Fears the Charlie Hebdo massacre could lead to extremist attacks in Tayside has moved police to reach out to Dundee’s ethnic minorities.
Tayside’s top officer said the Paris bloodbath had raised the spectre of “hate crimes” in the City of Discovery.
Both Muslim and Jewish groups in the city said they feared retaliatory attacks by extremists following the murder of journalists and police officers by al Qaida operatives in the French capital.
Chief Superintendent Eddie Smith said that officers had recently conducted a city-wide consultation with religious groups on how to “challenge extremists who distort belief or faith systems”.
The police chief added that, while no group had highlighted a specific attack, they would like to develop an inter-faith forum to liaise with the force and other groups on extremist behaviour.
Mr Smith said: “Hate crimes were of concern with Muslim and Jewish groups after the Charlie Hebdo Paris attacks and subsequent media coverage, although no group cited any local incidents or areas of specific local concern, and were grateful of police engagement and proactivity.
“Many groups commented on pre-existing positive and valuable community engagement by the police.
“Many groups indicated an interest in developing police and community engagement in coordination with some form of inter-faith forum.”
A leader in the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Dundee, Muhammad Ahsan Ahmad, said he welcomed further engagement from the police in the city. “We have been perfectly fine in Dundee,” he said.
“We have had good engagement from the police in Dundee certainly.
“At a recent Pathways to Peace event on Saturday, the police came, and they have also been to some of our other programmes.
“I think a further dialogue opportunity would only be helpful. Some minority groups might not have the confidence to come forward if they are scared, so having an inter-faith group would help this.”
Mr Smith added: “Multi-agency and collaborative partnership approaches remain key to success in building capacity to challenge extremists who distort belief or faith systems, as well as supporting those vulnerable to extremist grooming or recruitment and developing persuasive alternatives to such criminality.”