Question reference: S4W-28627
- Asked by: Ken Macintosh, MSP for Eastwood, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 20 November 2015
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 January 2016
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what new security measures it is taking to protect places of religious worship, including mosques and Muslim community centres, following the Paris attacks.
Answer
As indicated in my answer to question S4W-28625 on 14 January 2016, we are determined that the terrorist threat will not undermine our commitment to a diverse and open society built on a liberal democracy and shared values and the most important challenge for us all is to work towards creating cohesive and resilient communities within which the terrorist messages will not resonate.
We are fully committed to working with Police Scotland and others to safeguard all communities and potentially vulnerable people and sites. There is absolutely no place for bigotry and prejudice in Scotland and this government is clear that any form of hate crime is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated in 21st century Scotland.
The Scottish Government is in the process of establishing an independent advisory group, chaired by Dr Duncan Morrow, which will engage with communities on the issue of hate crime, prejudice and community cohesion, with a view to presenting initial findings to ministers in 2016.
All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.