MEET WILL BALDET, PREVENT COORDINATOR

At St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society this morning for a meeting with Will Baldet, Prevent Coordinator for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

I first met Will last month, at a Knowledge Exchange Seminar in the Multifaith Centre at the University of Derby on the topic of Islam and Higher Education. We've been looking for the chance to get together for this conversation since then.

I'm grateful to Will for clearing a couple of hours so close to the international conference that he's organising at De Montfort University this Saturday. "Virtual Voices, Real Lives" will consider the realities of radicalisation and the role of social media in Islamophobia, extremism and social change. As you can imagine, faithful reader, I'm excited at the prospect of social media being taken seriously in this context and am looking forward to taking part in the conference myself.

Will was appointed Prevent Coordinator for Leicester in October last year. He talks me through how Prevent has changed, what it means now and how it relates to the distinctive circumstances of our city. I, in turn, walk him through the structure, function and relevance of Leicester Council of Faiths. We map out areas of overlap between Prevent and the Council of Faiths, complementary aspects of his work and mine, particularly regarding social cohesion. It would make sense for him to meet the Board of Leicester Council of Faiths to brief them on Prevent. I hope we can make that happen soon. I also offer to help him make contact with other appropriate organisations and agencies, such as Network for Change and Leicester SACRE.

The appointment of a Prevent Coordinator at S Philip's Centre was funded by the Home Office and is designed to co-ordinate the preventative strand of the Government's counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST in Leicester. The aim of Prevent is to help communities develop the resilience to counter the national threat in all its forms, and to empower the community itself with the support of partner agencies to address these difficult challenges.

As we're wrapping up our two-hour meeting, we discover a shared interest in comics. Will favours Marvel (particularly Daredevil, the Man Without Fear), while I'm more firmly DC. Those who get such things may see what that might tell us about Will - and about how he and I could work together.

Follow Will's Twitter feed, @Leics_SafeSPACE: challenging religious and political extremism and providing the space for Leicester's communities to debate the issues online.

Follow Leicester SafeSpace on Facebook: An online forum to discuss and debate issues of political or religious extremism, share ideas on making our communities more resilient to extremist voices and publicise local and national events of interest.

RELIGION & BELIEF, DISCRIMINATION & EQUALITY: A DECADE OF CHANGE?

To the Multi-Faith Centre at the University of Derby, for a "Knowledge Exchange Workshop", part of the University's research project, "Religion and Belief, Discrimination and Equality in England and Wales: Theory, Policy and Practice (2000-2010)".

This three-year long project builds upon previous research conducted by the university for the Home Office in 1999-2001 (published as Religious Discrimination in England and Wales, available to download as a PDF). The aim of the current project is to contribute to a better understanding of the nature and extent of discrimination and unfair treatment on the grounds of religion or belief, including relevant changes over the past decade, and an assessment of the adequacy of policies, practices and laws designed to tackle such unfair treatment.

The project has focused on Blackburn, Cardiff, Leicester, the London Borough of Newham (all four of which were included in the original research) and Norwich (which has been added for the current project).

I've blogged about this project a couple of times already, when Dr Sariya Contractor came to the Welcome Centre and interviewed me (14 March 2011) and when I took part in a focus group of local Bahá'ís (11 April 2011).

At this stage of the project, the research team wants to engage with an even wider range of practitioners who identify themselves with the Protected Characteristic of religion or belief, from the voluntary and community sector, from the public, private and legal sectors. We've been invited to this workshop so that the university can share its research findings and provide us with an opportunity to contribute to them in the light of the experience of our organisations and groups.

Today's is the first of five Knowledge Exchange Workshops taking place over the next few months around the country. The others are to be held in Oxford, Manchester, Cardiff and London.

Issues around discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief are sensitive and highly contested, involving matters of individual freedom of conscience and expression in community and public life; the organisation of corporate religious activity and also employer and service provider responsibilities. When interacting with other responsibilities and rights, conflicts between different legally "protected characteristics"  result in questions about their balancing. Many debates turn upon the role of law arising from a decade of change in social context, policy and law.

Revisited research objectives

The project includes revisiting objectives that were first addressed ten years ago:

To assess the evidence of religious discrimination in England and Wales, both actual and perceived.

To describe the patterns shown by this evidence, including:

• its overall scale
• the main victims
• the main perpetrators
• the main ways in which the discrimination manifest

To indicate the extent to which religious discrimination overlaps with racial discrimination

To identify the broad range of policy options available for dealing with religious discrimination

New research questions

In the light of developments during th past decade, the project has also asked:

How far might the pattern of reported expereinece of unfair treatment on the basis of religion (such as type of unfair treatment; frequency and seriousness; groups primarily affected and  sectors of social life) have changed since the 1999-2001 project?

What are the implications of the above for theory, policy and practice in issues of discrimination/equality measures concerned with religion or belief, bearing in mind the:

• impact of the 7/7 bombings and "preventing terrorism"
• policy focus on "Britishness" and "social cohesion"
• impact of legal developments relating to religion
• impact of "belief" within law and policy on "religion and belief"
• relationship with other equalities strands

Some key legal questions have been included: to what extent might the narrowness of religious exemptions in discrimination law have contributed to any reported experience of unfair treatment toward the religious groups and their practices?

To what extent  might the breadth of these exemptions have contributed to any reported experience of unfair treatment on the other grounds (such as gender, race or sexuality) within religious communities?

How much awareness is there of the relevant legislation for protection against religious discrimination? And how much use has been made of these measures?

Over and above the benefits of participating in the event, it was a pleasure to be in the company of my old muckers, Drs Wendi Momen and Naz Ghanea-Hercock.

This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council Religion and Society Programme.

LEICESTER COUNCIL OF FAITHS AGM 2011

It's Leicester Council of Faiths Annual General Meeting this evening at Guru Amar Das Gurdwara, Clarendon Park Road.

I've been with Harry and Grace in Wigston. Around teatime every Tuesday I whisk them back and forth between two choirs of which they’re members (well, Harry two and Grace one). This evening, as soon as I drop them off at Guthlaxton College for the Leicester Phoenix Youth Chorale, I'm in a taxi, which I've booked to get me to the gurdwara on time.

I have an interesting chat with the driver en route - about where I'm and why I'm going there. He assumes I've said I want to go to the gurdwara just because it's a reference point in Clarendon Park Road. When I tell him, no, I'm actually going to the gurdwara itself, it sparks an unexpected conversation. He's clearly a bit phased by a white British guy asking to be driven to a Sikh place of worship. It's this kind of encounter that reminds me just how unusual my job is, even in a city as diverse and mixed as Leicester.

With a bit of foresight, I’ve spent some time in the gurdwara earlier this afternoon, putting up our exhibition (blogged here), so that it’s ready for the meeting this evening, panic and stress-free.

I arrive, to find that the agenda has been rejigged. I've managed to miss the food and have to jump in just as the meeting proper starts.

Our guest speaker is Paul Weller, Professor of Inter-Religious Relations at the University of Derby, who gives a presentation entitled, "Faith Communities, Groups and Organisations in Civil Society: Opportunities, Issues and Challenges". Prof. Weller's talk is based on seven theses and his comments following on them.

Thesis 1: The importance of not marginalising religions from public life

A tendency to assign religions to the private sphere will impoverish the state by marginalising important social resources and might unwittingly encourage those reactive, backward- and inward-looking expressions of religious life that are popularly characterised as "fundamentalism".

Comment: Secularists should beware the Law of Unintended Consequences in relation to religion. 

Thesis 2: The need to recognise the specificity of religions

Religious traditions and communities offer important alternative perspectives t the predominant values and power structures of states and societies. Religions are a reminder of the importance of the things that cannot be seen, touched, smelled, tasted and heard, for a more balanced perspective on those things that can be experienced in these ways.

Comment: After the technocratic death of politics and on the other side of the global financial crisis, could religions contribute to the rebirth of the politics of the human? 

Thesis 3: The imperative for religious engagement with the wider community

Religious communities and traditions should beware of what can be seductive calls from within their traditions to form "religious unity fronts" against what is characterised as "the secular state" and what is perceived as the amorality and fragmentation of modern and post-modern society.

Comment: Why are religions (and, at the moment, especially Christianity) seem to be getting so fearful about a perceived Secularist lobby and agenda? Is such fear justified? 

Thesis 4: The need for a reality checkNational and political self-understandings that exclude people of other than the majority traditions, either by design or by default are, historically speaking, fundamentally distorted. Politically and religiously such self-understandings are dangerous and need to be challenged.

Comment: What about the BNP and its appropriation of Christian symoblism? But is it only such groups who should be the cause of concern? 

Thesis 5: The need to recognise the transnational dimension of religions

Religious communities and traditions need to pre-empt the dangers involved in becoming proxy sites for imported conflicts involving their coreligionists in other parts of the world. But because they are themselves part of wider global communities of faith, religions have the potential for positively contributing to a better understanding of the role of states and societies of their own countries within a globalising world. 

Thesis 6: The importance of religious inclusivity

Religious establishments as well as other traditions and social arrangements that provide particular forms of religion with privileged access to social and political institutions need to be re-evaluated. There is a growing need to imagine and to construct new structural forms for the relationship between religion(s), state(s) and society(ies) that can more adequately express an inclusive social and political self-understanding than this which currently privilege majority religious traditions.

Comment: Can there not be alternatives to established religions that do not shut religions out of the public sphere? 

Thesis 7: The imperative of inter-religious dialogue

Inter-religious dialogue is an imperative for the religious communities and for the states and societies of which they are a part. There is a need to continue the task of developing appropriate inter-faith structures at all levels within states and societies and in appropriate transnational and international structures.

Comment: Perhaps there is, today, even more need for religious / secular dialogue.

After Prof. Weller’s talk, the main business of the evening is the election of members of the Board of Directors and the Officers. My role during this part is to take the minutes.

At the end of the meeting, I get to promote our local activities for the third national Inter Faith Week, coming up later this month. I have a big bundle of our fliers and of the programme for Phoenix Square, open at the page for the Faiths Film Festival.

I'm the last one out, having to stay behind, take down and pack up the nine pop-up banners in our exhibition. Thanks to Rosemarie Fitton for giving me (and them) a lift home. Then I manage to leave one of them outside my door overnight in the rain. Thank goodness those bags are just waterproof enough!  

Photo © Copyright P L Chadwick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

DR CONTRACTOR MEETS FOCUS GROUP OF LOCAL BAHÁ'ÍS

Dr Sariya Contractor, Project Researcher from the University of Derby on the Religion, Belief, Discrimination and Equality Project, is coming to the end of her four-week stint in Leicester, the first of four cities covered by the project (the others being Blackburn, Cardiff and Norwich). During that time, she's been talking with individuals and groups from different communities, discussing their experience and perception of discrimination on grounds of religion or belief.

Today she's meeting a focus group made up of some Bahá'ís from the city and from just across the border in the county. We're at Minou Cortazzi's home for a couple of hours this afternoon. The photograph shows (left to right): Dr Sariya Contractor with local Bahá'ís Jan, Celia, Minou, Leila and Maha. I'm the only male here today (and I'm the one behind the camera).

We start by talking about the local Bahá'í community's history, its current situation, its relationship with other faith communities in the city - points of contact, similarity and distinction between them. We get into some quite profound areas in our discussion, encompassing family matters as well as international aspects (Bahá'ís can't speak about religious discrimination without bringing to mind the plight of their fellows in Iran). I'm not going to record here what was said, but I felt happy and privileged to be part of this occasion today.

This is my second meeting with Dr Contractor during her visit for this project. To read about our first meeting, see blog entry for 31 March.

RELIGION, BELIEF, DISCRIMINATION & EQUALITY PROJECT

A meeting in the Welcome Centre this morning with Dr Sariya Contractor (photo above), Project Researcher from the University of Derby on the Religion, Belief, Discrimination and Equality Project, which is being conducted there. She's focusing on Leicester for the next four weeks, at the start of this project. The project is explained in the text below, which is copied from a news release sent out by the university.

Religion, Belief, Discrimination & Equality in England and Wales: Theory, Policy and Practice (2000-2010)

The experiences and views of communities and individuals in Leicester about religion and belief, discrimination and equality are being sought as part of a national research project.

The University of Derby is leading a three-year academic study investigating how attitudes and experiences of different religious and belief groups in England and Wales have evolved since 2000 in the light of changes that have taken place during this period in the law, among religions and in society.

It is working with academics from the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester on the three-year study entitled: Religion and Belief, Discrimination and Equality in England and Wales, Theory, Policy and Practice, 2000-2010.

Paul Weller, Professor of Inter-Religious Relations at the University of Derby, is the Principal Investigator for the study. The study has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and is part of the joint Religion and Society research programme.

University of Derby researcher and colleague, Dr Sariya Contractor, is preparing to visit the neighbourhoods, streets and suburbs of Leicester this month (March). She seek to build up as detailed a picture as possible of local people's experiences and understanding of issues to do with equality and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief to feed into the overall study.

Leicester is the first location in a series of qualitative research studies to take place in key geographic areas. Later in the year, Sariya will visit Cardiff, Blackburn, Newham in London and Norwich.

Sariya said: "This is a major national research project and I will be looking to capture the experiences, views and feelings of a wide range of groups and individuals as part of the work. I will be involved within the community, gauging views and building as comprehensive a picture as is possible."

As well as talking with people from a wide range of religious traditions, communities and groups Sariya will, in each location, be organising a focus group with around a dozen participants who understand themselves to be 'non-religious'. She will also conduct interviews with participants from a variety of civil society, public, private and voluntary sector organisations.

Sariya will be identifying a range of organisations to seek out participants to take part in the research. She is also willing to hear from people living and/or working in Leicester who may themselves be interested in taking part. She can be contacted in Leicester during March, via her email which is S.Contractor@derby.ac.uk

Sariya joined the University of Derby having completed a PhD at the University of Gloucestershire, related to Muslim women being given the opportunity to tell their stories and how these could facilitate inter-community dialogue and social cohesion.

The latest study will build on previous Home Office commissioned research led by Derby (1999-2001) entitled Religious Discrimination in England and Wales which found evidence of unfair treatment especially in education, employment and media, particularly as reported by Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus.

The Religion and Society research programme has been supported by the two research councils (AHRC and ESRC) with a contribution over five years of £12.3m to fund research of the highest quality on the interrelationships between religion and society.

The Religion and Society Programme aims to foster collaborative research across the arts, humanities and social sciences; to build capacity in the study of religion; to engage interested parties in academia and beyond; to further understanding of religion in a complex world. The programme started in January 2007 and will end in December 2012.

AHRC Chief Executive Professor Rick Rylance said: "This is a great opportunity to embark on what promises to be a remarkable and illuminating project - and one that is very timely."

Other research approaches being used in the study include a postal questionnaire; a comprehensive review of relevant data from various sources such as the 2001 Census and the Home Office Citizenship Survey; and a series of national seminars to take place next year with key individuals from religion and belief organisations, the law, and the public, private and voluntary sectors.

Diversity, difference and sexuality

An event in the Multi-Faith Centre at the University of Derby this evening co-hosted by Derbyshire Friend and Forum of Faiths for Derby. It's entitled "Diversity, Difference & Sexuality". We're welcomed by Stephen Greasley (Chair of Forum of Faiths for Derby and minister of Peartree Baptist Church) and Melvin Harris (Trustee, Derbyshire Friend). There are a dozen of us here this evening. We split into two groups (the one I'm in is chaired by Stephen, the other by Melvin) and consider these questions:

"Over issues of sexuality there are often very marked differences of opinion within faith communities and the the LGBT communities. There are also differences between the faith communities and the LGBT communities over issues of sexuality. How can we hold differing viewpoints and uphold mutual respect for those differing views at the same time?"

"How do we dispel myths and stereotypes, and spread understanding and education within and between faith communities and the LGBT community?"

"What core values might we all be able to agree upon, that come from our different communities? What would a just and fair society look like?"

I told Stephen about the current year's Faith to Faith programme of public meetings at the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in Glasgow, much of which focuses on faith communities and LGBT issues. He asks me to come forward and say a bit about this to help inform our discussion.

The Multi-Faith Centre has, for the past five years, been working on a Europe-wide project in training and education on faith issues in relation to other topics. Currently they're developing material on "Religion, Gender and Sexuality" - and would like to pilot this with the kind of people who are here tonight.

This is the first event I've attended at the Multi-Faith Centre, although I've been here once before just for a look-around. We're in a lovely tall, airy room and the door is open onto a grassy slope; we can hear kids playing football outside ("Jumpers for goalposts" and all that!)

My iPhone ran out of charge hours ago. I've become over-reliant on it and I haven't bothered to check the train timetables since I couldn't do it on my National Rails app. I ask for a lift to the railway station, without having any idea what times the trains will run. I arrive too late to catch a direct train to Leicester - a trip that can take only 22 minutes on a good day. but tonight I have to travel via Nottingham, with an hour-long wait there, so I don't get home till the stroke of midnight.

I found this a very interesting meeting, not only from the perspective of Leicester Council of Faiths, but also from that of the Regional Equality and Divesity Partnership (REDP). Something like this, which crosses the streams (if you don't mind the Ghostbusters allusion) is right up REDP's street.