INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 1: BBC RADIO LEICESTER

I'm on BBC Radio Leicester this morning from 0740, speaking for ten minutes about Inter Faith Week with Lucy Collins (photo above), who is sitting in for Monica Winfield.

While waiting to go on air, I meet Ali and Muhammad from Masjid Al Husayn, on Duxbury Road. They're going on the show immediately after me, to talk about the local Shi'ah community's public commemoration of Ashura in Humberstone Gate this Saturday. We agree to stick around and chat immediately after we've done our respective stints on air, to discuss ways we might support each other in the events of the coming week. In my eagerness to impress - aggravated by only having had four hours sleep - I mistakenly mix up Ashura with Muharram. All credit to Ali and Muhammad for being gentlemanly and not correcting my error.

I'm glad to see that Lucy has done her homework and knows all about our exhibition in Highcross as well as the other events we're involved in throughout Inter Faith Week. I get the chance to promote all of them and tell listeners how to access information via the events section of the Council of Faiths website and the special page on my blog.

I thought I'd done my homework too and have tried to anticipate some of the questions Lucy might ask me live on air. But she throws a me a curve ball when she asks me what I think of Clarissa Dickson Wright's recently publicised comments about her experience in Leicester. At least I don't have to respond to that hoary old chestnut about whether we're doing no more than preaching to the converted during this week. - although I'd prepared a pretty good response to that one!

SHIA MUSLIMS IN RELIGIOUS PROCESSION TO MARK TRAGEDY

This article is published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Shia Muslims in religious procession to mark tragedy

Hundreds of Shia Muslims took part in a religious procession yesterday to mark Muharram, the month of mourning.

Men, women and children wore black as a symbolic display of grief over the slaying of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Imam Husayn, whose death is thought to be one of the most tragic events in Islamic history.

The procession set off from the Masjid-Al-Husayn Shia Muslim mosque near Uppingham Road, North Evington, with devotees carrying a banner which read "Husayn, The Defender of Human Rights".

Members of the Islamic group beat their chests to symbolise grief at the martyrdom of Imam Husayn. People also distributed leaflets and recited eulogies.

One of the organisers, Onali Ismail, said this year marked the 22nd anniversary of the event taking place in the city.

He said: "The Shias of the world have mourned and lamented the death of Imam Husayn year after year since the event of Karbala, over 1,300 years ago.

"They lament in their love for their imam but also to keep alive his message of always supporting the truth and never bowing down to falsehood."