Hard Talk Community Debates
Highlighting the many social issues that our communities face, ACF took the initiative to introduce ‘Hard Talk’ debates comprised of two elements.
Tolerance
This focused primarily on the generational gap and lack of understanding within the Muslim and wider community.
For the first time, young people were allowed to express their views openly to faith leaders, councillors and the police. The perceived lack of tolerance for young people was at the centre of the debate.
The outcome to this event was clear; all parties recognized the importance of engagement with, and tolerance towards, young people.
Challenging Unrest & Preventing Extremism
The second element of these ‘Hard Talk Community Debates’ focused on the issue of extremism. By gathering together various groups and statutory bodies; police, councillors, mosques, churches, the broad community of Afro-Caribbean, Asians/Muslims, and radical groups such as Hizb ut Tahrir and Al-Muhajaroun, ACF allowed for free debate between the different sides of the argument. This was an unprecedented opportunity to expose the agendas of radical groups in an unbiased and highly critical atmosphere, generating real time debate.
Even though some senior members of the Muslim community felt intimidated and found it difficult to accept some of the questions put to them by the young men and women of their community, they still believed that the forums had overall value and recognised the need to change and become more tolerant.
ACF aims to continue such unique and important debates, as many of the elders feel that the interaction has helped them to understand young people’s points of view and set in motion positive and active change, both in terms of their own attitudes and that of their young people.