Press Releases13 Jan 04

Community shamed by racist attacks - Bishop Harper

COMMUNITY SHAMED BY RACIST ATTACKS - BISHOP HARPER

13 January 2004

The Church of Ireland Bishop of Connor, the Rt Rev Alan Harper, chairman of the church?s Board for Social Responsibility (NI), today expressed concern at the growing intensity of racially motivated attacks in South Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland.

In a statement Bishop Harper said: ?Once again our whole community has been shamed and its reputation besmirched by racially motivated violence. Such attacks and the attitudes that inform them are wholly at odds with the clear teaching of the Christian gospel. They should be viewed by all as unacceptable and should cease. It is vital that those with influence use it to ensure that racist violence is neither openly encouraged nor passively tolerated.

?There is, however, an obligation upon us. It is to seek to understand and counter the influences that prompt the resort to violence and abuse. It has been pointed out that racist incidents increase in number and severity when sectarian incidents decline. If this is the case, we must ask, ?What does this mean?? Is this further evidence of the depth of insecurity in parts of our society? If so, what are the sources and what are the remedies for this insecurity? Suspicion of ?the other? is characteristic of all societies, but what changes suspicion into violence? Racist attacks differ from sectarian attacks in this, that no history or experience of hurt or injury can be claimed to excuse such behaviour.

?Racist violence in Northern Ireland often targets people who are more disadvantaged even than those perpetrating the violence. These are assaults upon people who have neither hurt nor threatened anyone, nor has any one ethnic group been singled out. They are random attacks upon people simply because they look different and who have neither the power nor the confidence to defend themselves.

?Hospitality to the stranger and care for the innocent and needy make real the command of Christ that we should love our neighbours as ourselves. Those organisations and individuals that have demonstrated practical concern for members of ethnic minority communities deserve our thanks and support. All institutions, including the churches, are challenged to promote respect and sympathy for the stranger in order to build a tolerant, safe and welcoming society. It is the responsibility of the strong to protect, not to victimize, the weak.?