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MURDERED schoolboy Kriss Donald pleaded: "I'm only 15. What did I do?" as he was beaten up and dragged into the back of a car by his abductors, a court heard yesterday.

Imran Shahid, Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq, 27, and Zeeshan Shahid, 29, deny racially aggravated murder.

All three are on trial in Edinburgh, accused of abducting and killing Kriss by striking him with a knife or knives, then setting him on fire on 15 March, 2004.
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1478452006

Ethnic tension is very tight in the UK. It always has been. I come from one of the largest Asian and Indian communities in England; I lived there for over 15 years.

There is a self-imposed segregation that goes on there. Both sides are usually friendly towards each other, but there is little real interaction between ethnic groups.

It is still very rare to see people from different cultures dating or getting married. This is increasing slowly with second generation Asians and Indians, but it is still rare for them to date or marry outside their own culture.

Some Asian and Indian couples who got married or dated outside their own religion have had to run and hide from their families because they are threatened with death - by their own families in England.

There was some research carried out in Leeds one time, I read it many years ago. They researched the characteristics of those who commit violent racist crimes. They discovered that these people were violent as part of their character, for many different reasons. They were not only violent against other cultures, but they were also violent within their own culture and even within their own group.

I don't know how much violence is really related to religion or culture, but it makes me sad. People have so much to learn from each other and friends are so hard to find. Why limit your chances of finding a good friend because of their culture or religion?

It's all so shocking. Even now, when we hear about so much violence. I find it really shocking.

Yes it is shocking. But I found it even more unusual because it happened in Scotland, of all places.

Where there is cultural difference you will probably find tension. People are people, and in any nation of people you will find some who do not know how to deal with their frustrations without resorting to violence.

As you said, the sad thing is that this tension is increasing and not decreasing. It's spreading to places where it never used to be, and on a scale that has never been seen in many places.

I think one things is certain; we're heading for cultural chaos. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better!