This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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FM hosts first sectarianism summit
14/02/2005
Scotland's first national summit on sectarianism took place today.
Church leaders joined representatives from the Rangers and Celtic football clubs, their fans, loyalist and republican parading groups, police, councils, unions, business and the media at the University of Glasgow.
The summit was chaired by First Minister Jack McConnell and focused on interfaith work, education, sport, marches and parades.
Mr McConnell said:
"The issue here is attitudes, understanding, tolerance, and the way in which intolerance and religious hatred have an impact on generation after generation of Scots and hold our country back.
"It is going to be an interesting, perhaps tough, couple of hours but it's very important that we start this process by getting everyone around the table."
Speaking after the summit, Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said:
"Everybody at the summit today had the opportunity to reflect their own particular views. Some people talked about their history and traditions, some people talked about the problems and some of the solutions that they found at a local level.
We did have agreement that we should continue to work on this issue - people have signed up to that - and that we should also take forward the creation of a national plan, and that's something we will be looking to do in the future."