IMWS and Kirklees Faiths Forum hosted a Clerics Supper during National Interfaith Week at the Al-Hikmah Centre. The event, which takes place throughout the year, gives an opportunity for clerics of different faiths to come together and engage in discussions to bring about better understanding between the local diverse faiths.
Bradford councillor and Imaam Alyas Karmani headlined the event with an indepth talk on ‘angry young men and violence’ focussing on the role of faith leaders in violence prevention work and early intervention in pastoral support.
In an informative and inspiring address, Alyas spoke of the dangers if faith leaders fail to reach out to todays young people, with online recruiting already becoming a major problem.
The co-founder of Street UK, a specialist project working with Black and Minority Ethnic young men at risk of violence and criminality, said online methods of recruitment were very sophisticated and explained how IS (ISIS) had staged photographs similar to poster shots to look appealing to young disenfranchised Muslim men. He compared a poster of ‘The Expendables’ to an IS photo showing how the group are imitating the movies to look attractive to lure recruits.
Alyas highlighted young adults with low self-esteem and feeling insecure with the negative media portrayal of Muslims were becoming victims to such recruitment methods. He said if leaders did not reach out to these confused individuals others will through such mediums as social media.
The Little Hopton councillor said more needed to be done to listen to what young people have to say adding their education is presently coming from the streets and through video games where violence and sexualised characters are making killing, violence and sexual exploitation glamorous. He added this in turn was de-humansing people leaving a disconnect with actual reality.
The Imaam who has dedicated much of his life to working with young people and for racial justice said the answers lay within teaching basic moral values and principles, saying “our moral compass needs to be re-aligned”.
“Violence is projected as a solution, not just in the movies but in real life too. Look at drone attacks in Pakistan – violence, power used and given as justification.
IMWS vice chair, Saied Laher, said “There was a strong message from Alyas, ‘should we be spending £1m building mosques or should we use the money to engage and invest in our young people’? we as a Society should seriously consider this by investing in young people now, they will grow up to build many mosques in the future”.
