Archbishop of Canterbury warns recession could fan race attacks

Monday, 2nd March 2009
By Matt Cresswell

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warned this week that the current financial climate could pave the way for increased xenophobia in the UK.

Speaking at the Christian-Muslim Forum at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, in an event discussing the current financial crisis, the Archbishop said that we needed to learn important lessons from history. In responding to a question he said: “I think we do ignore, at our peril, the very high risk which history should have taught us.”

He went on to say: “The very high risk of financial stringency could lead to political extremism. Anger finding its expression in xenophobia, prejudice, rivalry -- all the tactics that both sociologists and psychologists remark on as the displacement of unease and fear.” the rest