During the summer of 2001, violent disturbances erupted across towns and cities in the north of England, exposing ugly divisions between communities divided on racial and religious lines. As these events unfolded, they brought the concept of social or community cohesion to the centre of national debate, establishing a new vocabulary in the political lexicon of the UK.

Now, the government has established a Community Cohesion Unit within the Home Office, operating across many departments to facilitate policy development and to build social cohesion. The unit has recently established a Faith Practitioners Panel to advise the Community Cohesion Unit. The Bahá’í community has two representatives on the panel who were invited to contribute to the deliberations on the merit of their work in relevant fields.

Nottingham-based Joe Pearce is a young community worker employed by BUILD, an organisation that works on mentoring for black youth and promoting cross-cultural networking. “What I found remarkable was the unity of vision amongst all the faith representatives,” Pearce enthused, following the first meeting of the Panel, “People seemed to see one another as partners, the Jews supported the Muslims, the Muslims supported the Catholics, the Catholics supported the Church of England”

The work of the Faith Practitioners Panel is particularly significant as it offers leading activists, inspired by their faiths, to put forward practical recommendations that feed into the formulation of government policy. The Home Office is working hard to prevent future repeats of the disturbances and the social fracture that drew attention to the breakdown in cohesion in our society. Faith communities now have a great opportunity to play a positive role in healing these rifts. And the Bahá’ís stand ready to play their part alongside their friends and colleagues of all faiths.

DW