Author Zia Chaudhry is the founder of the Just Your Average Muslim project and has been involved in opening inter-faith dialogue for many years now. Here, he questions whether today's media are too quick to dismiss the everyday co-operation going on all over the country between people of different faiths and what effect this will have on the outlooks of the younger generations.
Zia Chaudhry
A few days ago the former chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in the north west of England had this to say about radicalisation: "The problem of radicalisation is misunderstood. Some suggest that it is a battle between two ways of life, when it is nothing more than the grooming of the most vulnerable by those who target them."
This seems like common sense, the best advice usually is, but common sense is perhaps by its very nature not glamorous or sensational and, therefore, less likely to attract the public's attention.
We live in an age when the news industry is just another business which needs to sell a product to its consumers. And those charged with the responsibility of selling things know that certain items are much easier to peddle than others. So, as far as the news is concerned, tales of conflict, violence, fear, enemies and threats to our very existence provide an almost guaranteed audience.
Peace and calm hardly make exciting headlines and therefore rarely feature. We may find the occasional light-hearted good news story tagged on at the end of a tale of woe to make ourselves feel a bit better about the world but it is often trifling and insignificant. Do we ever hear stories about communities getting along and helping each other?
These religions have co-existed for centuries during which there have been periods of calm and periods of conflict.
You would be forgiven for thinking that such co-operation must not exist given the scant coverage it merits. But, although we may have to search harder to find it, its significance is immense. I remember not so long ago a story about the Muslim community in Bradford helping raise funds to ensure the survival of a local synagogue. Or the story of a synagogue in the USA which opened its doors to Muslims at the time of their Eid festival when they needed extra space to accommodate the worshippers. Such examples may not make the headlines but are vital to illustrate that there is no clash of civilisations or religions. These religions have co-existed for centuries during which there have been periods of calm and periods of conflict.
The question is not whether faiths can co-exist or whether one faith is inherently violent but, practically, what can we do to make our communities stronger and our youngsters less vulnerable. Of course we must seek out and apprehend those targeting them but we must also do what we can to help prevent them becoming vulnerable in the first place. We need to make them feel that they have a stake in society and the responsibility for this falls on all of us. I have a duty to bring my children up to be decent law-abiding compassionate members of society but my efforts can be undermined by others. The media, the education system and others in positions of authority, whether political or otherwise, need to play their part. And if we all do, the end product of harmonious co-existence will be worth it, glamorous or not.
Zia's book Just Your Average Muslim is published by Grosvenor House and available now from Amazon.
By Zia Chaudhry
Twitter: @JustYAMuslim
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