AFTER Recent terrorist events in Manchester, London and the ongoing challenges we face through hate crime, it is understandable ordinary people are very cautious, wary and may even worry about people from other communities who live in our towns.

Whilst we all know that there is a tiny minority who are the root cause in creating mistrust and mayhem in today’s world. In reality, the Manchester and London events has brought out the acts of human kindness, compassion and generosity from all sections of our communities.

Through our work of interfaith, over the years, I have been privileged to see many such instances on numerous occasions in our town. During June, following the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, hundreds of people attended the prayer vigils, the Muslim community held wonderful Iftari events with breaking up the daily fast during Ramadan, welcomed many local people as guests to share the food and show them around the mosque. It was also the first anniversary of the death of MP Jo Cox and there were thousands of “ Great Get Together” events held throughout the country. We had many events locally like the Zakariyya Mosque, Makkah Mosque and MA Mission included tributes to Jo as well as in churches and community groups.

The Interfaith led and supported by Bolton Central Library was a truly wonderful event with participants from many backgrounds who came together as One Bolton family. The Congolese groups led by Pastor Hubert and the Melbourne Road Methodist Church showed their sense of belonging to our town. Brendan Cox, husband of Jo personally sent a thank you letter to Interfaith.

On the same day, the Swaminarayan Bag Pipe Band played in the town centre to collect donations for Manchester victims. In less than three hours they collected £626.

A week later, Krishna Hindu Mandir, Beverly Road, held a special “ Bhajan” — recitals of holy hymns singing session in aid of Manchester victims and collected further £ 694, making it a grand total of £1,320 from the One Bolton Family donated to British Red Cross.

These few events further show there are many positives in our town and its people – regardless of any man made boundaries through faith, colour, creed, dress or anything else. The core values of our humanity is what we share in common and through good partnership working and building trust we have to continue working together as One Bolton Family so we remain not just a friendly but a peaceful place to live and prosper.

On behalf of Bolton Interfaith Council, my sincere appreciation to everyone for the generous donations and supporting our community events, it is not possible to do any of these unless we have your support.

Chan Parmar

Bolton Interfaith Council