Minister’s praise for work on cohesion

Photo: Picture: ANTHONY MILLER

Communities Minister Shahid Malik, seated with Rucksana Begum (17) of Peacemakers, and with other representatives of community groups he met.

A GOVERNMENT Minister praised Oldham for leading the way in creating community cohesion and preventing extremism.

Communities Minister Shahid Malik visited the Oldham Council of Mosques at the Muslim Centre, Neville Street, Chadderton, yesterday to look at work being done to unite residents.

The Dewsbury MP is touring the country to look at projects aimed at stamping out extremism and developing good community relations.

It’s part of the Government’s Prevent strategy, which was launched in 2007 to address the root causes of radicalism and protect vulnerable individuals.

In Oldham, he also met with the Prevent steering group, Oldham Islamic Youth Committee, young women from Peacemaker and Project Safe Space — all working to stop segregation and unite communities.

He said Oldham had lots of good initiatives that were creating partnerships, educating against radicalism and involving youngsters in pioneering work.

His department is committing just over £700,000 over the next three years to Oldham to help develop the work.

Mr Malik said: “Oldham has done a lot of good, solid work over the last eight years since the riots and I wanted to come along and listen and learn.

“Oldham’s ahead of the game compared with other areas. Here, young people are very much at the heart of the solution. I’m quite sure that these are the kind of initiatives we would want to showcase in other areas.”

He said the race riots had forced Oldham to address problems earlier than other areas, adding: “Oldham was forced to face up to its problems many years ago. Every cloud has a silver lining and the cloud of 2001 left a silver lining in its legacy. I think Oldham is relatively advanced. Oldham is in a very healthy position compared with what it was some time ago.”

Mr Malik was impressed at how young children were being involved in light discussions about how the country operates, identity and terrorism.

He said it’s important to counter the poison spread by al Qaeda and far right groups.

He added: “Education is key. Young people are the most important area of work in preventing extremism. If they are a very young age you can make people understand the rights and wrongs and help prevent it in the future.”