Black Christian leaders have said Prime Minister Tony Blair's comments on Wednesday about black communities did not recognise the work these communities - and especially black churches - are doing to tackle criminal gangs, the Evangelical Alliance has said.
The Prime Minister, speaking in Cardiff Wednesday, said Britain's black communities must speak out against gang culture.During Blair's speech he admitted that the law needed strengthening, adding: "But we won't stop this by pretending it isn't young black kids doing it."
In particular, the prime minister insisted that the seven under-16's murdered in London in the past 3 months were not a symptom of a wider social problem but the work of individuals. He stated: "In respect of knife and gun gangs, the laws need to be significantly toughened. There needs to be am intensive police focus on these groups. The ringleaders need to be identified and taken out of circulation - if very young, as some are, put in secure accommodation.
"The black community - the vast majority of whom in these communities are decent, law-abiding people, horrified at what is happening - need to be mobilised in denunciation of this gang culture that is killing innocent young black kids."
However, members of the Black Christian Leaders' Forum have said black communities are already doing so. Bishop Joe Aldred, the Secretary for Minority Ethnic Christian Affairs for Churches Together in England, said: "I'm not sure where the Prime Minister has been, or who he's been talking to, if he thinks black communities have not been denouncing the gangs and gang activity.
"Black communities, particularly the black Christian communities, have not only been denouncing this evil, but have been hard at work, taking action to try to find solutions. There are now several church-led initiatives around the country working with young people and parents.
