BURMA DAY

George Wilson (far left) of Christians Aware, introducing some of the Karen friends on the stage at the Worship Centre in ChristChurch

At ChristChurch, Clarendon Park this afternoon, for Burma Day, organised by Christians Aware. There are 50 or so attendees, about two-thirds of whom appear to be Burmese.

The event starts with a bring-and-share lunch, which establishes a congenial and lively atmosphere - or "happy, jolly chaos" as one friend describes it, with lots of young people running around, changing into costume. 

Gracie and I take our places at the back of the Worship Centre amidst the tables loaded with DVDs, books, giveaway literature - most featuring pictures and text about Aung San Suu Kyi. We wait for Harry to join us, after he has raided the Loros charity shop on Queens Road, bearing with him as many issues of Impulse as his pocket money will get him, from the shop's treasure trove of DC comics.

Centrepiece of the day's programme is a talk from Benedict Rogers, entitled "Burma: A Nations at the Crossroads", which is the name of his most recent book, published last year.

Benedict is a writer and advocate, working for Christian Solidarity Worldwide - an organisation promoting the right of individuals in every country to choose,  follow and practise their own religion. Specialising in Asia, Benedict is a regular contributor to major international media including The Wall Street Journal, the International Herald Tribune, The Australian, The Asahi Shimbun, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Telegraph, as well as for the BBC, ITN and Sky. He has been invited to give briefings and speeches round the world, in venues such as the White House, European Parliament, the Japanese Parliament, and Oxford University. Currently living in London, his focus has been on Burma for much of the past 15 years, travelling more than 40 times to that country and visiting all of its borders. Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads is the latest of three books he has written on that country.

Barbara Butler, Executive Secretary of Christians Aware, with Benedict Rogers

During the Q&A following his talk, Benedict "clarifies" whether we should call the country "Burma" or "Myanmar". Apparently, Aung San Suu Kyi and other figures aligned with the opposition would prefer the word to call it Burma, as they assert that the regime did not have a mandate to change the name of the country. This is in context of their assertions that the regime has no mandate, period.

After Benedict's talk and the Q&A session that follows it, we enjoy half an hour or so of uplifting performances by two choirs and a young peoples dance troupe from the Karen community of Sheffield (the biggest of its kind in the UK - the next biggest is Blackburn, we're informed).

Jon Ashworth MP puts in an impromptu appearance near the end of the event. Jon has nailed his colours to the mast regarding persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Burma, having secured a debate on the Rohingya in the House of Commons (11 September 2012) and expressed solidarity with the Federation of Muslim Organisations in Leicester at a public meeting at St Philip's Church Hall, Evington (7 September 2012) and which, in typically Leicester mashup style, you can see reported on Jon's blog and on the website of the Leicestershire Sikh Alliance. Jon has also had two pieces on this topic published by The Huffington Post: "Why the UK government Must Take a Firm Stance on the Rights of the Rohingya" (12 September 2012) and "We Can't Keep Ignoring Burma's Rohingya People" (1 November 2012).

Jon Ashworth MP (left) with Benedict Rogers

Jon hadn't been formally notified of the meeting but saw it on my twitterfeed, happened to be in the area (ChristChurch is in his Leicester South constituency and he was doing a surgery earlier today) so he popped in to show his interest and support. There's evidence of the power of social media for you, faithful reader - if ever you needed it. Mind you, I was tweeting about this event from just about every Twitter account at my disposal: @GMBallentyne; @counciloffaiths; @FaithAwareness; @leicesterspeaks. Nothing like targetted marketing, eh?

IT'S WALL-TO-WALL FOOD AS DONATIONS POUR IN

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

It's wall-to-wall food as donations pour in

Food donations were delivered by the van-load as Leicester's Sikh community rallied together for a charity food drive.

More than 10,000 items, including canned goods, rice and pasta were collected on Saturday at the Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara, in East Park Road, to coincide with a special day in the religion's calendar.

Vaisakhi celebrates Khalsa, the formation of the Sikh community in 1699. It is marked the world over by Sikh worshippers and is traditionally a time to help others.

Thousands of people took along bags of food to the charity event, as well as ordering items online and having them delivered to the venue by supermarket vans.

It was estimated that the total weight of the donations was about seven tons.

Amandeep Rai, of the Leicestershire Sikh Alliance, which organised the event, said: "It's been a constant stream of food, it's been amazing. We've had vans turning up with bags full of food – we've got at least 10,000 items, if not a lot more.

"We've had volunteers constantly sorting the food into piles, and the piles have just continued to grow."

Amandeep said one of the central beliefs of Khalsa was the principal of Seva, which means selfless service, and that was why the food drive had been organised.

The alliance will donate the collected food to a number of charities including FareShare Leicester, the British Red Cross and the Dawn Centre, a homeless shelter in Conduit Street, Leicester city centre.

Leicester South MP Jon Ashworth went along to show his support for the drive.

He said: "It's absolutely amazing – there's just wall-to-wall food. Tins of beans, rice, vegetables, pasta – anything you can think of, I'm so impressed.

"It's a tribute to the Leicester Sikh community which has really outdone itself."

PM CRITICISED OVER FAILURE TO APOLOGISE FOR INDIA ATROCITY

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

PM criticised for failure to apologise over India atrocity

Prime Minister David Cameron's decision not to apologise for the massacre of hundreds of Indian people in 1919 by troops under the command of a senior officer in the British-Indian Army has been criticised by Leicester's Sikh community.

Ordered by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, the troops shot into a crowd of thousands of protesters, including women, children and elderly people until their ammunition ran out.

Mr Cameron visited the site of the shootings in Amritsar, northern India, yesterday, signing a book of condolence and laying a wreath at the spot of the slaughter.

The first British PM to do so, he described the atrocity as "a deeply shameful event in British history".

However, Mr Cameron stopped short of an official British apology, claiming it would not be right to "reach back into history and to seek out things that we should apologise for".

"I think the right thing to do is to acknowledge what happened, to recall what happened, to show respect and understanding," he said.

The decision has sparked debate as to whether he should have issued a formal apology to the people of India.

Raj Mann, of the Leicester Sikh Alliance, had two great-grandfathers who served as British officers in the British-Indian Army.

He said: "It's very positive he acknowledged the 1919 massacre as a shameful and indelible stain on Britain's colonial history, but it doesn't go far enough.

"He needs to look at compensation and reparations for the families of the victims and we're disappointed with the level of apology he's given."

Mr Cameron visited the holy Sikh city, in the state of Punjab, during a visit to India to encourage business links. Before visiting the massacre site, he toured Amritsar's Golden Temple, the holiest site in the Sikh religion.

"Some commentators have argued this was a trade visit and it would have been a cynical apology, but I don't agree – I don't think that's right," said Mr Mann. "He had the perfect opportunity."

Amandeep Rai, also a member of the Leicester Sikh Alliance, said: "It's mixed feelings, to be honest. Mr Cameron didn't have to go to Amritsar and make any kind of statement or sign the book. It was kind of a half-baked sentiment.

"I'm not saying bridge-building is required, just some acknowledgement in the form of an apology."

Rushey Mead councillor Culdipp Bhatti, a former Punjabi national, who had family in the British forces, said: "Sikh soldiers fought and died for a country they had never been to and this is the reward they get.

"I think the Sikh people deserve an apology."

Mr Cameron signed the book of condolence at a permanent plaque in the Jallianwala Bagh public gardens, where the massacre took place.

Mr Cameron wrote: "We must never forget what happened here, and in remembering we must ensure the UK stands up for the right of peaceful protest around the world."

An inquiry commissioned by the Raj colonial authorities found 379 people were killed, though this has been challenged by Indian sources, who put the death toll at 1,000 or more.

THE BIG QUESTIONS, LIVE FROM LEICESTER

BBC One's The Big Questions is broadcast live from Samworth Enterprise Academy, Leicester, this morning. I've said before that I'm no fan of this kind of show and have turned down several invitations to appear on them over the years. While I’m all in favour of honest open discussion, I favour more the statement attributed to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, that “if two people quarrel over some religious subjects, both of them are wrong.” I make an exception for today’s broadcast and watch it for the sake of the blog. I wrote about a previous edition of the programme broadcast from the same venue. There's a change in the format this time in that there's no panel of experts out front (which I think is an improvement). Nicky Campbell hosts the programme, on which three "big questions" are discussed:

1. "Is it time for the police to favour black candidates?"
2. "Is criticism of Israel anti-Semitic?"
3. "Should gay couples be allowed to marry?"

I recognise several members of the audience. Leicestershire Sikh Alliance was well represented by Raj Mann (who spoke on the first topic), Harjit Singh (who spoke on the second topic), Kartar Singh (who raises his hand to speak several times, but to no avail) and Jasdeep Singh Lamaar. Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, Assiatant Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, spoke on the second and third topics. Revd Canon Dr David Jennings, Vicar of Burbage, spoke on all three topics. Also in the audience is Resham Singh Sandhu, former High Sheriff of Leicestershire and former Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths. Last time I watched this show, there were several members of Leicester Secular Society in the audience. This time round, though, I don't see anyone I recognise from the Secular Society.

I don't like how shouty and bad tempered these programmes can become. That's not the best way to address religious, ethical and moral issues in the public eye. A big part of the reason why I have generally negative feelings about The Big Questions is the fact that, while it is undoubtedly worthwhile for it to travel the country and come from a different locality each week, the people who make the major contributions to the discussion and the groups they represent are not from the area. That might be considered fair enough, since the topics discussed are national or international in nature. For instance, while discussing the first question, Nicky Campbell refers to the 2011 Census results for Leicester (admittedly, in a rather "off the cuff" manner) backing up the conventional and historical argument that it's important for the police force to be representative of the community they are policing. I would say it’s not right that there's no one in the studio from Leicestershire Police, nor any statement from them or any description of the nature of diversity within Leicestershire Police (figures for which are readily available; I've got them and so has just about everyone else in Leicester and Leicestershire who is interested). There’s no one from the Jewish communities of Leicester (nor anyone from Leicester involved in the Palestinian issue) to engage with the second question. A similar argument goes for the third topic. I can say that because I know the local scene well enough to be able to spot the “well kent faces” (or those conspicuous by their absence). But the casual viewer inside or outside Leicester might be led to the conclusion that they’re getting a sense or flavour of how these issues play in Leicester, when that’s not the case.

SIKH SNOWMAN

Thanks to Leicestershire Sikh Alliance for sharing this on Facebook. I don't know if this snowman was made in Leicester but it should have been - so we're adopting it!

BBC RADIO LEICESTER: EAST PARK ROAD INCIDENT

Yesterday afternoon I was approached by BBC Radio Leicester (twice), with a request to go live on air this morning to speak for the Council of Faiths about the incident on East Park Road and about the meeting between Leicester Council of Faiths and Leicestershire Police that was to take place that evening. Given the sensitivity of the issue, I felt that this one might be above my pay grade. Readers of this blog will know that normally I'm perfectly happy to go on the radio and talk about anything (within reason) at the drop of a hat. But I couldn't help thinking that it might be better for an Executive Officer of the Council of Faiths to appear on the radio this time. But at the end of last night's meeting at Mansfield House, I had a quick confab with the Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary and it was agreed I should go on. So I did the interview, by phone, with Martin Ballard (deputising for Jonathan Lampon on the Breakfast Show). Here's a transcript of the interview:

MB: It’s eight minutes past eight. Now: next this morning, police and religious leaders in Leicester are calling for calm following an attack on a restaurant in the city earlier this week. The police are continuing to question six men after a number of people were injured in the incident on East Park Road on Monday night. Now, detectives have also confirmed they’ve now spoken to a Sikh girl and her family regarding a separate incident.

Raj Mann is from the Leicestershire Sikh Alliance, and he’s worried these recent incidents could cause friction in the community.

RM: In Leicester we are a community of communities and we enjoy good standards of community cohesion; there is room for improvement on that. Unfortunately, the police yesterday mentioned two religions, mentioned Sikh-Muslim tensions.

MB: Well, Luman Ali is from the Federation of Muslim Organisations. He’s calling for calm and urging people to work with facts, not rumours.

LA: I think it’s up to us to monitor the concerns of our youth and make sure things don’t get out of hand. This is always the case when you have incidents of violence. It’s a process of misinformation which we have to work hard to work against, especially in the form of these text messages that fly around with misinformation that aren’t helpful to any of us.

MB: Now members of the faith communities in Leicester met last night with the police. George Ballentyne, from Leicester Council of Faiths, was there and joins us now. Good morning George.

GMB: Good morning.

MB: What exactly happened last night?

GMB: Well it was a very productive meeting and I think it was very positive. We had 30 people there in all, and there were representatives from the Sikh and Muslim communities, as well as other faith communities in the city. I should just mention that the two people we’ve just heard from, they were both at the meeting last night, both contributed to it. And we spoke with Rob Nixon (who’s the City Commander) and two of his colleagues, about the current situation of the investigation into the incident. Then we went on to talk about some of the underlying issues that are of concern to the communities, in terms of protecting young people and vulnerable people. And then we devoted the last part of the meeting to talking about how to move forward, how to preserve that unity amongst the communities that Leicester is so famous for and how to also work with (like) the city’s Safeguarding Board, with schools, with GPs, to make sure that these kind of situations are open, not confined inside the community networks and that there are actually practical ways of addressing these issues that don’t end up with the kind of incident that we saw a couple of nights ago.

MB: George, apart from the specific concerns about protecting vulnerable children and this specific incident, were there major concerns about any disruption to that unity and racial harmony in our city?

GMB: Well of course there were, because we have to be careful in Leicester that we don’t become a kind of site for working out a national situation and we were very conscious that we have to attend to what’s going in Leicester, what the people do in Leicester and keep things within our own community, rather than making it a place of working out difficulties that are happening in other cities around the UK. We’ve always been aware that the situation in Leicester tends to be different from what we see in other parts of the country. There’s a higher degree of integration, there’s a higher degree of a kind of happy living alongside each other and we really (uhm …). You know, that exists because people work at it, it’s not an accident; and when something like this happens, we have to be really careful to take action. Rob Nixon, the City Centre Commander, was praising the faith communities that within 48 hours of the incident, we had this quite large-scale meeting of people who are opinion-formers and influential speakers within their own communities. And he felt that this was a sign that we really do want to take this topic seriously and address it in a way that will deal with it and heal any kind of rift that may have emerged within our communities in the city.

MB: Now, much of this disruption seems to have been caused by the rumours that have been flying around on texts and so on – some of them may have been malicious, we don’t really know – but how can that sort of thing be stopped?

GMB: Well social media’s a great thing and I’m a big fan of it and even just in the ten minutes before coming on air, Radio Leicester and I have been tweeting and retweeting each other, saying to people: listen to this spot, find out what’s going on. But it’s also a terrible rumour mill it’s the way it is now that (you know) people can express their opinions or their beliefs or their misconceptions about things and it’s part of the freedom that we have to do that and people have to be very conscious, I think, and very self-aware that someone may only see one tweet, one Facebook post or something like that and it could really inflame things, it can give people the wrong idea. But it also meant that the police, the Council of Faiths, other organisations involved, like the Federation of Muslim Organisations, the Leicestershire Sikh Alliance, we’re all using social media responsibly right now to try to get the facts out there, get the names of the people that folk can talk to if they’re concerned and help to actually help to show the process that’s going on in a very live and transparent and current way.

MB: I have to say that we should take things at face value more than we do, we believe, or many people believe what they red and there are lots of untruths around on social network sites and so on and that can be damaging, can’t it? But no doubt the faiths in Leicester are determined to work together and that’s the strength of Leicester, isn’t it?

GMB: I really think that’s so. I mean, there were people there from every walks of the communities there last night, from the kind of folk who really pride themselves on having their ear to the ground and knowing what’s happening amongst people on the street, through to those people who are very involved with the places of worship and the community centres, working with all different kinds of different people within the communities. The most important thing, really is that the message we call want to come out from last night is that this is not a faith-on-faith issue, it’s not a community-on-community issue, the police are very clear that what we are dealing with is criminal behaviour, it’s criminality, not conflict of belief or conflict of practice among the communities and the important thing is to deal with the situation as it exists and everybody’s really now into this process of dispelling some of the myths, make people feel a bit more secure and happy about what the police are doing, how the communities are meeting together – and the Leicester Council of Faiths has such a good track record over more than a quarter of a century of helping to promote trust, understanding and co-operation amongst the communities. And it’s at times like this when we are put to the test and we hope that we are able to do it in such a way that serves the greater good in the city.

MB: Okay George, just remind us then, if it’s not “faith-on-faith”, how would you describe this: just pure criminality?

GMB: That’s the term that the police want to use. Whoever would have done this and however it would have arisen, this is criminal behaviour.

MB: George, thank you for joining us this morning. George Ballentyne from the Leicester Council of Faiths. And we’ll follow that story here on BBC Radio Leicester; any developments, you’ll hear them first here on 104.9 FM.

Just after a quarter past eight. The headlines on BBC Radio Leicester: As you’ve just heard, the Council of Faiths in the city has told this programme they’ll work together to heal any rifts in the Spinney Hill community after an attack on a restaurant on East Park Road earlier this week.

If you visit this blog before Thursday 24 January, you can hear the interview on BBC Radio Leicester's Listen Again facility, starting at 0808.

VAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA VAHEGURU JI KI FATEH

This email has been widely circulated today by Leicestershire Sikh Alliance after the public vigil organised by Leicester Council of Faiths for victims of the shootings in the Oak Creek Gurdwara, Wisconsin.

Members of Leicester Council of Faiths who attended the vigil appear to agree that the Council of Faiths did itself more good in the eyes of those present - City Councillors, local media - and especially the Sikh community of Leicester and Leicestershire - in 25 minutes last Sunday evening than it had in the whole of the last 25 years. This spilled over into social media, with a lot of traffic on Twitter and coverage on Facebook in particular.

Since this was an event illumined by open demonstrations of friendship, support and sympathy across the boundaries of culture, language, nationality and race, it's appropriate to see it (and its ramifications for our city's communities) in the light of this quotation from Bahá'u'lláh's Hidden Words that came to my mind while I was there: "words are the property of all alike, whereas such deeds as these belong only to Our loved ones". Actions speak louder than words.

And that links so aptly with the invocation that opens the message below. This may be translated into English as, "The Khalsa belongs to God, all victory is the victory of God."

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh

With hundreds of people in attendance, including all faith leaders, the vigil for the victims of the Wisconsin Gurdwara massacre was a resounding success.  In these dark hours, it was amazing for all communities to come together and start the healing process as one universal Leicester community. 

A big thank you to Cllr Manjula Sood and Leicester Council of Faiths for arranging this event.  And an even bigger thank you to Cllr Inderjeet Gugnani who was the unsung hero and hidden architect for the whole event.

Also it was great to hear Jon Ashworth MP's speech. "Tonight we are all Sikhs", was very touching.  Nice one Jon!  This massacre was the largest attack on the Sikh community within the western hemisphere for over half a century.  Is it therefore right that only one MP from the City and County bothered to show?  In one word, "diabolical!".

Pictures attached courtesy of Punjab2000

PukaarNews UK, online news channel

JonAshworth MP's speech, Leicester South

A few words from Surinderpal Rai, General Secretary GTBG

A few words from Amandeep Rai, Public Relations Officer LSA

A few words from George M Ballentyne, Equality & Diversity Officer LCOF

A few words from Sharnjeet Kaur

Thanks

Amandeep Rai (Public Relations Officer for LSA)

CITY'S SIKHS PRAY FOR VICTIMS OF US SHOOTING

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

City's Sikhs pray for victims of US shooting

Sikhs in Leicester have said prayers for the six victims of Sunday's fatal shootings at a temple in America.

Gurjit Singh Walia, spokesman for the Guru Nanak Gurdwara, in Holy Bones, in the city, said: "We are all shocked by the senseless killings.

"We just wanted to gather to say prayers for those who lost their lives and the others affected."

Leicester[shire] Sikh Alliance (LSA) has also offered its condolences to those affected by the shootings, which took place at a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Spokesman Amandeep Rai said the alliance's thoughts and prayers were with "the victims of the shooting, the Sikh community of Milwaukee and the larger community of Wisconsin, which we know will stand with their Sikh neighbours with their support and prayers during this very trying time".

It was announced yesterday that the gunman who opened fire as several dozen people prepared for Sunday morning services was former soldier Wade Page, 40, a neo-Nazi white supremacist.

As well as the six people who were killed, three people were critically injured.

Page was later killed outside the temple in a shoot-out with police.

Suleman Nagdi, public relations officer for the Leicester-based Federation of Muslim Organisations, said: "This cowardly shooting of innocent people symbolises all that is wrong with some parts of society, especially as it took place so soon after the horrific cinema killings in Denver.

"Early reports from the USA have suggested a racial motivation for this crime which is fuelled by hate.

"I find this very upsetting, since the Sikh community is well known for its hospitality and generosity to all of humanity."