In the wake of the shooting in New Zealand, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke at an interfaith gathering at Regent’s Park Mosque in London.

Much of what I was going to say has already been said. The killings in New Zealand are monstrous. The response of New Zealand, all its people, with Muslims in the forefront, is beautiful and inspiring. What they say to each other we say to you. Those who attack Muslims in THIS country or elsewhere attack every human being. You are not “the other”, you are us. Those who act out of hate for Muslims act out of hate for all here. Those who acted or supported the actions in New Zealand attack all of us.

For British Muslims who are feeling under threat, we are with you. Hatred of Muslims denies and blasphemes Christ. Those who co-opt Christian language and history for hatred commit blasphemy.

We will work with Bishops in the Church of England to see how we can be more effective in visible signs of togetherness.

We educate one million children in Church of England schools and have 8000 clergy. We will renew what we do in our Near Neighbours scheme. We will work with bishops to see how we can be more effective in dioceses.

I commit myself to listening more and putting this higher up the agenda in my own actions and words.

The event in New Zealand is a wake-up call to renew civilised discourse in public life and on social media. I know that my good friend Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who is unfortunately unable to be with us today, is one with me when I say that faith and obedience to God are part of the solution to the challenges of extremism and it is working with faith communities that we will tackle this problem. It’s shown by the fact that people from so many faiths are standing together here in solidarity. The attacker wanted to create a war against Islam; he generated human unity.

Jesus taught his followers to be peacemakers, “for they will be called children of God.” Making peace is an action, it doesn’t just happen. It requires us to be curious, to listen, to move across differences of culture, ethnicity, religion and politics in love. Hate crimes against those who are different have no place before God.

We stand together for you are us, and we are you, together in the hands of the creator and judge of every person. May God protect and strengthen you.

Read the full speech on the Archbishop’s website.

The Presidents of the Christian Muslim Forum welcome the main message of Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri’s fatwa (Islamic ruling by a jurist) and wider explanation on ‘suicide bombings and terrorism’ which was presented in London on 2 March. His fatwa and accompanied exposition is an absolute condemnation of terrorism which he describes as forbidden by Islam and those who perpetrate such acts as ‘heroes of hellfire’ rather than ‘heroes of Islam’. We reiterate the long-standing viewpoint of the vast majority of Muslims that the Qur’an and Hadiths are replete with evidence that acts of terrorism cannot be justified Islamically.

We support his call for religious leaders to stand up against claims that violence and terrorism can be religiously justified and to highlight the fact that suicide bombings are an expression of a deviant ideology, and not true Islamic theology. We also appreciate his call for dialogue with those who attempt to justify violence and terrorism. We pray for the success of Dr Qadri’s initiative. His fatwa will become accessible to all in the next few months when it becomes available in English.

We also pray for the triumph of true Islamic teachings over the violent ideologies of groups such as al-Qaeda, who tarnish the reputation and image of Islam.

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As the Muslim and Christian Presidents of the Christian Muslim Forum we deplore terrorism and violence, especially any which claims to be religiously justified (‘Chief Constable warns terror fight will take decades’ comments to BBC2′ ‘Generation Jihad’). We re-affirm that our scriptures and prophetic traditions themselves neither inspire nor support violence. Rather they call us to peace, bridge-building and being good neighbours with each other and discourage the waging of war. The roots of religiously justified terrorism and violence lie elsewhere, as many in the community and inter faith organizations have been saying for some years.

We were very disturbed and concerned that the image of a Muslim praying at a mosque was originally used to accompany the online report of this news item. This allows, or encourages, people to wrongly associate religious practice with violence and terrorism. We are pleased that the BBC has recognized that this was inappropriate and have now replaced it. We also ask the BBC, and other media, to avoid associating the mainstream Muslim community, and practice of Islam, with violence and terrorism and clearly identify these as criminal, not Islamic acts.

The Christian Muslim Forum, whose origins pre-date 7/7 and 9/11, exists to promote positive dialogue and better understanding between both faiths by challenging myths, misunderstandings and prejudice. We have contributed to improved public understanding and better relations between both communities through our statements on Religious Festivals, our Ethical Witness guidelines and our current Mosque-Church twinning and Campus Dialogue projects.’

Rt Revd Dr Richard Cheetham, Dr Musharraf Hussain OBE (Co-Chairs), Revd Esme Beswick MBE, Shaykh Abbas Ismail, Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, Shaykh Haytham Tamim, Dr Nicholas Wood