Youth MP wants open terrorism discussion

Date published: 08/08/2008

A member of Youth Parliament for Rochdale has called for terrorism to be discussed openly after a survey found that nine in 10 young people want to be able to talk about terrorism and preventing extremism in schools or youth centres.

The national survey of more than 1,000 young people aged 11-25 revealed that more than 60% of young people feel unable to discuss issues surrounding terrorism and extremism with the police.

Usman Nawaz, 18, said: "The effects of terrorism and violent extremism have an impact on everyone in society including young people. Young people from all backgrounds need to be empowered to discuss matters relating to terrorism and preventing violent extremism on their own terms."

The study, commissioned by UK Youth Parliament, found that 90% of young people from Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist backgrounds want more chances to discuss preventing terrorism and extremism, compared to 69% who did not identify themselves as religious and 75% who said they were from a Christian background.

Schools were the top place to discuss the issues (94%) followed by youth centres (88%) and public meetings (84%).

One secondary school teacher, speaking anonymously, said: "The only place to discuss these issues really is during citizenship lessons. Teachers tend to focus more on relationships or drugs. Politics are only really discussed in the context of voting, or something like that.

"I think many teachers may not want to get into discussing issues around terrorism, particularly if there are lots of different communities in the school. There could be areas where there are strong differences of opinion."