cut back on being the patron or president of some charities and organisations.
In 2007, as the Prince of Wales, he founded the British Asian Trust (BAT), to support charities dealing with education, health and livelihoods in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“Well, he’s not a politician, so he can only do so much,” said BAT trustee Nihal Arthanayake. “He has already shown his commitment, his devotion to issues that involve south Asian communities, the diaspora, and those countries where our ancestors, our parents, or grandparents came from.
“I’ve seen very closely his work with the British Asian trust, I have hosted events where he has been the guest.
“I have sat in a room with him or stood in a room with him and spoken to him beforehand and saw the passion that he has to use his influence and his authority to raise the profile of issues that are happening in south Asia.
“So, in that respect, it’s very important that people understand not just his kind of admiration for south Asian culture, but also his willingness to engage with the conversations.”
But the BBC Five Live broadcaster also warned that the new monarch would now be limited in the kinds of things he could do and say publicly.
“I very much hope that he continues to be the founder and patron of the British Asian Trust, because I know how passionate he is about it.
“But the challenges this country faces are ones that politicians have to deal with, not members of the royal family. They don’t have the power to do that.
“They are different challenges, and there are quite considerable challenges that ethnic minority communities face up and down the UK, without question.
“That’s going to take some strength, and previously when he was a prince, he talked about things that as king he won’t talk about any more, because becoming the monarch comes with different realities,” Arthanayake said.
Lord Simon Woolley, founder and director of Operation Black Vote and principal of Homerton College, Cambridge, advised the king on the Black Lives Matter movement.
The peer is clear that while the king’s role must be apolitical, Charles III can discreetly continue to influence race relations in Britain.
He revealed how a ruling monarch could intervene in politically sensitive or controversial issues.
“I’m telling this for the first time. During the Black Lives Matter protests, I also got a call from Buckingham Palace from the Queen’s courtiers,” Lord Woolley exclusively told Eastern Eye.
“The Queen wanted a conversation with me about what we might do. For about six months, behind the scenes, we were preparing for a gathering.
“It wouldn’t necessarily be confronting structural inequalities, but it would be to convene a meeting that gave people a greater sense of belonging with what we were trying to establish.
“In the end, so something left field put all that into the long grass.
“It was the fallout and breakdown of Meghan Markle and the royal family.
“Once that happened, if we carried on with what we were doing, it would have been seen like a fig leaf that we were doing things just because of that.
“But I can say categorically the Queen let it be known to me directly that she wanted to use her convening powers to give black, brown and white people a collective sense of belonging in our society.”
Actor Nitin Ganatra, who is an ambassador for BAT, told Eastern Eye that the new king was unlikely to remain silent on key concerns.
“He does genuinely care,” he explained. “He’s very concerned about poverty, and women’s education, and girls being educated in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
“Listen, I’m an actor for a living. I know good acting and bad acting. I know what’s truthful and what is not, and I can I sense the genuineness every time I’ve met [then Prince] Charles.
“He could be a beacon of truth right now with the government we’ve got.
“If anyone did try to muzzle him, I don’t think they could, I don’t think he would allow it.”
When he was a prince, the media wrongly speculated that King Charles would be the “defender of faiths”.
But during his proclamation last Saturday (10), the new sovereign repeated the traditional pledge of being the “defender of the faith”. Constitutional experts agree this means that Britain will officially continue to be a Christian country, and he will be the supreme governor of the Church of England.
In a previous interview, he had made clear the late Queen and he were clear that “the church has a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country”.
A senior imam in Leicester, Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, has met Charles when he was Prince of Wales several times.
He urged the monarch to do more to help all faiths.
“King Charles needs to help with, firstly, legislation. And for us, he needs to add his voice to get an agreed and accepted definition of Islamophobia.
“Whenever something Islamophobic happens, we need it clearly under the law, and therefore, the appropriate punishment can follow.
“Without that definition, it’s difficult to pin down it.
“I have followed his work, and I’m very confident he will make a very good king.”
Several MPs told Eastern Eye they were confident the new king would continue to champion south Asian communities.
The founder and president of Cobra Beer, Lord Karan Bilimoria, had previously told Eastern Eye about how the late Queen embodied “service leadership”. He predicted her son would do the same.
“We’ve got one of the strongest combinations of hard and soft power in the world,” explained the peer.
“The royal family is one of our strongest elements of soft power.
“I’ve seen this first hand in the way that King Charles engaged with interfaith matters. It’s a genuine passion of his.
“He’s very curious as an individual, very thoughtful, and that’s been demonstrated through his actions.
“He’s also been an amazing great friend of India. He’s been there countless times and loves India.
“I think he will continue to be a champion for a truly diverse Britain.”
Other parliamentarians agreed with this assessment.
“South Asian communities are as much a part of and as important for the UK as everybody else, and they have a right to expect their king to speak to them and to represent them,” said Labour MP Gareth Thomas.
“I have no doubt that he and the wider royal family will continue to do that.”
He told Eastern Eye that the monarch would know what he needed to do.
“King Charles has got a good track record in that sense of doing that already (embracing Asian communities).
“Speaking to and welcoming communities from across the UK, regardless of faith, colour or background, and the monarchy is going to need to do even more of that.”
Thomas’s colleague, Valerie Vaz MP said, “I know King Charles, who has been active in supporting his mother’s work, will carry on in a similar way and the Asian communities will support him.
“King Charles has always been open to finding out about other faiths and communities and will, I am sure, continue to champion all the citizens of the UK.”
The Labour MP for Slough, Tan Dhesi added, “As King Charles III takes on the responsibility for being our head of state, he will doubtless carry on these great traditions, bringing together international communities and our great nation. Due to his longstanding work on faith, community cohesion and the environment, he is held in high esteem among ethnic minority communities.
“For example, when I met him recently and discussed our efforts for the National Sikh War Memorial in central London, I could see his great interest and knowledge come to the fore. He has an excellent grasp of Sikh military history and heritage.”
The former chair of the British Medical Association (BMA), Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said he respected the king, but suggested the monarch would have to choose his battles more carefully in the future.
“It’s perfectly within the remit of a monarch to be able to express views that need to be expressed in a measured way, and they need to be,” said Nagpaul.
“There need to be boundaries between the role of a monarch and the role of those that are directly governing the country. He needs to make sure that he’s well briefed, and therefore, many opinions aren’t made on a whim.
“It will really strip the personality out of the king if he were to feel gagged, that he couldn’t say anything that he actually believes in.
“It would be a shame if his convictions or his views could not somehow be channelled, because he has important contributions to thought leadership within the UK and more globally.”
The Commonwealth family meant a great deal to the late queen.
Sources have told Eastern Eye that she was instrumental in ensuring King Charles would continue the tradition of being head of the Commonwealth when the then 53 countries met at the London Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2018.
The honorary consul-general for Uganda, Jaffer Kapasi, has met the new king on 14 previous occasions.
He said, “King Charles is so committed to the Commonwealth.
“If those countries are trying to become republics, they may not have that direct link with Britain in terms of heads of state level.
“They will not gain all the benefits of the connection with royalty and when dealing with Commonwealth issues.
“For example, during the pandemic, the Queen wanted to make sure that all the countries within the Commonwealth benefited or dealt with Covid in the way Britain was doing.”
Last year (November 30, 2021) Barbados decided it no longer wanted the queen as head of state and became a republic. There is speculation other Commonwealth nations will follow suit.
Uganda’s ambassador to Rome, Mumtaz Kassam, came to the UK when the then president, Idi Amin, expelled upwards of 60,000 Asians.
She returned to her country of birth to fight for land seized by Amin to be returned to those expelled.
Kassam told Eastern Eye, “King Charles will have a huge challenge in trying to emulate Her Majesty’s work, but he will manage since he has been to many Commonwealth countries.
“He has a huge grounding on the type of work he needs to do to keep the work going, and he will be very good as head of the Commonwealth.
“The Commonwealth has huge challenges, and the union of the Commonwealth is important. I believe King Charles is well placed because his own convictions are quite strong.
“What you may have to do more is to try to grasp the younger generation of Commonwealth countries to be more involved. For example, IT is a huge problem that the Commonwealth has been grappling with for many years.
“Perhaps King Charles could get involved in having more exchange programs with Commonwealth countries because Commonwealth countries themselves do not have these exchange programmes within the countries and the UK.”
Anti-monarchists have demanded that Britain becomes a republic for decades.
However, the owner of Café Spice Namasté, Cyrus Todiwala, who cooked lunch for the Queen and Prince Phillip during the Golden Jubilee, said this would be a mistake. “I think these people are not well informed,” he said.
“The monarchy is a great thing to have – not many countries in the world can now say something like that, that we also have a monarch.
“The monarchy has always brought in huge amounts of revenue for Britain.
“I know there is this diehard group of people who think that the monarchy costs the exchequer a lot of money.
“But on the flip side, the monarchy attracts tourism like nothing else in the world as London becomes the epicentre.
“Thousands and thousands from all over the world pour into London, and they will be spending money in this country. People seem to forget that.”
So, if the new king cannot be as vocal as he once was, what are the alternatives?
“The new Prince of Wales, William, is younger,” said Arthanayake.
“He is from a completely different generation. Remember, his father is in his 70s, exposed to different ideas, different thoughts, different ways of seeing the world. It’s going to be quite interesting to see what he does, and how he does it and the things that he says.
“Let’s not forget his mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, was incredibly vocal about issues.
“Her willingness to physically touch people who had AIDS at a time when there was so much discrimination against people who were HIV positive.
“By her doing that, it changed so many people’s perceptions.
“So, whether he’s his mother’s son or his father’s, they’re on both sides. There is a record of getting aware of the world around him and not simply existing in an ivory tower. So that would be interesting.”
For the Labour MP Khalid Mahmood, it is simpler than that. “King Charles may not have any political power, but as far as I’m concerned, he has a huge amount of influence, and what I would like him to do is exercise that influence,” he said.
“We [MPs] swore allegiance to him as our king, and he continues to be our liege.
“Therefore, it’s important for him to look after those interests, and use wisely, those meetings he will have regularly with the prime minister.
“At least sometimes use that to point out better ways for her to help all the communities he reigns over.”