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Proceeding contribution from Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat) in the House of Commons on Thursday, 27 October 2005. It occurred during Adjournment debate on Terrorism and Community Relations.


Terrorism and Community Relations

: Thank you. We must ask questions, but some of the answers might be difficult to accept. Nevertheless, we must listen, and there will be economic, religious and political aspects to the answers that will be unpalatable. We need to break through and work with all sections of our ethnic minority communities, especially with the Muslim communities in our northern cities. One point that I should like to make strongly is that I realise, as we all do, that we cannot engage with those who have already taken the path of fanaticism. We cannot deal with people who have chosen the kind of thought process that was outlined by the hon. Member for Keighley, as we dealt with the IRA in the past. Therefore, we need to engage those who are vulnerable to the message before that message gets to them—that is the challenge for all of us. There must be more dialogue. There must be listening, as the Committee has said. I am sure that we would all agree. The terrorist attack on 7 July came from one of our multicultural communities. It is to those communities that we must go to prevent it from happening again. It has been described many times as an attack on our way of life, and we would all agree that it was. Now we must ask ourselves, what is our way of life in 21st century Britain and what do we want it to be?


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
438 c170-1WH 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Subjects
Community relations Human rights Ethnic groups Minority groups Terrorism Islam
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk