A HARD-HITTING new anti-bigotry campaign has been launched in Glasgow.
The Bigotry’s Not in Your Blood comes after weeks of tension in the city around Orange Order and Republican parades.
Charities Nil By Mouth and Global Acts of Unity joined students from City of Glasgow College to unveil the campaign which will feature on bus shelters across the city, including areas where disorder has taken place, as well as social media.
Nil by Mouth was set up by Glasgow teenager Cara Henderson following the sectarian killing of her schoolfriend Mark Scott in 1995.
Mike Haines founded Global Acts of Unity after his aid worker brother David was murdered by Daesh in 2014. Haines has since then dedicated his life to encouraging tolerance between different religions.
The campaign was designed by students Georgina Alvarado, Julija Juodzeviciute, Iqra Tariq and Aida Vallespi, below, through Nil by Mouth’s "Pitch Perfect" competition. It sees marketing students devise a campaign aimed at challenging prejudice.
Vallespi said: "We are all proud to live, work and study in a multi-cultural city like Glasgow and wanted to create a campaign that reminded people that no-one is born to hate. Our group comes from a diverse backgrounds and know diversity is a positive thing for society but we are not naïve enough to think everyone shares these views.
"We felt the image of blood cells highlights universality and we hope our campaign reminds people that we should respond to difference not with anger or violence but with questions and a will to find common ground between people of different faiths and cultures.
Nil by Mouth Director Dave Scott said: "This is a very imaginative and timely campaign with a powerful visual image that seeks to remind people that regardless of our colour or creed the same blood flows through all our veins."
"There have clearly been serious issues across Glasgow in recent months with sectarianism and other forms of hate crime and we want to use this campaign to hammer home the message that things don’t have to be this way."
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