Breaking the chain of hate. (From The Editor's Desk).

In Europe, this spring saw the rise of populist right-wing, anti-immigration parties in elections in several countries. In France, the National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen came second in the first stage of the Presidential elections, only to be swept aside by Jacques Chirac in the second. And in the Netherlands, the maverik politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated nine days before the elections which, at the time of going to press, seemed likely to give his party an assured place in a new coalition government.

Fear of `the other' all too easily fuels racism. So does the perceived threat to jobs, housing opportunities and ways of life from new arrivals. But one of the great challenges facing a shrinking world is how peoples of different cultures and religions can live together peacefully.

At the end of April, Lord Ouseley, the former head of Britain's Commission for Racial Equality, was reported as saying that no progress had been made towards better community relations in the Yorkshire city of Bradford, since the riots which took place there last year. On the same day as his statement, Bradford's community and religious leaders were entertaining a remarkable group from Lebanon, which included former Christian and Muslim militia leaders.

The four Lebanese told their hosts, in the British city with the largest proportion of Muslims, that their message was `to break the chain of hate'. Before their 15-year civil war, Beirut's Christian and Muslim communities had lived side by side, without getting to know each other. Some of the group had been involved in atrocities during the war. Since then, they said, they had had to discover `true religion', based on love, rather than `ideological religion' which demonized the other side. Now they had found the capacity to face what they had done, and to reach out across the divides in courageous acts of reconciliation.

The Lebanese, who had been invited to Britain by Initiatives of Change, spoke to a large audience in London and met with the Prime Minister's advisor on faith issues. Their experience has a message for multi-ethnic communities everywhere. Violence can be born out of the refusal to meet the other and to address the roots of conflict. Equally, the readiness to reach out is a necessary foundation for peace.