This year's interfaith walk in London brought together people from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities in the capital, aiming to counter rising hatred and division. The event, organized by the Faiths Forum for London, saw about 50 participants, including faith leaders and community members, celebrating St George's Day through a route that reflected the city's religious diversity.
Reclaiming the Flag
Maurice Ostro, founder patron of the Faiths Forum for London, noted that his decades-long interfaith work was once met with good-natured teasing. However, amid record-breaking antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents, the jokes have stopped. The group gathered at St John's Wood church in Regent's Park, where Rev Anders Bergquist welcomed them under two St George's flags, emphasizing that St George is also the flag of the Church of England, which has pushed back against Christian nationalism.
Attendees waved St George's flags and held placards reading "Faiths United" and "England United" as they walked to the Liberal Jewish synagogue and then to London Central mosque. At the mosque, Imam Sheikh Khalefa Ezzat spoke about unity, peace, and courage, stating, "Our duty is to bring peace and bring people together … not to divide them."
Nationwide Events
The London walk was one of nearly a dozen events across the country. These included Muslim and Jewish women making Doves of Peace in London, a Birmingham community walk to a Muslim centre targeted by racist graffiti, and a St George's Day parade in Gravesend, Kent, where schools and community groups sang the national anthem.
Ostro, the child of a Holocaust survivor, shared that most of his family was wiped out by hatred, but his father was saved by Christians. "I'm alive, my children are alive, my grandchildren are alive only because people stood next to each other and helped one another when they saw things were going wrong," he said.
Unity Over Division
Julie Siddiqi, founder of Together We Thrive and co-chair of British Muslim Network, stressed that St George's Day should not divide people further. "We should be celebrating and coming around the flag, and not shying away from that," she said. Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, noted research showing broad public consensus that English identity is not defined by ethnicity. Interfaith events, he said, can reassure minorities who may feel anxious about belonging.
Phil Rosenberg, director of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, warned against a distorted view of the country fueled by social media algorithms and hostile foreign states. "We're seeing real people in all their complexity, and in most cases, the fact that most people are good people who want to get on with each other," he said.
Ostro emphasized that the flag of St George is a national symbol, not a nationalist or racist one. "It mustn't be allowed to go that way, because that would start a very dangerous downward spiral," he concluded.
