Dear Anonymous I feel I am in a particularly apt position to respond to your points, as a white, Caucasian, Muslim woman who attended the mountain Muslim conference and found it incredibly beneficial. I disagree with a lot of what you have said: 1. I think I am a perfect example of the fact that Islam is not a particular race and nobody is claiming that it is so there is no need to keep repeating the same thing. However, the vast majority of Muslims in the UK are from a BME background which should not be forgotten. 2. There ARE religion-specific barriers to outdoor participation. Whilst many of the barriers discussed at the conference were generic (such as cost, access to outdoor spaces etc), I as a Muslim woman for example keep to certain rules of gender interaction prescribed in my faith, and therefore am looking for female-only training courses and facilities. I don't suppose you know much about the Islamic details, hence my surprise that you would out of the blue dismiss that any religious barriers could possibly exist. Many other examples were discussed on the day which I do not frankly feel the need to have to justify to skeptics such as yourself. 3. Even if there weren't any specific barriers (which as I have demonstrated, there are), it is quite reasonable to have a conference targeting a particular religious group. If most Muslims come from a BME background and there are agreed upon barriers to BME participation then having a meeting targeting Muslims may open the channel of communication to those who may be more interested to attend a conference addressing their religious group than simply a generic BME meeting - and opening these channels of communication about outdoor activities is the whole point of the Equity Steering Group. 4. By having a 'Mountain Muslim' conference this is not to say that the BMC now only deal with Muslims or that there will not be any catering for other groups. This was a small meeting to help brainstorm and tackle the issues for a particular group so with all due respect, if any of the other minority groups you mentioned feel passionate enough about it then let them organise something for themselves, I'm sure the BMC are more than happy to facilitate a discussion. I say well done to Carey and the organisers from Mountain Muslim, the conference has certainly been a means for me to assist my local community group to get into the outdoors and I commend them highly. Mirina