Foreign Secretary meets Muslims in Scotland

The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, took time out of the Cabinet meeting schedule last week to meet with Muslims in Scotland. He met with senior Muslims at Glasgow Central mosque and with younger Scottish Muslims at an event organised by the Youth Community Support Agency.

The Foreign Secretary, interviewed by British Satellite News, said:

‘It’s important that we use these opportunities of cabinet meetings around the country to hear from the diverse communities that exist in Britain. Here you have a hundred members of Glasgow’s Muslim communities and we have had an intense discussion about issues from Pakistan to the Middle East, even to Sudan.’

‘I think the big foreign policy concerns in Britain’s Muslim community are the big foreign policies concerns in all communities. Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East peace process, development in Africa, the Iranian nuclear proliferation programme. These are big issues that aren’t just issues for governments but are issues for people too.

‘I think the most important thing is that British Muslim communities feel Muslim and feel British and they feel a passionate commitment to their faith but also to this country and they want to make sure it represents what they perceive to be the values that hold us all together.‘

You can watch a short BSN recording of the event here.