Today The Feast were very pleased to be featured in the Birmingham Mail, featuring our work helping young people of different faiths to meet up and get on well. The article is now online HERE.
Birmingham Mail – 27 October. LOCAL HEROS
Young people from a Birmingham inter-faith group are staging a peaceful protest to the English Defense League’s upcoming demonstration in the city centre.
The extremist EDL, whose previous marches have led to violent clashes in Birmingham and Ducley, is due to tak eto the streets on Saturday from 1.30pm to 3.30pm.
Through their website, the far right group says it is protesting against radical Islamism which it claims has been allowed to “flourish ” in Birmingham.
But a group of Muslim and Christian teenagers from The Feast project are joining forces to show that people of different faiths can live together harmoniously without the need for violent conflict.
Project manager Tim Fawssett said” “The young people have decided to stand side by side and hand out traditional English and Asian sweets like toffee apples and jalebi in Birmingham the day before the EDL demo.”
Based in Moseley, The Feast was setup in September 2009 to bring teenagers ro chruches and mosques together, in a bid to reduce radical tension.
Tim explained: “We don’t just get a group of Muslis and Chrisians together to play football.
“What sets us apart is that we encourage the youn gpeope to talk oepnly and honestly about hteir beliefs.
“They find it quite scary but being vulnerable is what makes them earn respect from each other.”
Tim hopes to spread the project philosophy around the world and earlier this year arranged a trip where eight Feast members travelled to Istanbul, in Turkey, to meet eight teenagers from Lebanon where Muslims and Christians are heavily segragated.
“It was amazing to see the friendships that were formed over there,” said Tim.
“I was really proud of our young people.”
Last year the project reached around 150 young people, split equally between the genders and faiths.
It costs around £110,000 a year to run and relies on fundraising, donations and charity grants.
The friendships between the teenagers were featured on Songs of Praise earlier this year.
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One Comment on "Young people are taking a stand against extremists"
Really looking forward to this