SHAFAQNA– The Muslim Council of Scotland and the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities have agreed a set of concrete steps to expand cooperation between the two faith communities and to “setting up a ‘ faith-specific social care service.
The Muslim Council of Scotland (MCC) and the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) said they were “standing together” against antisemitism and Islamophobia, as they also paved the way for a Muslim-Jewish Women’s Network.
They have published a list of aims that includes challenging hate online and prejudicial reporting by the media.
The two faith groups said they wanted to help shape future laws on the issue and have unveiled a “communique” which also sets out plans for a Muslim/Jewish Women’s Network and calls for a “culturally sensitive” and “faith specific” social care service, BBC reported.
They also promised to “build appropriate social services” including “culturally sensitive and faith specific social care services for an ageing population, the accurate reporting of the types of bullying in our schools and how these cases are dealt with, and the greater use of scanning in place of invasive post-mortems wherever possible”.
“History has taught us that racism and religious hatred might start by targeting a single community, but it never ends there,” said SCoJeC director Ephraim Borowski.
“That is why it is in the interests of us all to stand shoulder to shoulder to demonstrate that ‘othering,’ discrimination, and hatred are never acceptable.”
The two faith groups said “There have been Islamophobic and anti-Semitic attacks on mosques and synagogues here at home, and we should never be blind to the fact that racism, intolerance and prejudice exists in Scotland.”
The Scottish government is currently reviewing hate crime legislation in Scotland. There were more than 5,700 hate crimes registered in Scotland last year, and leaders of the two communities warned that it was hate that led to attacks on a Pittsburgh synagogue and on Finsbury Park Mosque, jewishnews reported.
Glasgow politician Anas Sarwar said: “We can’t leave the fight against antisemitism to the Jewish community, and we can’t leave the fight against Islamophobia to the Muslim community. This is a collective fight for all of us.”