LEICESTER CITY OF SANCTUARY AGM

Hotfoot from the Faith Awareness Summer Visit to the Jain Centre, I head for the Annual General Meeting of Leicester City of Sanctuary in St Andrew's Church Hall, Jarrom Street, hardly ten minutes' walk away. Except when I get there, there's a different event entirely going on. Once I get someone to open the door to me, I discover that unintentional double booking; seems I missed an email about the change of venue. An apologetic Canon Barry Naylor first invites me into the warmth and offers food and drink, but I demur (even though it's bloomin' freezing out and I haven't had my tea). He points me in the direction of St Margaret's Church Hall where I'll find the City of Sanctuary AGM. That's a little more than ten minutes' walk but I feel committed now, so off I go.

Just a few hours ago I was asked (via Facebook) to sign an electronic petition through Change.org ("the world's petition platform") to release Abdul Ghafar Rajabali and halt his deportation. I did so and shared it with my Facebook friends. By the time I reach St Margaret's Church Hall, I see that 20 of them have also signed - and I imagine that some of them will have shared the petition with their own friends.

Even though I arrive at the venue just as the meeting is breaking up, I hope it's still worth showing my face. I want to express support not only for City of Sanctuary as an organisation and for what they are doing about Abdul's plight, but also lend personal support to a few friends who have been leading the campaign for Abdul's release.

Photos by Ambrose Musiyiwa, publishing as Civic Leicester. Reproduced by permission. More of Ambrose's photos from this meeting may be seen online.

OPEN MEETING: HATE CRIME & CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

This evening the Council of Faiths hosts an open meeting, "Hate Crime and the Criminal Justice System", at the University of Leicester.

This is the fourth in a series of such meetings, on topics of interest to people from all sorts of communities across the city. I've posted on this blog about the three earlier meetings:

• Faith in Family, 20 November 2012
• God in My Faith, 13 March 2012
• Open Meeting with City Mayor, 31 January 2012

Despite extensive preparations for this evening, we haven't produced signage (note to self: do that for any future meetings we hold on campus), and it's easy to miss the entrance to Lecture Theatre 3 in the Ken Edwards Building if you haven't been here before. So I spend the first half hour outside at the top of the pathway, rounding up stragglers. It's cold (the gritters are out already) but worth it, as I redirect more than half a dozen people who appear to have missed the venue - including one of the speakers.

A panel of four distinguished, experienced and knowledgeable speakers have been invited to address the topics of Hate Crime and the Criminal Justice System from their own perspectives (professional and personal), then answer questions from the audience. Each of the speakers had a different perspective to offer (professional and personal) and it would be fair to say that not all of the speakers agreed on how these such crimes - and the underlying attitudes that allow them to persist - are treated in society. But such differences of opinion and approach are aired in a courteous manner and lead to some thought-provoking discussion.

Detective Superintendent David Sandall at the podium

First speaker: Detective Superintendent David Sandall, Head of Safeguarding and Lead for Hate Crime, Leicestershire Police.

Neil Chakroborti at the podium

Second speaker: Neil Chakroborti, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Leicester and Director of the Leicester Hate Crime Project.

Chino Cabon at the podium

Third speaker: Chino Cabon, Senior Race Equality Officer, The Race Equality Centre - demonstrating his mastery of the double karate chop emphasis there.

Luman Ali at the podium

Fourth and final speaker: Luman Ali, Secretary, Federation of Muslim Organisations. Luman stepped in at late notice for Suleman Nagdi, Chair of the Muslim Burial Council for Leicestershire and PR Officer for FMO.

The Rt Revd Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester, had accepted the invitation to chair the meeting, but has to withdraw, due to ill health. Tony Nelson, who had taken responsibility for organising the meeting, chaired in Bishop Tim's stead. Tony (who represents the Leicester Hebrew Congregation on Leicester Council of Faiths) is in the centre of the photo below, flanked by the speakers.

There are 50 attendees (not counting the speakers and chair), many of them representing communities, groups and organisations with first hand experience of crimes committed against their members on account of disability, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation among a variety of reasons. More than one person spoke about the effect of belonging to a group which has been unfairly accused of perpetrating hate crime.

Light refreshments are served at the end of the meeting, allowing attendees to mix, mingle and network for a further half hour. Another note to self: take greater care to clean up after eating oily finger food. When putting away our generic pop-up banner, the thing slips from my grasp and takes a bit of a doing, leaving some visible damage. That's the first such hit that any of our banners has taken in more than four years of regular use.

We're grateful to those agencies which backed up this event with their own personnel, resources and time, such as Victim Support, whose display is shown above.

All photos posted here were taken by Ambrose Musiyiwa (Civic Leicester). Ambrose recorded two videos of the proceedings this evening: one of the main presentations by the four speakers and one of the Q&A that followed them. They are now available on YouTube. Our thanks got to Ambrose for his tireless support!

PLANNING FOR DIVERSITY WEEK AT SOUTH LEICESTERSHIRE COLLEGE

A meeting this morning with Zulqa Muhammad, Learning Coach at South Leicestershire College. The college is planning a Diversity Week involving students and staff, Monday 28 to Friday 1 January 2013.

Zulqa saw our exhibition in Highcross during Inter Faith Week at the end of November and has asked if the Council of Faiths could get involved. He shares the draft programme with me; it covers a variety of the Protected Characteristics that you'd expect to find on campus, including disability, LGBT, race and religion. The college has a strong and active Equality and Diversity Group which covers these themes and others, as expressed in the college's Equality and Diversity scheme. 

We're asked to provide participants from different faith backgrounds for what's described as a "Religious Speed Dating" session around lunchtime on the Tuesday. We're also being asked to bring along our full exhibition for the Thursday, which will be the busiest day of the week.

I offer our two "generic" banners for the whole of the week, along with the two banners from Leicester University ("Mapping Faith and Place in Leicester" and "Leicester Faith Trail") which are still in our possession after we used them at Inter Faith Week. We might lend a couple of blu-rays of movies that featured in our Faiths Film Festival at Phoenix Square during Inter Faith Week 2011.

The dates for the college's Diversity Week will allow the event to be listed as being keyed to World Interfaith Harmony Week, which begins on Friday 1 February.

We should be able to help the college get some decent exposure for their Diversity Week through social media and by our contact with Citizens' Eye Community News Agency and Civic Leicester (among others). A the very least, I should be able to pop in each day and film a few video snippets on my flip camera that could be uploaded to their sites and to Facebook, Twitter etc.

The photo above shows the space in the college concourse that'll be given to the Council of Faiths full exhibition on the Thursday of their Diversity Week. It's the kind of alcove setting I've long wanted to see it in.

HERE ALONE: REFUGEE CHILDREN IN THE UK

Here Alone: Refugee Children in the UK is the title of a conference jointly sponsored by Christians Aware and the Leicester Unaccompanied Child Initiative, held at Quaker Meeting House, Queens Road today.

Legislation defines an “unaccompanied asylum seeking child” as a child who

• is applying for asylum in their own right, and
• is separated from both parents and is not being cared for by an adult who by law has responsibility to do so

A child may move between the unaccompanied and accompanied categories whilst their applications are under consideration, e.g. where a child arrives alone but is later united with other family members in the UK, or a child arrives with their parents or close relatives but is later abandoned, or a trafficked child, or one brought in on false papers with an adult claiming to be a relative.

As soon as anyone who has been treated as a child under these conditions turns 18, they have to apply for refugee status. Only seven per cent of such applications are successful. If refugee status is granted, that is valid for five years. At the end of that period, one has to apply for leave to remain.

Barbara Butler (Executive Secretary of Christians Aware) introduces the day and welcomes the 30 attendees present at the start of the conference. She asks us to bear in mind that we are not talking about the giving of charity in the conventional sense (e.g. of handouts or food parcels) but the giving of hope, hospitality.

The conference proper starts with us watching a five minute-long animated film, Rachel's Story, one of a series of short films from Seeking Refuge, broadcast on BBC 2 in June this year. Seeking Refuge contains five stories giving a unique insight into the lives of young people who have sought asylum in the UK, told by the children themselves. Each of the films conveys different experiences of young refugees and asylum seekers, while communicating the collective struggles and hopes of young people fleeing from their country of origin, and the issues they face adjusting to life in the UK. The stories powerfully explore themes including persecution, separation and alienation, and seek to inform young audiences about some of the hardships these children face.

First speaker is David Pitts (on the right in photo above, with Brandon Akem), who sets the topic within an international context. David is a member of Christians Aware who every year spends time teaching English to children in camps on the border between Thailand and Burma. Something that sticks in my mind from David's talk is when he considers the words that Paul attributes to Jesus, "It is better to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35) in relation to those who have nothing and who are wholly dependent on others. It's not good for people to be on the receiving end all the time - they need to have opportunities to give. David shares tales of some acts of generosity and sacrifice shown to him by the children in the camps.

Alison Birch, from the Leicester Unaccompanied Child Initiative (LUCI), speaks about the situation with unaccompanied asylum seeker children in Leicester. There are reckoned to be 195 unaccompanied child asylum seekers in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. Of that number, 110 have come here from Afghanistan. She shows a clip from BBC East Midlands Today about the work of LUCI at The Centre project, based at Central Baptist Church. Many children and young people are sent to LUCI by other local authorities in the East Midlands, because of the diversity of Leicester, as it's assumed that they'll be able to be put in touch with members of their own community more easily here.

Brandon Akem, who arrived here from Cameroon aged 16 - volunteers for LUCI while studying Law at Leicester University. He speaks briefly about his own experience in both receiving and giving support.

Artist and author, teacher and educationalist Beate Dehnen (photo above) speaks next on the topic, "Refugees and Art: Art as Refuge". She shares examples of the kind of material created in her workshops with asylum seekers and refugees, which she has used a platform on which to empower people who feel powerless, to help them find a voice when it appears that no one can hear them. Some work by Beate and participants in her workshops on the theme, "Here Alone" is on display today. Most of the attendees take advantage of opportunities to view it throughout the day.

  

Last session of the morning is given over to watching the short documentary, Hamedullah: The Road Home by Sue Clayton. Sue was hoping to be here herself, but unexpected  family commitments have prevented that. Sue is passionate about empowering young people to express themselves through social media, film-making and video diaries. Her film introduces us to Hamedullah Hassany, who arrived in this country as an unaccompanied child asylum seeker a number of years ago. Upon turning 18, he is deported to Afghanistan, leaving behind friends, home and studies in Canterbury, where he had been making a life for himself. Sue gave him a video camera on which to record his experiences in Afghanistan Although Afghanistan is nominally his home country (though Kabul is not his home town), Hamedullah is a fish out of water there. After spending some of his most formative years in England, he has nothing in common with the people he has been sent to live among and can barely make his way in their society. The people with whom Hamedullah comes into contact assume that, having been deported from the UK, he must be a criminal or some other sort of undesirable. Most shun his company because of that, while others play upon it for their own ends. He returns to the village where he grew up, only to find the homes there abandoned and decaying, like ancient ossified relics. Hamedullah soon comes to the grim conclusion that he has nothing to do, nowhere to go and no one on whom he can rely for help or friendship. We witness his transformation from a bright and cheerful, friendly and gentle, motivated and optimistic young man to one who is bitter and cynical, deflated and degraded, pessimistic and poisoned.

Hamedullah is still in Afghanistan, subsisting on small amounts of money that Sue Clayton sends him from sales of the DVD or fund-raising activities on his behalf.

I felt moved and appalled by this film, in fairly equal measure. Moved by the plight of Hamedullah, appalled at how anyone thinks this is a civilised thing to do to another human being.

Lunchtime next: a walk in the crisp December air of Queens Road is required after what I've just sat through. It takes a few minutes before I feel able to sit and talk with anyone else, or to eat anything.

After lunch, we have a choice between one workshop with Alison Birch or another with Lisa Matthews, Campaigns Coordinator (South) for the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns. Alison's workshop (photo above) focuses on what is being done - and what can be done - in Leicester, Lisa's (photo below) on national campaigns.

At the end of the workshop period, we all come back together and Lisa sums up the day.

It would be an injustice to those who are the focus of today's conference if we allowed our concern to peter out as we leave Quaker Meeting House. We make tentative plans for action to capitalise on the commitment of those attending today. At the very least, we should ensure that future events on this and related topics should have a more varied line-up in terms of those presenting and those attending. Greater effort could be made to involve people of other religions, traditions, cultures and backgrounds (on a mildly ironic note, Bahá'ís from city and county have been holding their local convention in an upstairs room and a couple of them join in for the last half hour of the conference, once their own event is done).

Thanks to Ambrose Musiyiwa for these pictures - and for many more photos from the conference which he has posted on Facebook under the guise of Civic Leicester.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 8: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Seventh and final day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross for Inter Faith Week. It might be a wee bit confusing that it's day seven of our exhibition on day eight of Inter Faith Week - a "week" lasting ten days in all, from Sunday 18 to Tuesday 27 November. Just hang in there - it's almost over!

Due to an administrative error, three people turn up for the first shift (1100-1300) but none for the second (1300-1500). Revd David Clark (former Assistant Secretary of Leicester Council of Faiths, photo below) phones me to let me know this, just as Tony Nelson and Yasmin Surti leave after doing two hours together on the display. I've no issue about having an extra person on the exhibition on Sunday morning, which would surely be on of the busiest periods of the week. But under no conditions could we leave our display unattended.

Since David started his stint late this morning, he's happy to wait until I can get there, meaning there's no time at which it's left unattended. I hadn't planned to be at the exhibition today until right at the end, to pack it all away at 1700. This is particularly so as the kids are with me this weekend and I'd had them at the display for a couple of hours yesterday. However, I've no option but to call a cab, bundle Harry, Gracie and her school friend Ellie into the back of it and hightail it to Highcross. We arrive shortly before 1400, in time to relieve David.

Shortly before 1500 I'm joined by Kash Bhayani, whom I met on the Holi Yatra Walk in March this year. Kash had pencilled himself in for several shots on the exhibition earlier in the week, but for one reason or another, he'd had to cancel each one of them. I'm glad he gets to join in near the end.

Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, pays an unexpected visit to our exhibition shortly around 1530. He's able to stay and chat for a quarter of an hour or so. In the photo above, he's adding his own contribution to the collection of thoughts and feelings left by visitors and volunteers throughout the week (with Kash on the right of the picture). In the photo below, he's hanging his label on the tree. What did the Mayor write? Ah, that would be telling, faithful reader ...

For an hour or so this afternoon, we’re joined by Ambrose Musiyiwa, who takes several photos which he has posted on Facebook under the guise of Civic Leicester. Some of his photos are used in this blog post; others are sprinkled throughout these reports about our exhibition in Highcross during Inter Faith Week.

Here are some of the dreams, hopes, prayers and wishes that were written on the labels and hung on the little white tree on this final day:

I love multicultural city

Change is the law of nature but human values of love, respect, care, non-violence shouldn't change

May we all be forgiven our transgressions by the God we believe in

Be honest and kind and helpful to others

I wish to be truly able to see the God in everyone 

I want people to know the abundance they have - Kash

"Recognise the human race as one" - Guru Gobind Singh, Sikh Prophet

Health and happiness for 2013

Two young Muslim fellows turn up bang on 1700, tell me that they'd heard about the exhibition, had been looking for it and want to volunteer fronting it for a couple of hours. I take their details and tell them I'll be in touch in time for next year.

Within 20 minutes everything's packed and being trundled back toward the Welcome Centre. Thanks to Harry, Gracie and Ellie for lending a hand right at the end.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 6: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Fifth day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross for Inter Faith Week.

First on duty today are Anne Fishenden (member of Leicester Quakers and Chair of Leicester SACRE - Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) and Michelle Benn (from Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation). This is Anne's second go this week; she was also here on Monday, the first day of the exhibition. Michelle took part in our exhibition two years ago and I'm glad that she's been able to join in again this time. She's going to be part of a multi-faith panel in the next session of the Christians Aware / Faith Awareness course on the Beatitudes at Christchurch, Clarendon Park, this coming Monday evening. We get the chance to chat for a few minutes about that (which is good, as I'm slated to be chairing that session).

After Anne and Michelle, we have Allan Hayes (from Leicester Secular Society) Janette MacDonald (Secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Leicester). Like Anne (above), Allan has done a couple of hours already, on Monday.

  

Following Allan and Janette, from 1400 to 1600: Tony Nelson (of Leicester Hebrew Congregation and Treasurer of Leicester Council of Faiths) and Rashmi Vyas (of Leicestershire Brahma Samaj). It's clearly a day for repeat business, as Rashmi was here for a couple of hours yesterday.

And as if to prove that point, Deirdre O'Sullivan, Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Leicester School's of Archaeology and Ancient History (which produced the Mapping Faith and Place in Leicester and the Leicester Faith Trail), is back after her earlier stint on Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, due to an administrative mix-up, she's one of the few volunteers this week who ends up doing a session on her own (1600-1800). But she can take it - she's a veteran now (she did a couple of sessions last year too).

Julie Ann Heath (from Leicester Cathedral) and Jasdeep Singh Lamar (of Leicestershire Sikh Alliance) cover the last shift of the day (1800-2000).

A selection of the messages hung on our tree today by visitors and volunteers:

I don't necessarily believe in God ... but I have faith in ONE LOVE

I wish for self-fulfilment

May all beings be happy and free from suffering

Thank you for all religions - Iona age 9

I hope that racism stops #saynotoracism

Wish all the people lots of love from the angels

RIP Tommy and Harry xxx

World peace

Better year than 2012

God bless everyone at Christmas

Thanks to Ambrose Musiyiwa for the pictures top and bottom of this post - and for many more photos from our Inter Faith Week exhibition which he has posted on Facebook under the guise of Civic Leicester.