A recent Asian Voice article on the vandalisation of the Shree Ram Mandir in Walsall highlighted the growing number of attacks against faith institutions, particularly those of the Asian communities.
Desecration of religious buildings, and hate crimes, are not new to the members of the Jewish community which has evolved mechanisms and institutions to defend and protect our way of life. The Jewish community started to protect itself immediately after World War Two, when Jewish ex-servicemen returned home to discover that British Jews were still being targeted by racists, as they had been in the 1930s. Out of these experiences we established the Community Security Trust which works across the community and with our representative bodies such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, to protect ourselves. We work closely with the police and government who understand the particular threats that we face and who have been supportive with time, and with money, to pay for commercial security guards to protect Jewish schools.
We have also established a body of trained volunteers who provide security for our institutions and events, and who work to the highest professional levels.
Government understands the threats to faith communities and now provide funds and advice to enable temples and gurdwaras to enhance their security. The Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme provides money for closed circuit television monitoring and other protective security measures,whilst the 2015 Counter Terrorism Protective Security Advice for Places of Worship and the 2017 Crowded Places Guidance give advice on secured access to buildings. But terrorism is only the worst of the threats. More often it is vandalism motivated by hate, the effect of which can be devastating leading to fear and a reluctance to participate in faith practice and social events. It is a tragedy when community members can no longer live their normal lives because of fear.
In the Jewish community we recognise that we cannot work in isolation and that extremism threatens all faith communities. For this reason the Community Security Trust has sought to work with others since our foundation in the mid-1990s. Since then we have maintained an active cooperation with the Hindu Forum, the Hindu Council, the various Sikh representative bodies, a number of large Hindu temples and the Bahai community. We also have a 25-year association with National Churchwatch which provides security advice and training for members of the Anglican Church.
Since the Christchurch terrorist attack in March we have been inundated with more than 80 requests for help from other communities, including from Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsees and Muslims, and are enlarging our capacity in order to meet this demand.
Our approach to security can be used by all, and is not dependent on money. Rather it is based on developing a security awareness among members of the community, and acting to mitigate and prevent risk. First, the trustees or leaders have to buy into the need for security, and allocate time for it. In many cases they have a legal obligation to make security preparations.
Second, one of them needs to take responsibility for security. That person, and it can be a man or woman, needs to become familiar with security matters, and consider all the nasty things that could happen, take steps to prevent such an eventuality, be it criminal vandalism or terrorism, and put in place measures to prevent any attack from succeeding.
Third, the security person needs to recruit and train a team of volunteers to secure the premises when services or other events take place. This means controlling access, and closing doors. Analysis of all the recent terror attacks proves that the attackers just walked in unimpeded through open doors. This may mean having people manning the front doors which they shut in an emergency, or having entryphone systems.
And fourth, the whole community needs to be educated that there is a need for security to ensure that the building is a safe place to go to. This should not mean that visitors are made to feel unwelcome. Security can be carried out sensitively and with a smile.
But ensuring security for our institutions should be just one element of our response. We believe that by working with other faith communities we strengthen society as a whole. We have much in common with each other. We are all descendants of immigrant communities who have worked hard and contribute a good deal to the betterment of society. We place our families and family life at the centre of practicing our faiths. Some of us share some common religious beliefs and practices, in part due to cross acculturation and the millennia-long presence of Jews in India and other south east Asian states.
Our community leaders have worked together on common themes, and some of us have lobbied government together on common concerns in the past. In recent CST has provided security advice at multiple meetings at temples, gurdwaras and mosques and we now intend to work even closer with Asian-originating colleagues. Our assistance comes without strings and we require no payment to help our colleagues and friends.
We work to the maxim that we are all stronger and safer by working together.
Michael Whine is a director of the Community Security Trust and a founding trustee of the Indian Jewish Association UK.
