Nurturing future leaders

The first conversation the three of us had together, following the reception for the new ParliaMentors programme, was about death penalties and weapons trade. Heavy topics for a first meeting, perhaps, but heaviness was an expected feature in our communication. Considering our backgrounds –Islam, Christianity and Judaism, or, to put it differently: Singapore, Pakistan and Israel - violence, sadly, is one of the troubles we have in common

I've never been religious. However, atheistic or agnostic as some of us may be, it doesn't take much effort to see what powerful influence religions have on our lives. Being a student in London, surrounded by an endless amount of people from different traditions and faiths, it's impossible to ignore the problems. Our universities are fragmented, divided in to different social groups which are many times determined by identification with a certain belief, nationality or ethnicity.

The university is a place that, ideally, can grow a unique society: a group of truth-seeking scholars, who collaborate with each other and exchange knowledge and ideas; people who constantly question the social structure around them. However, our existing university is different. Instead of using the various backgrounds we have got - thanks to our differences- most of us prefer to stay in the cosy bubble we have come from.

In our ParliaMentors group, we chose to research the potential our educational institutions have got; not as certificate-providers – but rather as ideal environments for a cross-cultural integration to occur. With the encouraging support of the Three Faiths Forum and our mentoring MP, Louise Ellman, it was very interesting research to take part in. And the results? Well, even if great solutions would take a long time to construct - at least, in our meetings, we were able to discuss more positive ideas than the death penalty.

by Stav Shaffir

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