MINORITIES MUST NEVER BE MADE THE SCAPEGOAT

Every Saturday, the Bishop of Leicester, The Rt Revd Tim Stevens, contributes the First Person column in the Leicester Mercury. Here's the one in today's paper.

The Bishop of Leicester is  Patron of Leicester Council of Faiths. Much of what he says in this column is clearly related to other recent pieces in this blog.

Minorities must never be made the scapegoat

The Bishop of Leicester says lessons can be learned from the appalling events seen in Norway

During the last week there has been much speculation about the events leading up to the appalling mass murder in Norway. The lawyers are now arguing about whether the alleged perpetrator is insane or not. It seems to me there is a danger of labelling someone as mad if it leads us to the conclusion that his views were completely detached from reality – that he was an isolated individual who came to bizarre conclusions as a result of mental disturbance.

This could be dangerous thinking if it allows the rest of us to come to the conclusion that the perpetrator was not connected to a wider context of opinion.

It is now emerging that Anders Breivik was in touch with a number of groups including the Islamaphobic English Defence League (EDL). While it is true that the EDL have distanced themselves from him and have renounced his kind of violence, nevertheless the EDL is typical of many groups which encourage hatred of Islam and of Muslims.

So events in Norway need to be a warning to all of us. Of course there can be a proper debate about multiculturalism and about the extent to which our communities have changed as a result of immigration over the last two generations. But where this spills over into incitement to hatred or extremism either in the press or through campaigning groups, we can now see how dangerous these views can become.

As the pressure on our economy tightens and the challenge to find jobs, housing and life opportunities increases, the temptation to scapegoat minority Muslim communities is likely to increase in many parts of Europe. In cities like Leicester it is vital that we hold on with confidence to the vision of a multicultural society which has served us so well and made us a beacon of hope for many visitors from around this country and beyond.

In the last decade, much has been written about the need to root out violent extremism from Muslim communities. But the events in Norway remind us that the overwhelming majority of terror attacks in Europe in recent times have been carried out by non-Muslims. And in Britain alone, a number of recent convictions of anti-Muslim extremists has underlined that Anders Breivik is far from being an isolated case or just a Norwegian phenomenon.

So we continue to be watchful here in Leicester. And we continue to hold on to a vision of a city which will not scapegoat or target minorities and which will resist all encouragements to take action against those who enrich our society and seek nothing more than to be accepted as British citizens and who make their vital contribution to the common good.