FEARS ARE growing that the Scottish government is cooling its anti-sectarian policies inherited from Labour and have been warned the issue could "slip back into the darkness".

Jack McConnell has called on the government to "rectify its mistake" of not holding a summit or launching a fresh strategy on sectarianism this year.

The former first minister, who was integral in introducing the national action plan at Scotland's first summit on sectarianism in 2005, accused the SNP government of taking "popularism too far".

He said: "Now and again it has to stand up and be counted on a difficult issue and I hope that at some point at this year it has a sectarian summit. I think that the new government in Scotland can take its search for popularism too far.

"It was a mistake last summer when one of the first acts of the government was to lump the work on sectarianism with other equal opportunities work in the government departments."

McConnell said sectarianism would only be rooted out if focus was given to it. "I warned them at the time that was a mistake and I hope this year they will rectify that mistake and hold another summit thereby reassuring everyone that the focus remains. I think there would be many people, particularly younger people, who will be disappointed if the new government isn't prepared to continue this work."

Arguably the first high-profile Scottish politician to push sectarianism into the public arena, McConnell said he was "advised by a lot of people not to do it".

"It was six months before the 2003 election and Labour was going through a tough time and it looked like it was going to be a tough election, and I was my first one as leader. We were getting back on course and a lot of people thought I was taking too big a risk."

McConnell said he fully expected a public backlash from some quarters but felt "the silent majority had had enough"

"Someone had to stand up for them and I thought I'm going to lead from the front on this." The SNP government has said it doesn't believe a third summit on sectarianism at this time would "move the agenda forward".

And in parliamentary questions Fergus Ewing, minister for community safety, said in February "we do not believe that a further strategy specifically on tackling sectarianism is needed at this time".

Anti-sectarian campaign group Nil By Mouth, which will learn of its government funding arrangements next month, urged the SNP to make sectarianism a "regular and major focus".

Spokesman Richard Benjamin, said: "I think that the positive thing about the summit was that it was very high profile and sent out a clear public message to say this issue is being tackled."

He went on to say there was a need for the three-year-old national strategy on sectarianism to be re-examined. "We need to spell out to people what we are going to do to tackle the issue. I think there's quite a lot of avenues which are still to be explored and we'd be keen to develop a new strategy to focus on that."

Nil By Mouth wants more work to be done on restorative justice as sectarianism is now a racially-aggravated offence, and called for a monitoring system to be introduced for loyalist and republican parades.

Bill Butler, Labour deputy convener of the justice committee, warned sectarianism will "slip back into the darkness" of Scottish society if the government doesn't take action.

"If we don't have a coherent national strategy the government runs the risk of the initiatives becoming ad hoc and incoherent and it won't be a strategy at all. It could end up being a glossover of a serious issue that doesn't tackle the fundamentals."

He also called for anti-sectarian education to be part of the school curriculum.

Dr Ross Deuchar, a senior lecturer at Strathclyde University, will complete the first study into sectarianism and young people next month. He interviewed a number of 16 to 18-year-old Glasgow teenagers and was surprised at their attitudes to sectarian language.

"They see it as banter which shows the language has become very normalised. One told us: I relish the banter'. They seem to think calling someone a Fenian, a Tim or Orange b*****d is all fun."

Deuchar said the majority of teenagers he spoke to said sectarianism wasn't discussed in their schools.

He said: "I think we need to look more closely at what kind of interventions there needs to be in schools like CPD (continuing professional development) for teachers. I think it also needs to form an integral part of education. To me it's the most controversial and serious issue in Scotland and sectarianism needs to be put more explicitly on the agenda."

However, there are those who believe sectarianism is no longer a big issue.

When asked if the government should issue a fresh strategy on sectarianism Bill Aitken, Conservative justice spokesman said: "What for? If it's not a big problem why should we?"

A Scottish government spokesman said it remains "committed to tackling all forms of discrimination and fully recognises the need to tackle religious discrimination".

"Intra-Christian sectarianism remains a problem in Scotland and we must not shy away from the challenges that it presents us. However, there are other religious communities in Scotland which face bigotry and abuse and we must work to meet the needs of all of our religious communities."