CITIZENS' EYE COMMUNITY NEWS CAFÉ, 6 JULY 2010

On the way to this morning's REDP meeting, I divert via Highcross  to drop in at the launch of the Community News Café hosted by Citizens' Eye Community News Cafe. Kona Blue Coffee have agreed to host this meeting every Tuesday, 0930-1030.

Anyone interested in becoming a Citizen Reporter and joining Citizens' Eye in the exciting challenge of recruiting 2,012 Citizen Reporters by 2012 can visit these regular weekly sessions. The Community News Café will also offer the chance to meet members of community groups who would like help in getting their message out to a wider audience including the mainstream media, especially the Leicester Mercury and BBC Radio Leicester.

BBC ASIAN RADIO STATION BASED IN LEICESTER A STEP CLOSER TO BEING AXED

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

BBC Asian radio station based in Leicester a step closer to being axed

The Asian Network is a step closer to being axed, after the BBC Trust accepted plans to close it.

In a review of BBC services, the trust said the station, launched in Leicester in 1996, was "performing poorly" and listener numbers were falling.

The BBC will now put together plans to replace the channel with a range of local stations for Asian audiences.

The Asian Network and BBC 6 Music have been under threat for the past two months, but 6 Music has been given a reprieve.

Much of the Asian Network's news team is based at BBC Radio Leicester, in St Nicholas Circle, in the city centre.

Gujurati and Hindi-language evening shows are broadcast from there three days a week.

It is understood about 30 people work for the station in Leicester, although the BBC said it could not confirm how many employees were based in the city.

A spokesman said in many cases there would be opportunities for staff to be employed elsewhere within the organisation.

The rest of the output is transmitted from Birmingham and London.

The BBC Trust, the governing body of the organisation, said in its initial review, published yesterday: "We acknowledge the Asian Network is performing poorly."

It added: "We would consider a formal proposal from the BBC to close it but would need to be convinced that any alternative proposed would be a clear improvement in terms of overall public value for British Asian audiences."

The Asian Network peaked with about 535,000 listeners a week in 2004.

The review said the number was about 300,000 in 2009.

Proposals to close the station were announced in March.

The trust said the Asian Network's audience figures had declined, especially among younger listeners, while commercial radio stations had seen an increase in listening numbers of Asian people.

It added: "A key theme that emerges is that of how Asian Network nurtures the idea of being a British Asian – rather than just a member of a local community – as well as recognising the diversity within British Asian communities.

"There is clearly a risk that this would be lost if it were to be closed as a national service."

One Asian Network employee, who did not want to be named, said: "I've been disappointed throughout this whole process.

"It'll be a real loss. We don't know what they are going to do or how they will continue the station in another way.

"The Asian Network is really important for the development of young journalists. A lot of people get their first chance of broadcasting here."

Yesterday, a BBC spokesman, said it would now make detailed plans for the closure of the Asian Network, which would need to be put to the BBC Trust for approval.

Manjula Sood, a former Lord Mayor of Leicester and chairman of Leicester Council of Faiths, said: "It started as just one hour in Leicester and has grown and grown."

She added: "It should be kept in some way as radio is a great way to reach the community. "The Asian Network is for everyone within the community, old or young."

healtchcheck reboot

Second meeting of the day at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL). This time we're a group of four working on the "reboot" of the Good Practice Equality and Diversity Health Check which was developed for use on our Mainstreaming Equality project in the county. We're retooling it so that it can be used beyond that range, throughout the East Midlands. Chino Cabon from the Race Equality Centre (TREC), Tonia Frew from the Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre (LGBT), Kelly Jusab, Project Officer at the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP) and I make what I'd call decent progress together.

promoting REDP

Meeting at Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL) this morning with Carolyn Pasco, Researcher with the  Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). She and I have volunteered to produjce some promotional material that can be sent (electronically or by post) to any organisation enquiring about REDP's services, including our training.

Islam should not be missionary

The Guardian's Comment is Free - belief website runs a weekly feature called The Question, posing one at the start of the week, then publishing commissioned responses on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday following (along with the facility for readers to post responses of their own). This week's question is, "Should Religions Compete?"

Here's today's response, from Mehdi Hasan, senior editor (politics) at the New Statesman and a former news and current affairs editor at Channel 4. He writes a blog for the New Statesman. He is co-author of Ed: the Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader.

Islam should not be missionary

Muslims must shun the divisive idea of a marketplace of religions which all compete for believers

Islam, it is often assumed, by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, is a missionary faith.

It isn't.

Yes, the Quran does of course encourage the believers to spread god's word: "Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best." But it also recognizes religious, cultural and ethnic diversity: "O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another." How can Muslims presume to convert to everyone to Islam when God Himself, in His infinite wisdom, chose not to? "And if Allah willed, He could have made them [of] one religion, but He admits whom He wills into His mercy." In fact, the Quran tells Muhammad, at one stage, to adopt an "agree to disagree" approach to the non-believers: "For you is your religion, and for me is my religion."

In a diverse, globalised world, which depends upon religious tolerance and harmonious relations between communities, Muslims have to learn to live together with non-Muslims without surrendering to the "I must convert all the kafirs" itch. There is no need for an Islamic equivalent of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

So it frustrates me when many of my co-religionists get excited at the prospect of people converting to Islam, especially celebrities. Does it matter if Michael Jackson was on the verge of a deathbed conversion to Islam? Should we encourage Simon Cowell to become a Muslim? (No and no.)

Faith is being reduced to a numbers game. "Islam is the fastest-growing religion on earth," is the mantra that my Muslim friends recite with glee. So? I've never quite understood how adding to the world's burgeoning Muslim population helps me, the Islamic world or the faith itself. We have enough theological, political, cultural and socio-economic problems as it is, without mindlessly adding to our numbers. I can't help but sympathise with the senior Indian Muslim cleric who once revealed to me his (private) advice to Hindus considering converting: "Don't bother. Not until we Muslims get our house in order."

These days, it is converts themselves who often damage the Islamic cause. The majority, of course, are peaceful, law-abiding citizens whose conversions have enriched their lives and those of the Muslim communities into which they have been welcomed. But what about men of violence like Richard Reid, Germain Lindsay and Dhiren Barot? Others that the "ummah" could have done without include Adam Gadahn, Al Qaeda's media spokesman and Colleen La Rose, aka "Jihad Jane".

Then there is the thorny issue of Islam's apostasy laws, which prevent Muslims from converting to other religions. We cannot expect to "compete" with other faiths for new recruits if those faiths aren't given a similar opportunity to try and recruit from inside the Islamic world. In Kuwait, in 1996, amid a row over the conversion of a businessman to Christianity, one cleric argued: "We always remind those who want to convert to Islam that they enter through a door but that there is no way out." This is as illogical as it is unIslamic. How can you expect people not to change their minds? Or dare deny them that freedom?

Above all else, religion should not be about competition, which is for bankers and financiers, not for the faithful. The idea that there should be a marketplace of religions in which priests, imams, rabbis and pandits jostle with each other to sign up new believers is deeply divisive. The only "invisible hand" in the world of the religious should be God's.

If there is to be mutual respect between religious communities, and much-needed inter-faith dialogue, there can be no hidden agendas. Muslims, Christians, Jews and the rest should never go into discussions or debates with the secret aim of trying to convert one another. Nothing could be more counter-productive or damaging to relations between the faiths. For Muslims, in particular, accused by the far right and sections of the liberal left, of trying to "Islamize" Britain, and Europe, it also makes tactical sense to avoid feeding this false narrative.

We are not missionaries. The role of a Muslim is not to convert the rest of the world to Islam. We should instead focus on becoming the best possible Muslims, and leading the best possible lives, that we can. If the rest of the world then chooses to follow our lead, so much the better.

I can't help bet feel disappointed that the three published responses to this question are two Christian and one Muslim, even if in one of these responses (Alan Race's, of course) inter faith issues are foregrounded). I also find it disappointing that there's little talk about cooperation instead of competition. Maybe I should put my money where my mouth is and chip in my own comment then!

chance encounter

Walking down Market Street at lunchtime, I see Allan Hayes and Eleanor Davison at a table outside Mirch Masala. Given the pleasant afternoon weather, the time of day and our common areas of interest, I take the opportunity to sit a spell. I've known Allen virtually since I took up my post three years ago, having met him and spoken with him at many events, meetings and occasions - both in formal terms and at occasions such as the monthly "Philosophy in the Pub" sessions at the Swan and Rushes. Although I've also seen Eleanor many times and am well aware of her splendid reputation, we've somehow never had the chance to introduce ourselves to each other. Eleanor is serving as Lady Mayoress this year; Allen is Chaplain to the Lord Mayor. Their roles - and the prominence given to the Lord Mayor's own beliefs - have been the topic of much debate in the local media and among the great and the good of the city. I am glad I have the chance today to reassure them both that the Council of Faiths is taking a balanced position in this discussion - that we are not an enemy to freedom of thought and expression.

For several years Eleanor has been an accredited Humanist Celebrant, who conducts non-religious weddings and funerals. Our conversation ends with Eleanor asking if Clare and I are going to have a Humanist wedding ceremony in the autumn. You know, faithful reader, for some reason or other, I'd never thought of this.
 
Read an interesting interview with Eleanor about her role as a Humanist Chaplain in Leicester hospitals:
http://www.humanism.org.uk/_uploads/documents/chaplaincy-for-web.pdf

Everybody's Reading!

On the way back from my meeting at Leicestershire Cares, I'm buttonholed in New Walk by Damien Walter, who has previously tweeted me to ask how we to get "the interfaiths" (his word, not mine) involved in the Everybody's Reading Festival, which will be running throughout the city, 2-10 October this year. I agree it would be nice to add a faith-diverse flavour to this event, but how to go about it? It has to be something better than just asking the faith communities or their representatives to nominate their favourite books. When I worked full-time in adult education in Leicester, teaching basic literacy, one of the tasks set for students was to write a book review. Muslim students would invariably write about the Qur'an, Sikh students the Guru Granth Sahib, Hindu students, more often than not the Gita. And it's hard to engage critically with the Word of God, no matter how well developed those faculties might be in the individual. So, we should find some other way of entering into this event. Perhaps favourite biographies or favourite children's books. Whichever point of entry we choose, it could lead to a display in the public libraries and a higher profile for the Council of Faiths. More thought and conversation is required.

Leicestershire Cares (1)

A meeting this lunchtime with Chris Toon, Homelessness Project Coordinator at Leicesterhire Cares - a membership organisation of key employers in Leicester and Leicestershire, dedicated to corporate responsibility, by bringing businesses and the community together for the benefit of both. Until recently, Leicestershire Cares was part of a national movement of Cares partnerships, but it has recently established its independent identity.

Leicestershire Cares is organising an engagement event at Braunstone Leisure Centre in September, originally intended for homeless or vulnerably housed people, but which has now expanded to encompass asylum seekers and refugees. Sport will be the big draw, with free sessions a the leisure centre for those attending on the day. Chris is hoping to have representation of a number of groups addressing issues that affect those client groups: housing options, benefits, sexual health, Chamber of Commerce, police, health and well-being. I show him photos of the Council of Faiths exhibition on the blog and he asks if we can put the whole thing up at this event. He also asks if we can provide a speaker who will get up on stage for two or three minutes and if there's any chance we can organise a musical contribution.

Find out more about Leicestershire Cares:
http://www.leicestershirecares.co.uk/

host organisations meeting

At The Race Equality Centre (TREC) this afternoon, for a meeting of the Host Organisations for Leicester Partnership. These are the groups which liaise between the strategic partnership and the so-called "communities of interest", which identify around the protected characteristics: age (Age Concern for older people, Young People First for younger people), disability (Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living), gender (LeicestHER Day Trust), race (The Race Equality Centre), religion or belief (Leicester Council of Faiths) and sexual orientation (Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre). We also have with us a representative from Voluntary Action Leicester, which is responsible for training and support of the Host Organisations, so that we can help train and support the reps.

We consider representation for the communities of interest on Leicester Partnership at different levels (its Board, its various thematic groups). We're interested in identifying potential reps for the future, refining their roles and on contributing to a handbook which would describe best practice for representing the interests of the Voluntary and Community Sector (no one I know is using that new term, "Civil Society Organisations" - yet).

SECULARISM PROTECTS PEOPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Secularism protects people of all religions

While, I understand some people's natural reticence about the Lord Major's [sic] decision not to say prayers before council meetings, people should look at the issue from the other foot.

Say you were a Christian minority councillor in an Islamic country. As a Christian, how would you feel if you were always obliged to listen to Islamic prayers before council meetings? Would this make you feel included?

Secularism protects people of all religions by encouraging a clear separation between Church and State. The word does not mean "atheism", as some people suggest. Incidentally, there is nothing to stop individuals from forming prayer groups before council meetings.

Richard Hopper, member Leicester Secular Society