Agenda item

Thomas Hall said that ‘Prevent’ is part of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy. IT is defined now as being about preventing people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

Years ago it was wider in one sense and covered some areas otherwise considered to be “cohesion” e.g. addressing factors in the community which might get people to become terrorists. The government changed that recently. Also the 2009 strategy was much about Al Quaeda and working with the muslim community. Both Northampton Borough Council and Northamptonshire Police were asked to do work in this area. Northampton was one. As part of that we had discussions with the community and representatives of diverse mulsim communities in Northampton. We formed a group with representatives from organisations and communities. Thomas noted some people from that group were at the Forum meeting – Nouredine, Zahira and Abade.

The Reference group used to say “we should be broader, not just muslims”. Terorrism is an extreme end of hate crime and it can affect all communities. There is also the “far right” and Irish Republican movements for example. So there was a suggestion that a lot of the work, in a broad sense, would fit into the work of this Forum, especially issues on how we – everyone in the town – can work together to safeguard people from being sucked into extremist organisations. We could get an enormous benefit from working together.

Thomas said that his view is that we need to be able to think about the really hard issues and at the same time to think about how as a town we can all work together towards a town in which different groups work and live together in harmony – what is sometimes called “community cohesion” or “integration”. It was noted that neither word is ideal. There should be space too for discussing harder issues. So perhaps some things would be dealt with in an open group like this Forum meeting, and some in a more restricted environment. This approach could make the best of the Northampton Diverse Communities Forum and the Prevent Community Reference Group working together.

Thomas said that this was just his thoughts and he was very open as to what form work should take. He noted that there is no single ‘town’ approach to community cohesion in Northampton. Thomas said it was in the hands of Forum members as to what everyone feels is best.

John said that he would like to have an Agenda and Minutes for meetings.

John wondered how to get across to people the diversity that occurs within each religion as well as between them. He said he felt that getting respect for each other, in politics and in faiths, is about working together.

Thomas said that it is very valuable to talk to people in the community, not just to organisations – to avoid making big mistakes out of ignorance about how things will be perceived. Talking about people’s ideology, what makes them trust particular sources of information etc, is so important rather than to go in heavy-handed – it is much better to work together.

Sean said certain conversations need to go on in private, but other conversations are community-facing, and in moving the community reference group from muslim extremism, we need to talk about issues for the whole community e.g. the English Defence League (“EDL”) might come to Northampton to try to upset communities in the town and it would be good if people from different communities met at the council as a Northampton group who already know each other before trouble happens.

Anjona said a benefit to widening the prevent, cohesion and integration agenda would be to encourage participation in the group to be as wide as possible, partly as a reaction to the narrow group on Islam. Anjona referred to planning issues and inappropriate coverage in the local newspaper with terms such as “these people” and follow-ups to stories including letters published full of hate about Travellers further to recent media coverage about Dale Farm evictions for Travellers. She said she would welcome change as Thomas had outlined, noting that NREC currently only got to talk about extremism when it initiated the discussion.

Nouraddine said that he felt cohesion is happening in slow motion in Northampton. For him there were some key issues:

1)     an issue within the muslim community in Northampton and beyond

2)     how the muslim community is perceived as extremist

3)     within the host white community a lack of knowledge about who people are and what they stand for.

Nouraddine said the Prevent Community Reference group playted a part in working on these issues, trying to empower the muslim community via funded projects e.g. for youth, women and an exhibition. He wanted to suggest to this Forum that it should take on cohesion in a positive way. He felt that there were no opportunities in Northampton for people from ethnic backgrounds to meet white people as he believed that the only places where they ever meet are in schools, colleges, universities and workplaces where there are problems. Nouraddine said he would like to see opportunities for people to meet and for the Forum to be able to suggest lots of projects to the Council – so it might organise something like the Notting Hill Carnival every year.

Morcea observed that Northampton already has a big Carnival which does exactly what Nouraddine was saying he wanted to see happen in the town. Morcea noted that the importance from a cohesion point of view was not just everyone being together on the annual Carnival day in June at Delapre Abbey park and in the procession through the town, but the journey people went on in the weeks and months of preparing to be in the Carnival. She noted that as the Carnival has grown more and more people line the streets to watch it too – bringing thousands of people from across the town’s communities together. The carnival is organised by a small group of volunteers, not Northampton Borough Council.

Morcea also referred to Diwali, a day of activities in the town centre, organised by a community group with some support from Northampton Borough Council. Again, this involved people from different communities e.g. English, Polish, Gujerati, and lots of schools from across the town in preparation and joining in the event.

Morcea referred to the Diwali activities featuring in an exhibition about the Hindu community in the town and to exhibitions being made by youth and people of different backgrounds and ages for the Jewish and Sikh communities too in recent years and shown on the Heritage Open Days.

Nouraddine said it was not just exhibitions that he wanted to see – buy to rally schools, college and have events like the University of Northampton’s Festival of Culture which he had found fascinating - the only time he had known faith groups had got together in Northampton.

It was noted that Northampton has an Inter Faith Forum which does organise various activities during the year which bring people of different faiths together.

Nouraddine said he would like to see more events like a conference at the University of Northampton which had included a study from Cardiff on how white people see muslims and how to tackle it.

Nouraddine said he felt Northampton Borough Council should fund these things.

Nouraddine wanted the Forum to invent tools to tackle issues, not just to talk e.g. to explore how muslim youth are perceived by white youth in schools.

John said that the perception of identity is very complex and that talking of a ‘host community’ or a single ‘white’ community is not reflecting reality but is mythical as there is not one single white host community.

Morcea said that a lot of community groups in Northampton are doing a lot. She felt that the Forum could take a role of noting, of seeing, what is going on, to help get a measure of how well the communities are getting on together on the journey to cohesion and integration. She referred to the Arabic School as an example of diversity as its pupils and their families who were involved together through the school came from different faiths, countries and cultures and enjoyed doing things together. She said that the supplementary schools help, in this sort of way, young people to become good citizens who understand one another’s cultures, faiths, celebrations. Morcea referred to a less visible, less known aspect of the benefit the supplementary schools provide to the wider community too – that when there were riots around the country in the summer, there were no troubles in Northampton and that was partly due to people involved in the schools talking to youths and making sure they went home and stayed out of trouble, helping to contain the situation because those powerful community relationships existed.

Action: agreed in principle that the Prevent Community Reference Group and Diverse Communities Forum should come together and to discuss further details about work plans in future meetings

Thomas said it was important that even in the difficult times of austerity, people were able to continue to do things. There was a need to find ways of getting to know each other via events like the Carnival as well as spaces to discuss what is going wrong in communities. He felt much hate crime is due to people not knowing one another as friends but seeing each other as ‘different’ from ‘different’ communities. He felt that this group could help relationships to develop and to build trust.

Nouraddine suggested inviting organisations to the Forum that represent more white English people e.g. representatives from schools, guides, Women’s Institure, and youth groups, to take into account the whole diversity of the town, not just diversity of minority groups. He said that to tackle the issues it was important to involve everyone.

It was noted that the Forum has a Facebook page which is open to all and which has followers from non-ethnic minority backgrounds as well as others.

Agreed: to invite more people to get involved in the Forum and to promote English cultural events as well as others