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UK as a diverse society |
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026 John Battle (MP) |
click to read > 1. Mary: Now you talked about relationships and obviously relationships between couples but also relationships between different communities and. 2. John: Indeed. 3. Mary: ... different faith communities. 4. John: Indeed. 5. Mary: That's something you've been. 6. John: Yeah, I mean if you went within my office here, a mile of here, twenty seven languages. 7. Mary: Right. 8. John: ... and probably. nearly over thirty nationalities, okay. 9. Mary: Okay. 10. John: Around here every faith community is represented round here and normally are in all inner cities in Britain, whether it's all the different Christian traditions, forty-seven varieties of Christian tradition. We forget there's many, not just one. The Methodist is the dominant one in West Leeds because John Wesley rode on a horse down Armley Town Street in Wesley Row. 11. Mary: Right. 12. John: So there are more Wesleyan chapels in West Leeds than elsewhere, but good relations ecumenically between the Christian faiths. There's a Buddhist. a small group of Buddhists. We've a Hindu temple, we've got Sikh temples and we've got mosques. And we've got a small Jewish community, a community of Jains. So every tradition, I could list them all, are represented. And then the question is how do they work together. I don't find ... often I'd have to say to you the tensions within faith communities tend to be within a tradition. 13. Mary: Absolutely. 14. John: I would say within my own tradition there's more rows within the left and the right within the Catholic church than there are between Catholics and Muslims or Catholics and Protestants or Catholics and the Anglicans. So that tends within all tradition. There's much more richness, complexity and argument going on. 15. Mary: Yes. 16. John: ... than you think. 17. Mary: Yes. 18. John: But then when it comes to the neighbourhood I think (A) it's high turnover of movement. We're not a ghettoed society with one area for one people and another. I remember during the time of the tragic events of the terror bombers being discovered to come from Leeds, someone on Dutch television on Newsnight saying to me, "Shouldn't you have ghettoes and have tapes round the streets?" And I said it would be a bit difficult that because how do we know, and some people are not of one faith or one tradition. "Oh, you must" but he said. "You should have one area for the Catholics and one for the Dutch reformers". And we haven't got many Dutch reformers in Armley. And even that wouldn't work because even with our own families to make it personal. 19. Mary: Yes. 20. John: ... you know, my sister's married to a Muslim and she's a Catholic. I've got a sister who's married to someone who's half Irish and half French and their traditions are different. So, you know, and so we can't have walls to say you've got to divide your houses up as well. We are intermixed, intermarrying, interweaving, yet respecting traditions as well. And there's a strong tradition of that within Leeds and it does work. 21. Mary: And I think you've done work. have you done work nationally then with different. 22. John: Yeah. I was asked some years ago by the prime minister in 2001 to be his envoy to all the faith communities at every level. Not to build interfaith organisations. 23. Mary: Right. 24. John: ... but that is happening. I go round and visit a lot and there are two hundred and eighty in Britain in most towns and cities. And you have to remember Leeds is precious. It's ahead of the game. Go to Somerset, they've never met a Muslim there. 25. Mary: Absolutely. 26. John: And so you've got to share experiences and tradition and network a bit more so that people don't just read it in the paper. We have to get rid of stereotypes and understand much more, listen a lot more. And I think bring the fear out really. 27. Mary: Right. 28. John: But it does also mean making sure people have opportunities, and if it is true that one group in society, whether it's a cultural or a religious tradition, have got no access to further education at all never get the job. The story of young men, say a young Muslim lad in this neighbourhood, his great granddad will have come to work in textile mills, not in West Leeds but in Bradford. 29. His grandad will have set up the corner shop and have talked to a few people outside of his tradition who have popped in. His son, a bit wider, he's gone on the taxis and met a lot of people. Not always had the best experience either. And people might abuse him at night coming in drunk into his cab and not paying him. 30. His son or daughter might be at West Leeds High School and he's going through, you know, and wondering where are they going to come out to at the end. And the confusion of that. How do they fit in when their heart and romance is in Kashmir? This beautiful garden in the world that they might have visited once but isn't quite Armley, you know. 31. Mary: Yes. 32. John: And the tensions, strains and stresses of that I think of generations integrating are very difficult to work with and manage. But we should be much more aware of it. 33. Mary: Right. |
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