---

Terrorism and Community Relations

: I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman. I know that the Government are discussing the training of imams and the conditions under which imams from overseas should be admitted into the country. I offer the Minister a historical precedent. In the 1820s, Sir Robert Peel defied Conservative party opinion by giving a grant to the Roman Catholic college for the training of priests at Maynooth in Ireland. Peel saw that the main religion of the island of Ireland was, and would remain, Roman Catholicism, and he much preferred to acknowledge that fact and to have some, albeit indirect, influence over the education and training of Roman Catholic priests through support for Maynooth, than simply to leave that training and education to happen in some way that he might not know about or approve of. The right hon. Gentleman the Chairman of the Select Committee described the real challenge in his earlier contribution: the cultural, and in large cities the physical, separation of different communities. I am fortunate in that the population of the town that I represent is not yet large enough to permit the physical or educational segregation of entire racial or religious groups. However, I know from studies I have done of other parts of the country that that does happen in cities in parts of northern England, for instance. I do not pretend for a moment that this challenge can be overcome quickly or easily. I do not believe that bussing school pupils around in an attempt to enforce racial or religious balance would promote harmony between people from different communities. The opposite would probably be achieved.