Northern Friends Peace BoardBuilding peace by tackling racism
(article about the NFPB conference on 15th March 2008, first published in The Friend, 21 March 2008)
Susan Robson of Huddersfield Meeting reports on Northern Friends Peace Board efforts to work through ‘complex realities’
West
Yorkshire: location of racist murder, suicide bombers, child abduction,
schools with seventy-one languages, active interfaith councils with
seven different faiths, networks to help asylum seekers, a City of
Sanctuary and a police section to counter hate crime against any
minority. All of this was brought into the Building Peace – Tackling
Racism conference hosted by Northern Friends Peace Board in
Huddersfield on 15 March.
The
room was packed out, even though some participants were absent and a
keynote speaker was prevented from attending by family illness. The
great and the good in anti-racism circles in Yorkshire and Lancashire
were there in large numbers. The acronyms of organisations and policies
flew thick, fast and mystifyingly. It was a great relief to hear
someone say 'I don't belong to anything – I'm just curious'.
The
main formal input came from Philip Lewis, a lecturer at Bradford
University's Department of Peace Studies, who told us much about the
detail of Muslim organisation and history. His main message was that
complex realities cannot be squeezed into a box called race or class or
religion. We have neither a safe space, nor the vocabulary, to talk
responsibly about race or class. His analysis was bleak, but he argued
that this is necessary before we contemplate the way forward. However,
positive points were: in the UK religion is still part of public life;
Muslim youth is developing responsibly and we need to listen; there are
innovative courses on citizenship in Islam and Muslims are moving into
mainstream public life, for instance as chaplains.
Philip
explained that Muslims need to learn more of their own complex history
and that Christians need to rediscover the narrative of the Christian
life, which does not need an enemy and can react without hostility.
Each faith needs to 'quarry' its own tradition, to dig deep until it
discovers the common seam.
Individual
contributions came from a white agnostic teenager, a fifteen-year-old
Muslim member of Huddersfield Inter Faith Council, an ex-member of the
BNP, a trade unionist, a Quaker from Uganda, a museum worker exhibiting
cultural stories and a police officer who has responsibility for
dealing with racist crime.
In
parallel to the conference was a gathering of half a dozen young people
aged eleven to sixteen, who heard from speakers and went to a local
mosque. The mosque, which is usually uncomfortable about hosting
mixed-gender visits, received the group and talked to them and fed them.
The
group of young people who met in parallel sessions has asked if they
can get together again. Local Quaker Claire Whitely, who was with them
all day, said 'we adults have a lot to learn from their understanding
of both racism and peace'. This was reiterated throughout the day – the
future is in the hands of the young and we need to listen to what they
are saying.
The
event was filmed and will be produced as a DVD available at Britain
Yearly Meeting. Meetings will be able to use it as a jumping off point
to examine their own contribution to tackling racism. However, there
are many questions still unanswered. On the homeward journey one Friend
said she still wanted to know how to respond to casual racism at work –
the day had been too 'professional' for her needs. Perhaps it is in the
relative privacy of small groups in Meetings that such issues can be
addressed. The study guide with the DVD should give some guidance about
how to do this.
Susan Robson