SO. FAREWELL THEN, SUGHRA AHMED

At the Bombay Pavilion, Victoria Park, for a surprise going-away party in honour of Sughra Ahmed. Sughra has been a stalwart of Leicester Council of Faiths all the years I've been in post. She has recently resigned from the Board of Directors as she is leaving Leicester to take up a post with the Woolf Institute, based at Cambridge University. That's her cake in the photo above, with her edible face on it.

Sughra has worked as a Research Fellow in the Islamic Foundation’s Policy Research Centre, based at Markfield Institute of Higher Education. She remains a Trustee of the Interfaith Network UK. She published Seen and Not Heard: Voices of Young British Muslims. She organised flashmob iftar during Ramadan and “Picnic in the Park” thereafter, feeding homeless people and refugees, coordinated through Facebook. She has been of considerable help to me in my post, most notably when she came forward to be one of a panel of speakers at the Amplified Leicester event I hosted at Phoenix Square in March 2011, Amplified Communities of Faith or Belief. I also recall, in particular, how she lit up our display in Highcross on a busy Saturday afternoon during Inter Faith Week 2010, like a flame attracting moths, at ease with the crowds that busy day, able to persuade people to stop and talk or to to take literature as they passed by. She did that gig better than just about anyone else ever involved in it. Not what I expected from someone whom I had thought of up till then as being something of a dry, closeted academic. How wrong could I be about a person, faithful reader? Seeing her in action that one afternoon completely rewrote the script. She also organised a successful seminar for Leicester Council of Faiths during Inter Faith Week 2012, under the title, Faith in Family.

There's a good turnout in her honour this evening and it's clearly been kept secret, to judge by the look on Sughra's face when she arrives.

Several friends and colleagues say their bit about how they got to know Sughra, what she means to them and how they're going to miss her. In the photo above, Rupal Rajani (from BBC Radio Leicester) is doing just that.

We all wish Sughra well in her new role and in her future. Personally, I'll miss her calling me "Georgie". I can't imagine anyone else doing that until I'm sitting all day in a high-backed leather chair, wearing a drool bib and being told to eat up while being fed Ready Brek by means of a plastic spoon. I'll be staring into the distance, trying to recall ... someone ... or something ... Anyway: good luck Sughra! Keep in touch.

BELIEF, FAITH, RELIGION AND NO FAITH OR RELIGION AWARENESS DAY AT DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY

A meeting this morning at De Montfort University (Eric Wood Building, The Gateway), planning for an inter faith event to be held on campus later this year.

This is the second meeting of this steering group. The first (19 September) was attended by Rosemarie Fitton, Senior Lecturer in Interior Design at DMU and nominated member of Leicester Council of Faiths.

This event was originally scheduled for Wednesday 21 November, during Inter Faith Week. That's proving to be a popular day, with a number of activities planned:

• Highcross exhibition (0930-2000);
• Choice Unlimited II at Leicester Tigers (1000-1800);
• Brooksby Melton College's Interfaith Events Day (0930-1415);
• Leicester University World Faiths Advisory Group lecture (1230-1400).

It might have been difficult to fit in another commitment! Thankfully, it's already been decided before this meeting to move the event back a week to Wednesday 28 November - an auspicious date for me as that's my birthday.

I'm given a few minutes to introduce myself and say what the Council of Faiths can bring to the table. We should be able to make available our full exhibition and drum up support from all our member faith communities.

I'm glad to be able to do one thing which I consider an improvement. The group has (it appears to me) tied itself up in knots, trying to cover all the bases, not offend  anyone or leave anyone out, entitling the event "Belief, Faith, Religion And No Faith or Religion Awareness Day". I persuade the steering group to drop this in favour of something simpler, such as "Religion or Belief Awareness Day". I like that "religion or belief" formula and it is what's used in the Equality Act 2010 after all, for good reason.

MULTI-FAITH PRAYER ROOM PROPOSED IN HIGHCROSS

Leicester Council of Faiths has been invited to advise Highcross (the city's biggest shopping venue) on establishing a Multi-Faith Prayer Room for customers. Following an exchange of emails in the last week, I have a positive conversation on the phone this morning with Jack Payne, Buildings Manager at Highcross and we arrange to meet on site and discuss the development on Tuesday 31 May.

I understand that this sort of facility exists for staff, but this will be the first time that Hammersons, the company which owns and runs Highcross, will have done this for customers at any of their shopping centres. So, once again, Leicester leads the way!

I remember there was a bit of a push to ensure that Highcross would have a prayer room before the venue opened. Although that campaign didn't appear to come to anything at the time, That sort of gentle pressure appears to have paid off in the medium term.

Of course, the Council of Faiths has a good relationship with Highcross, as regular readers of this blog will know. We've put on a display there for National Inter Faith week (at the invitation of Highcross) two years running - and we hope we'll be able to go back for that event this year, when it rolls around in November. Highcross also made a substantial contribution to the exhibition that's been used in those two special weeks - and on many other occasions in several sites around the city in between.

Leicester Council of Faiths is grateful for the opportunity to lend its weight to this project, which we're sure will prove of benefit to Highcross and to its customers, as it seeks ever more fully to reflect the makeup and meet the needs of the diverse community it serves in this city. We're also glad to be able to strengthen our relationship with Highcross, which is such an important part of Leicester life.

There's a full meeting of the Council of Faiths this evening, so this will be a piece of good news to relate there. Undoubtedly we'll be promoting the idea that this kind of facility has to work as something that will be appealing and useful to people of all faiths. Still, it's going to be of more interest to members of some faith communities than of others. It will be helpful to get input from members who have used this kind of facility in other public places; there may be some who've been involved in setting up this kind of prayer room elsewhere. All comments and feedback welcome - from anyone who wishes to express an interest!

FAITHS GATHER TO RESIST EXTREMISM

This article is published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Faiths gather to resist extremism

Muslims held a peace event to show their commitment to the fight against extremism.

A number of different faith groups attended the Ahmadiyya Muslim community event in Braunstone Civic Centre, part of a week-long interfaith project to encourage community cohesion.

President of the city's Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, Dr Habib Akram, said: "There is so much more that unites us than divides us and it is through events like this that we build networks of friendship and solidarity against the extremists and hate-mongers."

"LOVE FOR ALL, HATRED FOR NONE"

A busy day today, this first day of Inter Faith Week. Having just got home from the exhibition in Highcross, I speedily change into my suit then straight back out: to Braunstone Civic Centre, to attend a Peace Symposium and dinner, hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association.

Once seated at our tables, we are first treated to a DVD presentation, introducing the Ahmadiyya community - illustrating both its history and its current activities and filled with testimonies to the beneficial influence of the community from notable academics, parliamentarians and humanitarians. Following that, we hear a variety of speakers give short talks: Ven. Richard Atkinson, Archdeacon of Leicester; Chief Inspector Rich Keenan, Leicestershire Constabulary; Maqsood Ahmed, Faiths Adviser to the Department of Communities and Local Government; Prof Malcolm Shaw QC, Faculty of Law at the University of Leicester; Liz Kendall MP for Leicester West and Shadow Health Minister. Several words of praise were aimed at the council of Faith; our Chair, Councillor Manjula Sood, was seated at the top table among other guests of honour. Finally, we heard from the keynote speaker, Syed Mansoor Shah, one of four national vice Presidents of the Ahamdiyya Muslim Association.

The guiding principle of the Ahmadiyya - "Love for all, hatred for none" - was writ large on the wall, above and behind the top table.

This was a pleasant evening of fellowship, hospitality and inspiration - and my first formal encounter with the Ahmadiyya community of Leicester. when I started on inter faith work in Glasgow, over 30 years ago, the Ahmadiyya there were the only Muslim group whiling to take part in the Sharing of Faiths. My first real encounter with Muslims, at the age of 19, was with Ahmadiyya Muslims - so I don't need to be persuaded of their virtues.