Attendees included:
Councillor Mary Watson,
Councillor Bev Craig,
Councillor Daniel,
Councillor Chris Martin,
Chief inspector Derek Hewitt,
Sir Gerald Kauffman
MP Tony Lloyd.
Cllr Mary Watson – First of all Iike would like to thank Khanqa Burnage mosque for inviting me and giving me the opportunity to express my feelings on the real objective of the event, which is to work in partnership.
As there are many guests who will be speaking out, I will keep it short and simple and to the point.
For us to cut down on crime and disorder it is very important that we work in partnership, not just in different communities but most importantly with the police. That is one of the reasons I am very pleased that the mosque has organised such an important event where we can discuss and hopefully solve our issues.
Cllr Daniel Gillard – I was born and brought up in Bolton. Many of my friends are Muslims. I was really pleased to find a mosque on my doorstep which is very active and prepared to organise events in order to bring the communities together. This is my first event of hopefully many to follow. I look forward to working with the mosque to make Manchester a better place to live.
Cllr Bev Craig – I am very proud to announce that I will be holding my surgeries at this mosque so that I can reach out to members of my constituency and be able to listen to their problems and help them as much as possible. We have many active groups in our area who come together to hold meetings. I am hoping that members of the mosque will be able to join us in the future. I am proud and thrilled to be associated with the mosque which is doing an extremely excellent job in making Manchester a better and safer place to live.
Derek Hewitt – I very much appreciate that the Khanqa Burnage mosque has invited me to this very important event.
When I joined the force 20 odd years ago, the way of communication was very simple, but now things have advanced and changed so much that in order for us to interact with all young and old, we have set up different ways of communication i.e. Twitter and Facebook. The whole purpose of this to keep everyone informed. Sometimes the members of public find it difficult to approach the police so to make it easier we have set up an office in Sainsbury’s in this area where the officers are available if anyone wishes to give any information. I am very pleased and proud that two members of this mosque meet with me regularly where we inform each other of any issues. We also get very important advice from our IAG. Members of IAG help us enormously when we are facing important decisions such as protests and marches. Once again there are two members of this mosque who are part of the IAG group. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the mosque which is doing a wonderful job and I hope we can work together to make Manchester safer.
Gerald Kaufman - There are global and national issues that have an impact on us. I would like to carry on from there.
Once again I thank the Khanqah Burnage mosque for inviting me. The mosque is doing a fantastic job in community cohesion and I applaud your efforts.
Tony Lloyd - I very much appreciate the Khanqah Burnage mosque, who has taken this initiative in community cohesion, this is very important.
As we are going through a difficult time, we need to work together and make sure our voices are heard. We all are one family regardless of our backgrounds.
Regarding what happened in Rochdale recently I was very pleased that the scholars and senior figures in the Muslim community condemned equally what these men did. Unfortunately the media highlighted more about the religion and nationality of the men rather than the crime, which I believe is very unfair. When I become a commissioner of police I hope I look into these media problems and try to make sure the media sticks to the facts.
Once again I would like to congratulate the Khanqa Burnage mosque for doing such marvellous job in providing a safe ground for better understanding in the community.