Examination of Witnesses (Questions 260-263)
14 DECEMBER 2004
MR DANNY
STONE, MS
LUCIANA BERGER,
MR RAJA
MIAH MBE, MS
CAROLYN GOMM,
MS JOSIE
TYAS AND
MS KARINE
BAILEY
Q260 David Winnick: This is continuing,
is it?
Ms Berger: Yes, it is. It is very
new. It is the first time ever that NUS is holding any type of
conference do with this area of activity.
Mr Stone: We pride ourselves on
really taking the interfaith dialogue seriously. We have long
established links with the British Organisation of Sikh Students
and the National Hindu Students Forum. We were involved in the
debate on the right to wear a hijab in France with the United
Sikhs. We have got a Muslim and Jewish women's dialogue group
at Cambridge called MOJOW and a new one has been set up called
MOJOM (the Muslim and Jewish Men's Dialogue), we have had "urbans
versus turbans" football tournaments and there are all kinds
of really positive things going on.
Q261 David Winnick: Can I turn to PeaceMaker.
I am sure that we would agree that the work that is being done
is first-class. We are extremely impressed. Based on your discussion
with other young people, what do you feel would be the best way
to contribute to community cohesion and breaking down barriers,
which, as you know, in some respects from your own experience
exists on a level which is extremely unfortunate, breaking down
barriers between different groups?
Ms Tyas: I think that small things
like sports clubs and different organisations could be set up
to help break down the racial barriers and racial tension. I think
tiny little things can build up to stop the racial tension throughout
Britain.
Q262 David Winnick: May I ask, and I
hope you do not mind me asking both of you: how did you get involved
in such excellent work?
Ms Bailey: It was through school.
PeaceMaker got involved with our school a couple of years ago,
and then in about year eight we got asked if we wanted to get
involved in it, and we accepted and we have just moved up through
there.
Ms Tyas: We started off doing
a bit of anti-racism stuff and then we did stuff about communication
and things, and now we are doing story-telling and about different
religious festivals, and we have done this as well.
David Winnick: I suspect it is quite
likely you will end up on this side of the table asking the questions
in future years. Thank you very much.
Q263 Chairman: As a final question from
me, when you have had all your discussion groups, did you end
up feeling worried or frightened about the future with your generation
growing up with these different views or tensions, or was there
enough in there that that was good and positive for you to feel
confident about the future?
Ms Tyas: Definitely not. I am
not confident about the future. With racism as it is, I think
there needs to be a lot more done to improve the racist situation
as it is, but I would feel more confident about the future if
there were more organisations. There are a few people in each
school that are not racist but it counteracts the large percentage
that are racist. If we could just break down that racism in schools
then I would be a lot more confident.
Ms Bailey: It is the same with
me really. I was quite scared, because everyone says there is
terrorism and, when you think about it, a terrorist attack could
happen any time and it is quite frightening. I have not got the
confidence to say I do not think anything is going to happen,
because it can happen at any time. I think it is quite worrying
to think that.
Chairman: Thank you all
very much indeed. It is quite challenging, I think, to come and
give evidence to a Select Committee. It has been an extremely
good afternoon. Thank you very much for the evidence you have
all given.
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