BBC RADIO LEICESTER: REACTION TO WOOLWICH

This morning I'm on BBC Radio Leicester, speaking live in the studio with Jonathan Lampon (photo above) just after 0800 about the Woolwich incident and its ramifications for community relations. Here's a transcript of the interview.

JL: Let’s turn our attention to our top story this morning – and Leicestershire Police says it has no cause to believe that there’s any increased threat to communities here, following the death of a soldier in a suspected terror attack in Woolwich. This morning it’s emerged that the two suspects were already known to MI5. Twenty-five year old army drummer Lee Rigby was killed by suspected Muslim extremists, wielding knives and a meat cleaver. Well Richard Barrat is the former head of Counter Terrorism at MI6; he says it’s impossible to keep a 24-hour watch on everyone who’s ever expressed radical views.

RB: First there’s a question of resources, but then also there’s a question of legality and beyond that I think there’s a whole question of values. I mean, what sort of society are we trying to protect? I don’t think there’s any way that the security service can sort of just close down the activity, put them all on security bracelets or bang them up or whatever of anybody who has expressed a radical view. That would be ridiculous; it would move us into a society that we don’t want to live in.

JL: Well police in Leicester are calling for calm and are working in neighbourhoods to reassure people. We spoke to members of the Muslim community here and some feel that Islam is once again taking the blame for this particular incident. [vox pop with two local Muslims]

JL: Well listening to that in the studio with me is George Ballentyne from the Leicester Council of Faiths. George, welcome to the programme.

GMB: Good morning.

JL: Just listening to that, do you think that this case in London is likely to cause tensions among communities?

GMB: Well I think it would be very naive to say that it wouldn’t. It just can’t help but cause some kind of tension. But of course the important thing is how that’s managed and I think that we can play a big role in making sure things don’t go out of proportion or escalate out of hand and I think that there are well-intentioned, strong-willed people who are helping to manage this so that the best possible outcome comes for everybody.

JL: Why are we in the situation though whereby we have to have an apology from Muslim Council of Britains within minutes of this attack happening? There’s a part of me that finds that finds it all rather distasteful. Because, of course, this is nothing to do with the Muslim community, of course this is nothing to do with religion. These are the case of two individuals – as far as we know that are mentally ill – you don’t do this unless you’re mentally ill. So Is there a bit of a knee-jerk reaction sometimes within communities, do you think?

GMB: Well, If you think about that phrase the “knee jerk reaction” – where it comes from  – that medical test where the doctor hits you on the cartilage under the knee with a little hammer and your leg pops – out that’s a test that something’s healthy and that your leg is functioning properly. something’s healthy and your leg is functioning properly and maybe the idea of making a speedy reaction as a way of trying to pour some oil on the troubled waters is actually a healthy and good thing to do. It would be good if it wasn’t necessary, of course it would be. But it’s also interesting that many people still call for these kind of response and call for statements even though they’re being made, as if they can’t actually see them or can’t hear them. So the fact that they have to be made at all – really, for many people they’re just not penetrating, not getting through to them for some reason.

JL: Again, I mean the clips that we heard there from some members of the Muslim community here in Leicester, they say, you know, that the incident is being blamed and laid at their door, what does the community need to do to (in other words) put off, or get rid of any potential copycat attacks or anything like that?

GMB: Copycat attacks are something that, from all the things I’ve been hearing, you cqn’t really predict them or defend against them – and people do some stupid things under these circumstances, but I think that the real way to try to get beyond this is – We all have a lived experience in Leicester of being with people who are from another faith another culture another ethnic background. I think it would be pretty hard to find anyone in Leicester who doesn’t work alongside a Muslim, or have a Muslim friend or take part in some kind of social activities that mix them with people from other races, faiths and backgrounds and I think it’s being true to our own experience and what we find of people as themselves, that really help get through this, rather than reacting to stereotypes.

JL: George, thank you very much indeed. Well also listening to this and joining us on the line is Andrew Robathan, the Leicestershire South MP, and the Minister of State for the Armed Forces. [extended interview with Andrew Robathan MP]

JL: And just back to you, George Ballentyne from Leicester Council of Faiths, you would agree with that last comment there, wouldn’t you?

GMB: Yes, I think the most important thing now is to allow the legal process to follow through, as it should do. Whatever justification people have tried to give for this act – it’s a crime that’s been committed and it’s in the hands of the law.

JL: Thanks very much for coming in: George Ballentyne there.

A few hours after the interview, Jonathan was gracious enough to tweet me:

@GMBallentyne thank you for coming in with insightful view on community relations following #Woolwich attack.

Follow Jonathan Lampon on Twitter: @jlampon

"MY PILGRIMAGE AROUND LEICESTER"

Cllr Sundip Meghani has today posted on his blog an entry entitled "My Pilgrimage Around Leicester". This recounts his visit in one day (the occasion of his 30th birthday) to a number of faith centres in the city:

• Leicester Progressive Jewish Synagogue, Avenue Road
• Holy Cross Priory Roman Catholic Church, Wellington Street
• Jain Centre, Oxford Street
• Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Holy Bones
• Nagarjuna Kadampa Buddhist Centre, Guildhall Lane
• Leicester Cathedral, Peacock Lane
• Shree Sanatan Mandir, Weymouth Street

Sundip did something similar shortly after his election as a City Councillor last year, tweeting as he went. I was in Glasgow on holiday at the time, but followed his progress that day via Twitter and made arrangements to meet him on my return to Leicester. You can read about our first meeting on my blog entry for Thursday 19 May 2011.

WORLD RELIGION DAY 2012

Today (the third Sunday in January) is World Religion Day.

Established in 1950 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States, World Religion Day has been increasingly taken up in other countries - at first by national and local Bahá'í communities in different parts of the world, although it has also become an event widely recognised and keenly celebrated by people of other faiths too. Its purpose is:

• to bring together people of various faith communities
• to celebrate the unifying power of religion
• to promote inter faith understanding
• to encourage religious leaders and adherents to acknowledge the similarities between their faiths and work together for the common good.

In the United States, 16 January is National Religious Freedom Day, officially proclaimed each year by an annual statement by the President of the United States. I can't say whether it's more than just a happy accident that these two dates are observed so close together, but hopefully, there's a mutual reinforcement of the positive message of the unifying power of religion, that it can illumine hearts and minds with its own positive light.

There's no celebration of World Religion Day in Leicester today - again. I'm sorry to be saying that for the third year in a row. You'd think it'd be just the kind of thing Leicester would take to, wouldn't you, faithful reader? Bit of a no-brainer really - like other anniversaries, events and occasions that we could celebrate each year (but don't) such as Golden Rule Day, Week of Prayer for World Peace or any number of United Nations international days and observances. Even World Interfaith Harmony Week, established in 2010 by King Abdullah of Jordan.

We do manage to get it together for Inter Faith Week (est. 2009) and for Holocaust Memorial Day (est. 2001) of course, which shows what can be done when we put our collective shoulder to the wheel. At the age of 62, World Religion Day is the grand dame of such events. You'd think it would have had sufficient time to establish itself. How come it's so neglected?

I think that, in common with other occasions such as Golden Rule Day (for example) no one feels ownership of World Religion Day. Even though it was established by Bahá'ís, still it hasn't really gained a foothold in the Bahá'í community in the UK. Firstly, it was set up by Bahá'ís in the US and may be seen as more of an American thing. Secondly, perhaps its age is working against it. Maybe it's been around so long that it seems a bit tired now - as if it were trying to fight a battle that's now been won. After all, back in 1950 when World Religion Day was established, inter faith dialogue, encounter and relations was neither  the everyday experience or the major concern that it is today.Thirdly -and, to my understanding, most importantly - it may be considered an extraneous bolt-on, hitching a ride on the Bahá'í calendar without properly being part of it. Bahá'ís are more essentially committed to the goals of World Religion Day than any other faith community (obviously, since they invented it) but maybe, where this occasion has been successful, Bahá'ís may have done too good a job in selling it to other agencies, communities, group or organisations to see it as still being something for which they hold greatest responsibility.

Take Holocaust Memorial Day, for example. While that has deliberately expanded its appeal in relation to other communities, faith-based or not, still it is the Jewish community that drives it forward more than any other. 

Considering how exhausted I felt at the end of Inter Faith Week last year and how long it took me to get over it, maybe I shouldn't be thinking of another event that I can throw myself into, so soon.  All the same: someone or other should get their act together for this event when it rolls round again next year. It's an open goal, isn't it? Custom-made for an organisation like ours, you'd think. I'm sure we could reap considerable reward without very much effort.

In the meantime, I wouldn't World Religion Day 2012  to pass unmarked, so here it is in the blog – again (although admittedly it’s a poor show that it should be a case of all words, no action – again).

There’s a good collection of tweets about World Religion Day, many of which show what's happening in other places around the world. Just search #worldreligionday. There's some very good stuff out there, including information about ways of celebrating World Religion Day that could easily be adapted here.

OCCUPY LEICESTER

The outpost in Leicester High Street continues to grow. This photo was taken around 2200 this evening, on the way back from the regular monthly meeting of Philosophy in Pubs (PIPS) at The Crumblin' Cookie.

Visit Occupy Leicester's website.

Join Occupy Leicester's Facebook group.

Follow Occupy Leicester on Twitter: @OccupyLeicester

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR BLOG!

Today, this blog is two years old. I started it on (Sunday) 15 November 2009, the first day of the first Inter Faith Week in England, just so we'd have a record of that event. I took that as an excuse to reboot the Council of Faiths website, launch our fan page on Facebook and start our Twitterstream all on the same day. Here we are, two years on and they're still going strong.

THE MATRIX

Downstairs in Phoenix Square's cafe bar, after the launch of Listen to the Boys, I sit with Simon Parker and Steve Beverley (cue shameless plug for their radio show, The Jazz Shambles) for a brief and amusing chat about Scandinavian crime fiction. I'm taken by surprise to see the Council of Faiths logo appear on the cafe bar's matrix screen. The logo is attached to our tweet about the upcoming Faiths Film Festival during National Inter Faith Week, which is on display on the screen - there then follows half a dozen or so retweets from different sources (@breadandvirtue; @Clarendon_Park; @IFWeek; @me_positive; @My_MECFSPortal; @sky_like_you; @things2doinleic).

The matrix screen is displaying tweets of all sorts that mention Phoenix Square in an animated, multi-colour dynamic display. Nice idea! Quite a lot of my tweets mention Phoenix Sqaure, as you can imagine, faithful reader. This will only encourage me to do more.

STUDY SHOWS FAITH IS AN INNATE HUMAN QUALITY

Picked up from Twitter today ...

According to a poll conducted by Oxford University, faith and religion are an innate trait for human beings. Entitled the “Cognition, Religion, and Theology Project,” the initiative took three years to complete and includes over 40 different studies in 20 countries around the world.

The study began in 2008, when the Associated Press reported:

University of Oxford researches will spend nearly $4 million to study why mankind embraces God. The grant to the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion will bring anthropologists, theologians, philosophers, and other academics together for three years to study whether belief in a divine being is a basic part of mankind’s makeup.

Read this article (along with reader comments and the opportunity to make your own) on the website of The New American.

MINDFUL WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA

An interesting article combining two big themes of this blog: mindfulness and social media. This is written by Lori Deschene (founder of tiny buddha, a multi-author blog that features wisdom and stories from people all over the world) published online by Tricycle magazine. In the Buddhist parlance, Lori Deschene describes the practices she lists as "right tweeting" (and you can follow hers @tinybuddha)

I don't necessarily agree with every one of these points, nor do I practise all of them, but I think it's an interesting set of principles which deserves to be mentioned here.

1. Know your intentions
Doug Firebaugh of SocialMediaBlogster.com has identified seven psychological needs we may be looking to meet when we log on: acknowledgement, attention, approval, appreciation, acclaim, assurance, and inclusion. Before you post, ask yourself: Am I looking to be seen or validated? Is there something more constructive I could do to meet that need?

2. Be your authentic self
In the age of personal branding, most of us have a persona we’d like to develop or maintain. Ego-driven tweets focus on an agenda; authenticity communicates from the heart. Talk about the things that really matter to you. If you need advice or support, ask for it. It’s easier to be present when you’re being true to yourself.

3. If you propose to tweet, always ask yourself: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?
Sometimes we post thoughts without considering how they might impact our entire audience. It’s easy to forget how many friends are reading. Two hundred people make a crowd in person, but online that number can seem insignificant. Before you share, ask yourself: is there anyone this might harm?

4. Offer random tweets of kindness
Every now and then I ask on Twitter, “Is there anything I can do to help or support you today?” It’s a simple way to use social media to give without expectations of anything in return. By reaching out to help a stranger, you create the possibility of connecting personally with followers you may have otherwise known only peripherally.

5. Experience now, share later
It’s common to snap a picture with your phone and upload it to Facebook or email it to a friend. This overlaps the experience of being in a moment and sharing it. It also minimises intimacy, since your entire audience joins your date or gathering in real time. Just as we aim to reduce our internal monologues to be present, we can do the same with our digital narration.

6. Be active, not reactive
You may receive email updates whenever there is activity on one of your social media accounts, or you might have your cell phone set to give you these types of alerts. This forces you to decide many times throughout the day whether you want or need to respond. Another approach is to choose when to join the conversation, and to use your offline time to decide what value you have to offer.

7. Respond with your full attention
People often share links without actually reading them, or comment on posts after only scanning them. If the greatest gift we can give someone is our attention, then social media allows us to be endlessly generous. We may not be able to reply to everyone, but responding thoughtfully when we can makes a difference.

8. Use mobile social media sparingly
In 2009, Pew Research found that 43 percent of cell phone users access the Web on their devices several times a day. It’s what former Microsoft employee Linda Stone refers to as continuous partial attention—when you frequently sign on to be sure you don’t miss out anything. If you choose to limit your cell phone access, you may miss out online, but you won’t miss what’s in front of you.

9. Practise letting go
It may feel unkind to disregard certain updates or tweets, but we need downtime to be kind to ourselves. Give yourself permission to let yesterday’s stream go. This way you won’t need to “catch up” on updates that have passed but instead can be part of today’s conversation.

10. Enjoy social media!
These are merely suggestions to feel present and purposeful when utilising social media, but they aren’t hard-and-fast rules. Follow your own instincts and have fun with it. If you’re mindful when you’re disconnected from technology, you have all the tools you need to be mindful when you go online.

I FIND YOUR LACK OF FAITH ... DISTURBING

Here's the best joke I've seen about the Census. It might be the only joke, come to think of it, but it's a cracker (and it's relevant to concerns of this blog, faithful reader). It comes from Twop Twips on Twittter:

DARTH VADER. Spot members of the Rebel Alliance by putting a question on religious affiliation in your next Imperial census. /via @mothmun

No doubt there will be more in this blog about Jedi and the Census: watch this space (did you see what I did there? Everyone's a comic these days)

CENSUS: SUPPLIMENTARY [SIC] QUESTIONS

A tweet has been doing the rounds in the past few days, with this link. The pdf is done in the style of the 2011 Census, asking questions about the involvement of Lockheed Martin in the collection and processing of the information. Many people, including members of civil rights groups and faith communities, are concerned about the fact that the contract for the Census has been awarded to the world's second-biggest weapons manufacturer and an American company to boot, which has identified "intelligence and surveillance" as their biggest growing activity. Many people don't want to give information about themselves and their family to such  an organisation, for understandable reasons. This is probably the change between the last Census and this one: the increased unease about what will be done with the information, who will be looking at it and why. Rather than being seen as active citizens playing their part in helping government make forward planning for our collective future, it's being seen as an unwanted and unwelcome intrusion on personal privacy.


If you don't know about Lockheed Martin's involvement, check out the link below. I'm  posting this entry - and the link - as part of the ongoing debate about the Census, which I've covered from several angles in this blog.


Whoever put this together has done a nice job of parodying the style of the 2011 Census: pity they couldn't spell "supplementary" though (unless that's a clever sign, inserted to alert the reader to the spoof nature of it).

DMU and Leicester Daily

The DMU and Leicester Daily is an online newspaper, posted every day (more or less). it has occasionally featured items from this blog, but I thought it worth noting that in the edition for Wed 02 March 2010, four out of six stories on its #Leicester page come from here. These are:

• CreativeCoffee Club (originally posted here, Wed 02 March)
• The Witch Report: Pagans' meeting place is city cafe (originally posted here, Wed 02 March)
• Mindfulness & Morality 7: Humanist Perspective (originally posted here, Mon 28 Feb)
• Help Tomorrow Take Shape (originally posted here, Wed 02 March)

The way to get blog posts noticed and encourage their appearance in the DMU and :Leicester Daily is to share on Twitter when I upload them and ensure the tweet carries the hashtag #Leicester. I'll do that with this one as a matter of course, although if it's consequently picked up and carried in the next edition of the DMU and Leicester Daily, there will be an increased likelhood of recursive occlusion. I, for one, am willing to take that risk, faithful reader.

Read the DMU and Leicester Daily for yourself:
http://paper.li/c3iq/dmu-and-leicester

CREATIVECOFFEE CLUB

At Phoenix Square Film & Digital Media Centre, Midland Street, this morning for CreativeCoffee Club. Someone asked me if blogging CreativeCoffee Club every fortnight doesn't become a wee bit like reporting the village bowls match for the local paper: isn't it just the same thing every time? "Creatives" and, erm ... coffee. Funnily enough: no. I'd say that each one of these sessions has its own character, depending on who turns up and what they have to bring with them. It's unpredictable enough to have stayed interesting and stimulating for the better part of four years for me now.

I thought that this time, I'd get those attending to say, in three words or less, the kind of creative work in which they're involved. The list is, for the most part, generic and some of them had more than one person working in that field, of course.

• copywriting
• creative business support
• digital game narratives
• fashion design
• homeopathy
• logo design
• network weaving
• photography
• print design
• print management
• web design

I chat with some of the photographers here today about our interest in having a portfolio of images for the Council of Faiths in our Silver Jubilee year. It's  project that would certainly be of interest to some talented people - whenever we get around to ,making these sort of decisions.

We have more than two dozen attendees today all in. Somehow, it's always hard to get a photo that makes it look like there's any decent number at all. No matter how I try and compose it, from whichever angle I shoot it, the place always looks half-empty. I wonder if that says something about the general environment of Phoenix Square itself. I think it might have something to do with the height of the ceiling; nothing scientific to back up that idea, but a lot of people agree.

Follow CreativeCoffee Club on Twitter: @CCLeic

"To see oursels as ithers see us"

My friend Catriona Robertson, tweeting as "multifaith", refers to my "fab non-stop blog". When I thank her for that, she came back with this tweet in reply:

multifaith
@counciloffaiths you have a thatcher-like contempt for sleep - & a day job too, I believe ;)

First time the term "Thatcher-like" has been applied to me! Shall I take it as a compliment, faithful reader?

Read Catriona Robertson's own blog:
http://mulitfaith.wordpress.com/

One Day, No Religion (4)

Over the past few weeks, I've mentioned "One Day, No Religion" in this blog several times. Today, Sunday 20 February, is that One Day.

Follow One Day, No Religion on Twitter: @20february

Visit the One Day, No Religion website: http://february20.org/

BBC RADIO 4'S ANALYSIS VISITS LEICESTER

A brief exchange with the Lord Mayor of Leicester (Cllr Colin Hall) on Twitter today alerts me to some unexpected media coverage for the city and its faith communities:

LeicesterMayorWelcomed BBC Radio 4 to #Leicester Town Hall today - interviewed on work of faith groups + others to promote community cohesion in city.

counciloffaiths@LeicesterMayor Now that sounds interesting! Do you know which programme & when it will go out?

LeicesterMayor@counciloffaiths The Radio 4 programme is called Analysis - should be broadcast around mid-March. Will post details here when I get them.

If you're not familiar with Analysis, here's how it's described on the programme's website:

Programme examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad, presented by distinguished writers, journalists and academics.

This edition of Analysis, entitled "Muscular Liberalism", was broadcast on Monday 14 March 2011 with a repeat on Sunday 20 March 2011. Here's a summary of the programme content:

The prime minister has proposed a new "muscular liberalism", aimed at better integrating Britain's Muslims. It aims to counter the alienation that has led to a few young British Muslim men being prepared to mount terrorist attacks. David Walker asks what the new policy will mean on the ground, and how easily it can be reconciled with government plans for more local diversity and faith schools.

As well as featuring a contribution from Cllr Hall, the programme includes an interview with Suleman Nagdi, speaking about the Federation of Muslim Organisations and the Muslim Burial Council of Leicestershire. Here's a transcript of the section of the porgramme featuring Cllr Hall:

Leicester’s majority, as elsewhere, is neither Muslim nor Christian
but largely non-believing, secular and, usually, silent. Integration
might require putting less emphasis on religious faith. The Lord
Mayor of the city, Councillor Colin Hall, wants to get religion out of public life and has dispensed with prayers before council meetings.

HALL: In the area which I represent in New Parks, the proportion of the population who identify actively with the faith groups is actually quite low.

WALKER: So you would say most Leicester people are secular? 

HALL: I think they don’t identify with or actively practice a particular faith. 

WALKER: But if you look at sort of policy, particularly policy under
the previous Labour government, policy under the present government, faith schools have been pushed. I mean how do we interpret that? 

HALL: Under the previous government, the last two prime ministers
felt that faith was important to them and they were perhaps a bit more susceptible than the party as a whole or the country as a whole to the arguments that some of the faith groups were putting forward.

And here's the part with Suleman Nagdi:

Influential figures in the Muslim community may be more interested in securing greater recognition for their faith and its practice in Britain than allowing young people to get together freely. In Leicester, Suleman Nagdi has published guidelines for the local NHS on what to do when Muslim patients die. They include avoiding contact between the dead body and menstruating women doctors and nurses. 

NAGDI: I run something called the Muslim Burial Council of
Leicestershire. We signed the first historic document in Europe
allowing a section of the community to bury their deceased within 24 hours or over Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays. We are working
with the health service, we are working right across the board. 

WALKER: Sorry to interrupt, but what happens if that work of
negotiation isn’t being done within the community? Who should act
then? 

NAGDI: I think that’s a challenge for my own community. They need to reflect and they need to create visionaries from within their own community. We can no longer become armchair critics and complain that we do not have certain services provided to us by local authority if we do not articulate what we need. And also the articulation does not necessarily result in you getting what you want. There has to be a compromise. Sometimes there are ridiculous claims made by certain sections of my community and other community. And that, I’m sorry, is just unacceptable and we need to learn to be more mature to understand that we are privileged to live in this country, we are grateful for being given a home in this country, and we are working within the framework of the law of this country, and the law of this country is supreme.

Listen to this edition of Analysis on the programme's website.

Read a transcript of this edition of Analysis.

Follow Analysis on Facebook.

Subscribe to podcasts of Analysis.

Follow Analysis on Twitter.

CELEBRATING WORLD RELIGION DAY IN LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY

Today (third Sunday in January) is World Religion Day. Established in 1950 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States , World Religion Day has been increasingly taken up in other countries - at first by national and local Bahá'í communities in different parts of the world, although it has also become an event widely recognised and keenly celebrated by people of other faiths too. Its purpose is to bring together people of various faith communities, to celebrate the unifying power of religion, to promote inter faith understanding and to encourage religious leaders and adherents to acknowledge the similarities between their faiths and work together for the common good.

There's no celebration of World Religion Day in my neck of the woods today; but I wouldn't want it to pass unmarked (here in the blog, at least). So I thought I'd cast my net a little further afield and blog about the first thing I could find on this event, anywhere in the world. And here is the first mention that I found, from the pages of the Courier-Journal, in Louisville, Kentucky, USA (which came to me via Twitter, through @ReligionUpdate).

Bahá'ís holding "drop-in" prayer

Religion Day vigil open to all

A 24-hour prayer vigil to observe today as World Religion Day began Saturday night at the Louisville Bahá'í Center.

Organizers invited people of all faiths and beliefs to come to the center, at 3808 Bardstown Road, at any hour to participate.

“Stop by after you get off work at midnight, or 7 a.m., or after church or after a movie, or before you start your Sunday activities. This is a participatory prayer gathering,” said Nancy Harris, a member of the administrative body of the local Bahá'í community.

The Bahá'í faith is a monotheistic religion founded in Persia that emphasizes the spiritual unity of all humankind, and seeks to “unite people of the world and establish world peace,” Harris said. There are an estimated 200 followers of the faith in the Louisville area, and an estimated 6 million around the world.

Harris said the vigil grew out of the faith's efforts to end the persecution of its followers in Iran. Bahá'í is the largest minority religion in Iran, but it is not recognized as one and its followers have been arrested and imprisoned by the government.

“But we also recognize that people of many faiths around the world are often persecuted when they are in the minority. Whether instigated by governments, organizations or individuals, oppression and persecution are rampant in many countries,” Harris said.

At the conclusion of the prayer vigil at 7 p.m. today, the center will host a free talk by Terry Taylor, executive director of Interfaith Paths of Peace on “Reclaiming Religion and Freedom of Conscience.” The program is open to the public. Directions and additional information can be found at http://www.louisvillebahai.org/

As with all such online articles, reader comments are invited and published on the site. When I looked at the page, there were two - both of which I've reproduced below.

fnal11860 wrote:

Yeah! Another useless day of prayer for world peace. What a racket! If this is an interfaith activity, which "God" is prayed to and which one actually does something for world peace?

If I was at Terry Taylor's speech I would ask him what exactly he is trying to re-claim religion from? As long as everyone clings to their respective texts (most of which encourage violence and hatred) there isn't much one can do.

How about you all go out and lobby your congressmen and women for peace? How about meet with people at the UN and talk peace?Praying to imagined, invisible beings in the sky never has and never will accomplish anything.

while willie01 wrote:

Good luck. The world needs all of the prayer, peace, and unity it can get.

How's that for good old-fashioned journalistic balance? Though sorry if I misled you, faithful reader, into thinking that I was actually celebrating World Religion Day in Louisville, Kentucky myself (chance would be a fine thing!)

REDP delivery group

At Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL) this morning, for the regular weekly meeting of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership's delivery group. This is the group that carries on the work of REDP between monthly meetings of the Core Partners (LCIL; Leicester Council of Faiths; Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre; The Race Equality Centre) and quarterly meetings of the Core Reference Group (which has 25 seats, for infrastructure support groups working in the field of equalities across the East Midlands).

Among other tasks, today we're in the final stages of approving the revamped version of our Good Practice Equality and Diversity Healthcheck. I'm giving it one last look over before it gets the seal of approval. I also (at last) set up an email account into which I can forward the equality and diversity-related tweets. Each member of the delivery group has the password, so we can all access it and make us of the information, material and resources. We should be looking at the new Localism Bill that was published yesterday, but that's just too much to fit into our two hours today.

TWEETIE PIE

I filmed a number of short video interviews with members of the Leicester Hebrew Congregation at the end of the Chanukah celebration in the Town Hall this evening. I then uploaded these videos to the Council of Faiths channel on YouTube. Since I've linked our YouTube and Twitter accounts, each time I upload a video, the fact that I have done so gets tweeted to each one of our followers. Leicester Council of Faiths has 130 followers on Twitter.

Shortly after I uploaded the first of these five videos about Chanukah (featuring Mike Jacobs), the Lord Mayor of Leicester, Cllr Colin Hall (who attended the Chanukah celebration) retweeted our announcement of its publication. For the uninitiated, "retweeting" is rather like "forwarding"; it is not done automatically, the account holder has to do it by choice. This means that the Lord Mayor chose to announce the availability of the video to his whole list of followers. The Lord Mayor of Leicester has 707 followers on Twitter - all of whom will have received his personal recommendation of this short video clips.

A few minutes later, another retweet, this time by Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent for The Times. The video she retweeted is of Rabbi Pink telling the story of the historical origin of Chanukah. Although Ruth Gledhill is a follower of the Council of Faiths twitterstream, she's never retweeted any of our posts before. Ruth Gledhill has 6,196 followers of her own on Twitter - all of whom will have received her personal recommendation of this short video clip.

Personal recommendations for material on our YouTube channel by our secular Lord Mayor and by the Religion Correspondent of The Times - I'd call that a result for Leicester Council of Faiths!

REDP delivery group (2)

At Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL) this morning, for the second weekly meeting of our delivery group for the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). Six of us are together here: REDP Chair Iris Lightfoote (The Race Equality Centre - TREC), Laura Horton (REDP Project manager), Liz Harrison (Equality Officer, LCIL/REDP), Kelly Jusab (REDP) and Carolyn Pasco (Researcher, REDP) and me. Today we focus on:

expanding our use of Twitter, in particular increasing the number of other "twitterers" whom REDP is following. This will improve our facility to retweet relevant information to those who are following us.

seeing how we could make as speedy as possible a response to provisions affecting our field of work in the Chancellor's Emergency budget, being announced today.

developing a one-page guide to the Equality Act 2010.

considering suitable areas of work in which to offer our distinctive services.

There are a number of events taking place in the East Midlands over the next few weeks in which we've been asked to be involved, so we're also talking about what we can do at those.

As we often do, we spend some time refining REDP's aims and objectives etc. We do this regularly, to keep abreast of the shifting political, economic and social landscape, while remaining true to the content of our original business plan. I do enjoy the cut'n'thrust of this kind of discussion, as we try to concentrate our various meanings and interpretations into the best form of words. I'm reminded today especially of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's statement that, "The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions." (or, as we used to put it in Glasgow, "... only after the clash of differing heads"!)

Equality Act 2010 event

REDP's event at Walkers Stadium. Great attendance, good contributions, positive and supportive atmosphere. For the first time in REDP's public events this year, I take a back seat. I facilitate on tables in the two afternoon workshops, but otherwise get a fairly quiet time of it today - which means that I get lunch this time, unlike the last day REDP hosted at this venue!

My particular function today, though, is to keep feeding REDP's twitterstream throughout the event. Our twitter name, for those who would like to follow us, is @REDPartnership.

Here's how we've described the event, for publication in the local media:

City takes lead on new Equality Act

Leicester City’s Walkers Stadium was the venue for a high-profile regional conference promoting the new Equality Act.

The Act, which became law just before Parliament was dissolved for the General Election, protects people from discrimination on grounds of age, disability, gender and gender identity, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation.

Around a hundred people attended the conference, drawn mostly from the Voluntary and Community Sector and the Public Sector from right across the East Midlands.

The event was hosted by the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership, which works across the East Midlands to strengthen the voice of the Voluntary Sector on these important issues. REDP has grown out of a successful collaboration of a number of Leicester-based organisations that have worked together in a variety of combinations over the past decade.

Sheila Lock, Chief Executive of Leicester City Council, officially opened the day, welcoming delegates to the event and to the city. She said that it was right for the conference to be happening in Leicester as the city is widely celebrated for its diversity and has a history of speaking up for equality. Sheila further said, “The Third Sector has been instrumental in bringing about improvements in equalities. … colleagues [in the public sector] have much to learn from the experiences of colleagues in the voluntary sector when it comes to challenging established systems and practices. I welcome that challenge, it is what helps people improve.”

A trio of nationally prominent speakers addressed the morning session , each one speaking about one important aspect of the new Act: Alison Pritchard (Head of Strategy at the Government Equalities Office), Amanda Ariss (Chief Executive at the Equality and Diversity Forum) and Anthony Robinson (Director of Casework and Litigation at the Equality and Human Rights Commission). The speakers also took part in panel discussions; workshop sessions in the afternoon helped attendees focus on major issues that affect them now and that will arise in the future.

Iris Lightfoote, Chair of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership, said, “The number of people that felt this event was important enough to attend demonstrates the continuing significance of work to bring about equality of outcomes across the East Midlands. The profile of the contributors demonstrated the support that REDP is able to bring to this work and, hosting it in Leicester shows how much the voluntary sector’s contribution to this work should be valued.”

Sad to report though that the Leicester Mercury didn't publish anything about this event.

Find out more about the Equality Act 2010:
http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_act_2010.aspx

Find out more about the Equality & Diversity Forum:
http://www.edf.org.uk/

Find out more about the Equality and Human Rights Commission:
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/

Find out more about the Government Equalities Office:
http://www.equalities.gov.uk/

Find oput more about the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership:
http://www.redp.org.uk/