COMMUNITIES in Tower Hamlets have apparently been expressing concern about increasing levels of online hate – and attacks on Tower Hamlets by people who don’t live here but are keen to create division and tension in the borough.
In response, the Council held a Summer Resilience Briefing on 21st July. The Briefing discussed “community preparedness, cohesion and resilience”. It sounds like a bureaucrat’s dream. What is a “summer resilience briefing” in real English? How did the briefing make the community more prepared, cohesive and resilient?
According to the Council’s press release, issued on 5th August, ten working days after the event, the Briefing was attended by 60 representatives from community organisations, faith leaders, universities, youth, members of the Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum, the Metropolitan Police and council officers.
Delegates listened to a panel of speakers: Simon Smith, Head of Public Protection; and Chief Inspector Chris Brown and Inspector Ben Hughes from the Metropolitan Police. They spoke about how the police respond to hate incidents and community tensions, which sounds like it could have been helpful. They also spoke about “partnership activity” – whatever that is.
This was followed by a “robust discussion” on the importance of continued engagement: good. The police already have a structure for community engagement (police forums? Is that the latest one?). In the community, they are generally seen as ineffective. Perhaps if the Briefing had actually addressed the question of whether the Forums will ever be effective, rather than cosmetic, the meeting could have achieved something. Too often the Council tackles issues in the community by holding a meeting and telling people things, rather than listening to them. And often it pays the community representatives who attend these meetings (of which more another day).
The Council press release refers to the borough having a diverse population and good community cohesion, as indeed it does. The press release also mentions the Battle of Cable Street, 90 years ago, as an example. Good old Cable Street: always cited as an example of how the community took action and saw off hate groups. And that protest was not organised at a formal meeting in the Town Hall.
Fortunately, there have been many united actions since, such as the resounding defeat, on the Isle of Dogs, of the first British National Party councillor elected in the UK. There was also a tremendously united demonstration against the English Defence League (EDL) when they first tried to march inside Tower Hamlets, shortly after Lutfur Rahman had first been elected Mayor. That march brought the whole community together – except the local Labour Party, which advised its members to stay at home and not give the EDL the “oxygen of publicity”.
Anyway, Cllr Faysal Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Life Chances (another new job title plucked from the Ministry of Silly Names) was happy. He praised the event and called for young people to be involved in the ongoing discussion – not exactly a nuanced comment.
Let’s leave the last word to Rabbi Herschel Gluck OBE, President of Shomrim in Stamford Hill and Founder and Chairman of the Muslim-Jewish Forum. He said:
“The scapegoating, provocation and targeting of Jews in the past led to their national exile. Muslims today are being scapegoated, provoked and intimidated, creating tensions and increasing the risk of division and conflict. Tower Hamlets is my second home. It is vital that the police continue to ensure that peace, community safety and the protection of local people remain paramount, while preventing those who seek to provoke and intimidate communities from doing so.”
Right in one, Rabbi.
●Read more about it: Muslims and Jews unite to find hate-attacker US hate-criminal gets life after Charlottesville murder