ENGAGING WITH LEICESTER'S FAITH COMMUNITIES: HINDUS

Meeting in the Welcome Centre this afternoon of a small working group, progressing the latest booklet in the series, "Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester". These are being produced under the aegis of Leicester SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education). This booklet, the fourth in the series is on the city's Hindus. The earlier booklets (on Sikhs, Muslims and Christians) are virtually finished.

While I wouldn't call the Hindu booklet "nearly finished", I would say that with the good will that characterises the collective approach to this series of booklets, it's not far off it. An important byproduct of the process is the collaborative network that has spread pretty wide to take in all the faith communities, schools and other stakeholders involved. The creative process is valuable, as is the product created.

In the photo, some members of the working group dealing with the Hindu booklet (left to right): Jill Carr, Secretary of SACRE; Kishan Devani, teacher and education consultant; Hiten Bhatt, Director of Be Great Training & Development Ltd; Dr Angela Jagger, Associate Lecturer in Religious Studies with the Open University and member of Leicester Council of Faiths.

FINAL TOUCHES PUT TO LEICESTER'S FIRST FREE SCHOOL

From today's Leicester Mercury:

Final touches put to Leicester's first free school 

By Dan Martin 

From planning lessons to fixing locks on to the toilet doors, staff at Leicester's first free school have been busily preparing for the arrival of its pupils.

Krishna Avanti School, in Evington, was set to open its doors today and welcome 37 excited pupils who will make up its first two reception classes. 

It is one of the first 24 free schools to open across the country this month. 

Principal Christopher Spall, who will take charge of the Hindu faith school, said: "We've been working all the hours available to get the place ready. 

"It has been hard but enjoyable and we are very excited. 

"I've been back and forth to B&Q to get bits and bobs and my power drill has seen a lot of action. 

"We want everything to be just right for the children and I am really grateful to the teachers for all their efforts." 

Free schools are state funded but outside the control of local education authorities. 

On Monday, children and parents were invited to an orientation day and lunch at the five-acre campus, to get their first proper glimpse of the classrooms and meet the first four teachers, teaching assistants, administrators and catering staff. 

Mr Spall, who will ask the pupils to call him Mr Christopher, said: "It went really well but we'd only got our teaching resources 12 hours beforehand so it's been all hands to the pump." 

Teacher Deepti Shah, 27, who has moved from Queensmead Community Primary, in Braunstone, said: "I'm excited and a little bit nervous. 

"I was attracted to this place by the faith and nurture approach which I think will be great for the kids." 

The Krishna Avanti School is open to children of all faiths and will have one Sikh and one Muslim pupil, though its first intake will be predominantly Hindu. 

Project director Pradip Gajjar said: "There are principles from the Hindu faith that will really benefit children, such as having healthy vegetarian food, doing yoga and meditation. 

"People will be watching us to see how we do as we are the city's first free school but we do not feel pressure. We will do very well. 

"We have already had letters from a primary in Highfields, where the pupils are mainly Muslim and a number of Church of England Schools saying they would like to work with us. That is exciting." 

The first few days of term will be half days while the pupils settle in. Teachers will be making home visits. 

Backers hope to add a class every year until there are 420 pupils. Building work to create play areas, classrooms and spaces for worship is continuing. 

The school's leaders also hope to establish a free Hindu faith secondary school in the city that will be ready in time to take this year's intake. 

Mr Gajjar said: "We have been talking with the city council about opening a school since 2006.
"The free school route was really just a mechanism for us. 

"Naturally, we would like a secondary school, though that will be some years off."

In the photo: Principal Christopher Spall in one of the classrooms

QURAN DISPLAY AT LOCAL LIBRARY

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Quran display at city library 

As part of efforts to remove misconceptions about Islam and its holy book, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association is embarking on a series of exhibitions nationwide to showcase the true teachings of the Holy Quran. 

One such exhibition has been set up at Knighton Library, in Clarendon Park Road, for the public to acquaint themselves with the peaceful message carried by the Quran. 

In the exhibition are Qurans with 13 different translations from the world's major languages.
There are also posters depicting Quranic messages such as freedom of religion, equality and the true concept of jihad. 

The exhibition started on Tuesday, August 23, and continues for two weeks. 

The Leicester branch of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, which has set up the exhibition, is located in Avenue Road Extension, Leicester. 

Ibrahim Bonsu, coordinator, Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, Leicester branch.

Knighton Library is my local public library. I must pop in and have a look at this display for myself.

ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR

Here's the poster put up around town for Billy Bates & Sons Fun Fair, currently at Victoria Park. In an interesting example of diversity, the poster states that Billy Bates is "Supporting Leicester Pride" and extends an invitation to "Celebrate Eid at the fun fair". Not often you'll see those two occasions linked together, faithful reader - gotta love Leicester!

MOSQUE USERS "BLOCK STREET"

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Mosque users "block street"

A mosque which opened without permission is facing an investigation into its use and complaints about worshippers parking in the streets.

A former plumbing supplies store on the corner of Harewood Street, in Humberstone, has been used as a mosque for the past week.

Neighbours said the number of visitors' cars for evening prayers had made the narrow street impassable.

Leicester City Council has launched an investigation into the use as a mosque.

One resident of Harewood Street, who did not want to be named, said: "There are problems with parking and cars are being scratched."But the other big worry is that they could never get a fire engine into the road – you can't get a normal car through."

A 29-year-old woman who lives in the road, said: "The other night I found it impossible to get out of the street.

"The city council has closed part of Fernie Road and the parking was crazy at the top of Harewood Street.

"People are parking wherever – in the middle of the road, even."

The one-storey building was bought in June by members of Masjid At-Taqwa mosque on the other side of Harewood Street. The original mosque is now solely used for women.

Idris Waraich, 50, of the mosque's committee, said members of the community had raised £300,000 to buy the derelict building, which was being refurbished as a mosque and community centre.

He said: "We have wanted to extend the services we provide, including providing a place for prayer, social events, charitable work and education.

"Planning permission was granted to extend our original premises."Unfortunately, due to the need for a bigger venue – and the enthusiasm the new building has generated – events rather overtook us.

"The fact that all this has taken place during Ramadhan has made it difficult."

"We want to work much more closely with the council and wider community and will be submitting a formal planning application in the next two weeks."

The application will include a travel plan involving cycling and public transport for visitors, along with warning signs to deter parking in the street.

A spokesman for Leicester City Council said: "There isn't planning consent for it to be used in that way and, depending on the outcome of the investigation, we would have the power to serve an enforcement notice requiring those activities to cease."

Suleman Nagdi, spokesman of the Federation of Muslim Organisations, said: "This has happened in the past where people have identified a place, collected the money and purchased it, then applied to the local authority for permission.

"It's a problem in inner cities of finding suitable places of worship."The original mosque in Harewood Street is obviously not big enough."

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (797)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United Kingdom 385
2. United States 158
3. Germany 67
4. Russia 50
5. France 43
6. Ukraine 26
7. India 21
8. Canada 17
9. Latvia 16
10. Thailand 14

This week's total: 797 (last week's: 818). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's stats software doesn't show me numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country.

The world map at the top of this post is the graphic that I see on the stats page. The darker the green, the more pageviews from that country. I can see different versions of this map for "now" (whenever that is), today, this week, this month and "all time" (which seems to mean the last 12 months). They're updated each time I look at that them.

Personnel Management Group

Meeting with my Personnel Management Group this morning in Pilgrim House. For the first time, we meet in the downstairs office, as the Welcome Centre is being used by LARA (Leicestershire Active Retirement Association) who book it every other Friday morning.

For one reason and another, we've been unable to meet according to our schedule over the summer. I have another appointment on the outskirts of the city at 1300 for which I can't be late. We have a lot to discuss, both general and particular and there's plenty left over at the end of the meeting. So we fix another meeting for a fortnight from now.

CHURCH QUERY

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Church query

Could I please ask if any Mercury reader knows what has happened to St Gabriel's Church, in Kerrysdale Avenue, Leicester.

I have a friend who has moved to Fareham and has written to ask me, as she had heard it was due to close. She played the organ there in the late 1960s.

Mrs Susan Foulds, Anstey

Riots reveal disaffection on a wider scale

Here's the First Person column from today's Leicester Mercury:

 

Riots reveal disaffection on a wider scale 

Suleman Nagdi asks why integration is seen exclusively as an issue for Muslims? 

As the fallout and recriminations begin over the causes of the riots that have devastated the social fabric of Britain, it is time to discuss a most pressing issue, an issue that needs to be discussed by the media, expert commentators and academics. Simply put, when there was large scale rioting a decade ago in some northern cities, various analyses blamed Muslims for failing to integrate into mainstream society as the main cause. Now consistency in our analysis is needed to ask whether the young hooligans carrying out the riots from white, black and Asian communities have also failed to integrate themselves into British society. 

Among the problems cited as causes for the riots have been unemployment, failure of education, lack of opportunities, boredom and a frustration with politics over national and international policies. However, what has not been cited as a major cause is the issue of integration and whether young people from certain communities have behaved irresponsibly because they or their parents have failed to integrate fully into British society and have failed to become British. 

We need to look seriously into this as a society and accept that integration is an issue for all communities not just one, especially when integration has not been deemed as a problem in some of those communities affected by the riots. 

Just as I disagree with the pigeon-holing of the Muslim community whereby we are all expected to share the blame for the latest atrocity committed by a tiny few, I cannot blame anyone for this violence except people involved who are united in their common greed and disregard for others in society. These are people from many races, cultures and backgrounds who have plunged our country into disarray seeming not to share a cultural or indeed religious heritage, making it more complex to profile them. Thus they have been spared the wrath of commentators who are boosted by public resentment to lambast certain social groups. 

Muslims in Britain are especially victims of this, as was seen most recently with the Norway terror attacks, following which every major news outlet spent several hours pouring scorn on the Islamist threat. They were forced to make drastic U-turns when the facts emerged, quickly brushing their mistaken analysis under the carpet, fearing no accountability. 

We cannot compartmentalise the issue into a faith-based conflict regardless of the causes. Let us hope that the current riots do not lead to the vilification of any racial group. Rather let us avoid the mistakes of the past where one group has been stigmatised and vilified and instead consider integration as an issue not just for some but for all, for it is an issue in which we are all stakeholders in our desire for a better Britain. 

Suleman Nagdi is spokesman for the Federation of Muslim Organisations

"AMAZING" START TO RAMADHAN FESTIVAL

From today's Leicester Mercury:

"Amazing" start to Ramadhan Festival 

About 1,000 people visited the first day of an event to celebrate an important Muslim festival. 

Ramadhan Festival began yesterday at the O2 Academy at the University of Leicester, and will be running until Sunday. 

Some 60 stall holders sold a range of Islamic gifts and art, while visitors enjoyed music performances, calligraphy displays and dance shows. There was also a play zone for children. 

Festival organiser Abdul Osman said: "It has gone pretty amazingly so far. There were so many people, all having a good day, with lots going on. 

"Lots of people of all faiths have visited." 

Throughout the festival, cash will be collected for charity Muslim Aid, which will be spent on relief in drought-hit Africa. 

Professor Robert Burgess, Vice Chancellor of The University of Leicester, said he was delighted to host the festival which he says will make an important contribution to the city's multi-faith community.

 In the photo: Aatiqua Rawat, 21, looking at some of the clothes at the O2 Academy, Leicester