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BAHA'IS LAUNCH SOCIAL COHESION RESEARCH
INITIATIVE
What is it that makes a society stick together? This is a
pressing question for all governments, civil society and faith
communities. The UK Government has launched a series of social
cohesion initiatives, on issues such as neighbourhood renewal
and inner city regeneration, and the Social Exclusion Unit.
The Baha'i community believes the issue of social cohesion
merits the need for research and discussion in a non-partisan
forum. With this in mind, the UK Baha'i community's elected
governing council, the National Spiritual Assembly, has established
an Institute for Social Cohesion, to serve as such a forum.
It is now inviting concerned individuals from government,
business, faith communities and the voluntary sector to contribute
to the institute's work.
The Institute was publicly launched at the House of Commons
on January 31, 2001, at a seminar hosted by the All Party
Parliamentary Friends of the Baha'is and chaired by MPs Ian
Stewart and Peter Bottomley. The launch was addressed by the
Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, Gurbux Singh,
who spoke on the effects of ethnic discrimination in the UK
educational system on young people. Writer and broadcaster
Yasmin Alibhai Brown critiqued current views about multi-culturalism
and made a plea for a more inclusive sense of identity. Teacher
Lindsay Thorne gave a practical example of how Baha'i principles
of unity and justice were being applied in a class of emotionally
and behaviourally disturbed young people who have been excluded
from mainstream education.
"The launch seminar was attended by members of parliament
from all parties, journalists, civil servants, race equality
officers, academics and business representatives," said Dan
Wheatley, external affairs spokesman for the UK Baha'i community.
"What became clear is that the existing models and language
aren't working. For example, on the issue of race, there's
a lot of hopeful talk about multi-culturalism, but Mrs Alibhai-Brown
noted that one of the youths who was charged and later cleared
of the murder of Stephen Lawrence had attended a multicultural
nursery with Stephen when the two were children.
"Incidents like these, and the murder of Damilola Taylor
on a Peckham estate - raise serious questions and highlight
the need for new models, new ideas and even a new language
in developing a more cohesive society. That requires a long-term
commitment to investigating these questions, before and after
the public and media interest surrounding incidents like these
drops away."
Over the coming four years, the Institute will produce publications
and sponsor conferences and symposia on the processes and
issues that shape and sustain cohesive, unified societies
- human rights, race, education, age, law and order, gender,
poverty, employment, housing and sustainable prosperity. The
role that spiritual values play in underpinning sustainable,
cohesive societies will also be explored.
"In the fifth year, our hope is to establish an academic
institute researching questions of social cohesion, to be
attached to one or possibly several universities in Britain,"
Mr Wheatley said. "The institute will provide a long-term,
non-partisan environment where academics, activists, parliamentarians
and members of society can contribute to repairing social
breakdown of all kinds."
The Institute can be contacted at 27 Rutland Gate, London
SW1 1PD. Tel: 020-7584 2566. Fax: 020-7584 9402. Email: oea@bahai.org.uk
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