Home> Latest news> PM Praises young Muslims project

14/11/07

The UK Youth Parliament’s Young Muslim Leadership Project – based in Blackburn and Bolton and now set to go nationwide – has received praise from the Prime Minister, as plans gather pace to take the project nationwide.

Speaking in the House of Commons as he unveiled the Government’s latest counter-terrorism plans, Mr Brown spoke of a range of proposals, but was keen to point out the need to listen to young people, and highlighted the work of UKYP in that area.

He said, “I am also announcing today a youth panel to advise the Government, learning from youth projects in different parts of the country, which all enable young people to debate and discuss issues of concern - as does the work of the Youth Parliament, which has been running debates about the impact of terrorism on young people.”

The project – initiated by Muslim Members of Youth Parliament after the 7/7 London bombings – started with leadership and video training for young Muslims in the North West, in partnership with Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen Councils and the North West Regional Youth Work Unit. This soon led to a region-wide conference – devised and delivered by the young people themselves – to provide opportunities for open debates and a better understanding of young people’s rights.

It was this conference which attracted the attention of the Association of Chief Police Officers’  National Community Tension Team, who were so impressed with what they saw in the North West, that they thought young people in all areas of the country deserved to have similar opportunities. ACPO supported the existing group of young people to undertake further consultations at the UKYP Annual Sitting in Glasgow in July 2007 – a matter of days after the attempted bombings in Glasgow Airport. Yet again, the strong messages coming back were that young people were often confused about the debate and wanted reliable information, as did youth workers.

Since then, MYPs in Nottinghamshire have also started work on the issue, conducting their own survey into young people’s attitudes to terrorism. These and other views have fed into a UKYP proposal submitted to the Department for Children, Schools and Families to take the work forward, in a series of events called Project Safe Space.

UKYP Chief Executive Andy Hamflett said, “Like all of our flagship programmes, the UKYP Young Muslim Leadership Project was initiated, devised and delivered by young people, and that’s been its greatest strength. The young people involved have been quite clear that they do want to talk about terrorism and the impact events of recent years have had on ordinary people’s lives. However, too many people don’t feel comfortable allowing those discussions to take place, especially as so much misinformation is out there. Nobody’s really sure what is appropriate. That’s where Project Safe Space will hopefully come in – dispelling myths, teaching rights, encouraging leadership. It’s no surprise that it’s caught the attention of the Prime Minister. ”

Carl Wonfor, from the ACPO National Community Tension Team, added, “From listening to the young people involved in the UK Youth Parliament Young Muslim Leadership project, we’ve realised just how much more work the police need to do in this area, and we’re committed to making that happen. We believe the proposal we’ve developed with UKYP strikes the perfect balance between providing reliable information – to young people and youth work  professionals – and listening to informed opinions from various sections of the community. We can’t wait to get started.”

To listen to the views of some of the young people on the project, visit: http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/ukyp_tv/pages/youngmuslims.html.


For more information about the Young Muslim Leadership Project contact mail@ukyouthparliament.org.uk.
For more information on the Association of Chief Police Officers visit their website at www.acpo.police.uk.

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