BBC RADIO LEICESTER: DISCUSSING FAITH AND FILM WITH MONICA WINFIELD

On BBC Radio Leicester this morning, 0800-0830, with Monica Winfield. Our topic is "Faith and Film". No prizes for guessing that the reason for choosing this subject is the current furore over the video posted on YouTube, "Innocence of Muslims".

This is my third appearance on Monica's show this year. The first, discussing forgiveness in February; the second in July, discussing reconciliation. (You can read the blog entries for those occasions by clicking on the each of the topics respectively). Both those times, I was part of a panel of three contributors, to whom Monica would speak in turn. This time, it's been decided to have just two interviewees. I'm booked to appear alongside Dr Halla Diyab, a Muslim film-maker based in Leicester. Her company, Liberty Media Productions, has made a documentary entitled "Breaking the Fast", which follows Jon Ashworth MP (Labour: South Leicester) as he fasted for one day during Ramadan earlier this year. At the end of that day, there was an Open Community Iftar in St Philip's Church, Evington. I was there, along with people from several other communities of religion or belief in Leicester, while a crew from Liberty Media Productions filmed it (though I can't see myself in any of the trailers for the documentary that have been posted on YouTube).

Dr Diyab's credentials for taking part in this feature are impeccable and I'm sure she would have made interesting and thought-provoking contributions to the discussion. But by the time we go on air shortly after 0800, she hasn't arrived at the studio. Monica starts with only me on the other side of the desk and we end up managing the whole thing between the two of us.

When I was booked for this slot, I was asked if I'd seen Innocence of Muslims. At that point, I hadn't, but I wouldn't be happy discussing it if I hadn't seen it, so I watched it in preparation for the programme, along with related material available online, such as US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's speech responding to the film and to the violent reaction around the world. In my head, I was hoping that Dr Diyab would speak more directly to the topic this morning from her dual position as both a Muslim and a film-maker, while I would contribute more generally on the basis of "the Leicester way" of responding to this kind of thing, with some reference to the Faiths Film Festival that Phoenix Square ran last year during Inter Faith Week (as well as marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of Leicester Council of Faiths). In the end, I get to do both parts - and probably say more about Monty Python's Life of Brian than anything else!

I also get to speak about Interfaith Focus, a charity of which I'm a Trustee. The purpose of Interfaith Focus is to encourage film-makers to produce content which recognises the kinds of inter-faith encounter that are taking place in a variety of settings (formal and informal) all over the world. To record and celebrate what is being done and to encourage more of it. Interfaith Focus is still in its early days, but we hope it will make a positive contribution to relations between faith communities and that there are many positive ways in which people of different beliefs and practices can live and work together.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2011, DAY 1: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

First day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross to celebrate Inter Faith Week, showcasing the eight member communities represented on Leicester Council of Faiths.

This is the third consecutive year we've been invited into Highcross to put on this display. This time though, things are refreshingly different. We're in a new location: bigger, more central - and (I'm glad to say) warmer! This time last year, there was snow on the ground and we were rather too close to the outer doors of the West Mall for comfort. The weather is milder this year, but we're also deeper in the heart of Highcross (just over the line that marks the start of the East Mall, for any retail facility anoraks out there). We're at the bottom of the central set of escalators, which makes this spot one of the most highly frequented in the whole building. The loos are just behind us too, which helps make this a popular destination.

We're able to put more into the display this year. We have trestle tables for the first time (three of them) we've borrowed the University of Leicester's "Faiths Trail" and "Mapping Faith and Place" banners (and a box of their guide books for the city centre walking tour of places of worship). Our set of pop-up banners is arranged in a completely new way, back-to-back in pairs. No doubt I'll be messing  around with the arrangement as the week goes on.

Rosemarie Fitton (who has helped bring down all the material from Bishop Street), Gursharan Thandi and Shobha Trivedi are first on duty at the stall today. Shobha's daughter, Natasha, helped out for a couple of hours at this event last year. We're joined by Shobha's friend, Prafulla Raja. They all help with the final stages of setting up so that we're fully operational by 1115.

I leave them to it just before midday, to take a smaller amount of exhibition material by taxi to Beauchamp College for their "Together" event. But no sooner have I arrived there than circumstances compel me to return to Highcross - though not before putting up our old banner and laying out some of our literature, leaving it all in the care of Council of Faiths Secretary Inderjit Gugnani, who is manning a stall for Oadby & Wigston Sikh community. Pity: I'd been looking forward to this one. I have to leave before Bobby's vegetarian restaurant has even started cooking.

I'm back at Highcross just before 1400, in time to relieve Gursharan and spend the next hour or so on the stall with Deirdre O'Sullivan. Deirdre is a Lecturer in Archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester. She's been instrumental in developing their "Mapping Faith and Place" project. The next hour passes quickly (for me, anyway!) with a very interesting chat about the project and related topics.

Just before it's time for Deirdre to go, two Highcross staff members arrive and start taking photos of our display. Jo and Laura (photo above) put together a web page with highlights of each weekend at Highcross, for staff. We'll be in the one they're compiling today, apparently!

In the outside world today, there's a procession between two Sikh gurdwaras, as part of the local celebration of Guru Nanak's birthday. The procession ends at Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Holy Bones, near Highcross. Mid-afternoon, we see a lot of Sikhs coming through Highcross and many of them stop and look at our display.

Since we first had our exhibition at Highcross in 2009, we've kept a "reflective journal", in which we ask our Inter Faith Week volunteers to record something of how they felt about the experience. We're doing so again this year. Here are some comments by some of those who took part on this first day of Inter Faith Week 2011:

"Always a learning experience - right at the start I spoke to a man who raised many questions about faiths - good starter!"

"Very few visitors to the exhibition, those that did were pleased with the information they could take away. Spoke at length to a teacher and passed on the light source / colander example explaining Hindu god(s), which she loved. One person went past muttering that the Christians didn't have a banner - but they had gone before I could catch them. Lovely talking to other volunteers." 

"I have enjoyed being a volunteer for the Interfaith Council. I have learnt a lot by just observing people's reactions when reading quotes from various faiths."

"Although there were many shoppers, very few bothered to look at the displays. Talked to a Christian lady who wanted to find our more about the Faiths Trail and a teacher who took away a lot of leaflets. Many people just waled through the exhibition! It was lovely talking to Rosemary and Gursharan (George was fun too!)" 

"Interesting being right in the middle of Leicester going by. People seem shy about coming in beyond the banners."

I'd say that's the sort of mix of comments I'd expect for the first day, especially when we've had a few people with us who haven't taken part in this event in previous years.

As well as our exhibition, the East Mall features a big promotion for Nintendo this weekend. Visitors are invited to join in the celebration of a host of imaginary characters who inhabit a fantasy realm, where they achieve astonishing feats of magical skill. These characters have millions of followers, brought together by a common devotion that overcomes differences of age, language, nationality and race. Their devotees expend  immeasurable amounts of time on the glorification of their idols and pour unimaginable treasure into the coffers of those who are the guardians of their legacy and the trustees of their future expansion toward global domination. I'm talking about Super Mario Brothers of course. Who did you think I meant, faithful reader?

While on my way to Beauchamp College around lunchtime, I receive a text message from my friend Javid Djalili, who says he's coming up from London later this afternoon, to attend the first screening (Little Buddha) in our Faiths Film Festival at Phoenix Square. I meet Javid off the train just before 1700, in time to dash down to Highcross so he can get a look at the exhibition (photo above). Just as we arrive there, I receive a call from Maureen Sier, who helped out on our very first Inter Faith Week back in 2009. While she and I talk about how the week is shaping up, it strikes me that this is a serendipitous moment; Maureen's daughter, Sonia, is a filmmaker who has worked on inter-faith themes and topics (see my blog entry about her film, Beyond Tolerance) - and she's called me, out of the blue, just when I'm with Javid, who is in the process of setting up Interfaith Focus, an international charitable foundation for inter-faith filmmakers! So I pass the phone to Javid. He and Maureen have never met, but they have what appears to be a convivial and useful conversation, which I am sure is to their mutual benefit.