LEICESTER CHILD POVERTY COMMISSION CONFERENCE

This morning I'm at St Martins House, Peacock Lane, where the Leicester Child Poverty Commission conference is taking place in the Grand Hall. I'm glad to see Cllr Manjula Sood, Assistant Mayor with portfolio for Community Involvment, Partnerships and Equalities (and Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths) here today.

This is the second annual event on this topic. The first was held on 25 May 2012 at De Montfort University and was reported in the Leicester Mercury.

Today's conference is opened by Rachel Dickinson (Strategic Director, Children, Leicester City Council) opens the meeting - and chairs the rest of the day.

Cllr Rory Palmer (Deputy City Mayor and Chair of Leicester Child Poverty Commission) welcomes delegates. Here are a few extracts from his letter of welcome included in our packs:

Since last year's conference the Leicester Child Poverty Commission has published 66 recommendations, a number of which have been implemented. Significant work is taking place across the public, private and voluntary sectors to make progress in implementing all of the recommendations. The Commission has continued work with partners to raise awareness of child poverty in the city, to develop new thinking on how to address this challenge and how to monitor the impact of public spending cuts, welfare changes and falling household budgets. Amongst other activities the Commission make a formal response to the Government's consultation on how child poverty should be measured, we held a meeting with businesses and employers to talk about the economic impact of pverty and thge role of the private sector in tackling poverty, and we have worked to ensure child poverty is an issue discussed by other key organisations like the new Health & Wellbeing Board.

The Rt Revd Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester, gives the keynote address. I am always impressed by what Bishop Tim has to say on the subject of poverty. He gave the keynote address at the 2012 Annual General Meeting of Leicester Council of Faiths, with the title, "The Recession and its Effects on Inter-Faith Relations". He has been in print on the topic many times and put in a memorable appearance on BBC2's Newsnight in January 2012 where he more than held his own in the face of a rigorous interrogation by Jeremy Paxman about opposition from the Bishops in the House of Lords to the Welfare Reform Bill.

After Bishop Tim's keynote address, we move on to workshop discussion. We're asked to consider the role of communities and organisations in combating child poverty, facilitated by Voluntary Action LeicesterShire. There are two questions to help focus our discussions:

• What practical things can you do to support the recommendations of the Child Poverty Commission?
• What do you need the Child Poverty Commission to do to help you achieve these things?

Themes have been allocated to different groups of tables:

• Early years (five tables)
• Income, personal finance & housing (four tables)
• Health & wellbeing (three tables)
• Economy, work & transport (three tables)
• Policy & governance (two tables)

Our table, at the back of the hall, is shown on the diagram, but it doesn't have a theme allocated to it. I guess ours would be "latecomers" or "nearest the coffee". We're allowed to pick our own theme, so we go for "Early years". I do half an hour on this one (during which we're joined by Dr Katherine Duffy, one of the 11 members of the Leicester Child Poverty Commission). For the second part of this session I move to another table to discuss "Income, personal finance and housing". Then coffee, I'm glad to say.

The workshops prompt a couple more questions that will fit in the Resilience Audit I'll be conducting with places of worship and faith-based community centres in Leicester over the next few months on behalf of the Council of Faiths.

After the break there's a panel on stage, discussing issues surrounding child poverty from their own areas of interest and positive examples of actions taken so far.

• John Willets (Project Director, FareShare Leicester)
• Imran Hussain (Head of Policy, Rights and Advocacy at Child Poverty Action Group)
• Jon Ashworth MP (Labour, Leicester South)
• Catherine Stretton, Head Teacher, Marriot School

Each has the opportunity to speak briefly, then respond to questions from the floor.  This fills an hour of the programme.

Sir Peter Soulsby, Mayor of Leicester, makes the closing remarks. I managed to write down a few of the things he said, from a short speech that was both rousing and reflective: "Poverty affects many people in this city in ways which many other people in this city find repulsive. [...] it has sometimes been said that communities in Leicester lead parallel lives - this is true, but not along ethnic, racial or religious lines; in more practical, meaningful terms, this is determined by differing levels of income." If I was able to transcribe faster, I'd have written down more.

Today we heard about a recent study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) that the number of children living in poverty would increase by 50% by 2020. I searched for this online and found an article in the London Evening Standard (7 May 2013) part of which I quote below:

More than one million more children will fall into poverty in the UK by the end of the decade, new research has predicted.

The assessment by the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the projected increase from 2010/11 to 2020/21 will reverse the reductions in child poverty rates witnessed in the previous decade.

As I leave the conference, I reflect on what has more power to change things. You can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have the will, the desire to make a difference, what good can it do. Now that the money that we were all getting used to being available is being taken off the table, we have to fall back on the power of that will and desire. And to judge by what I have heard today, there's plenty of that on tap.

QUARTER OF A MILLION AND RISING

Allow me to indulge myself for a moment, faithful reader. Today the blog hit a quarter of a million page views. I couldn't have done it without you - obviously. It's taken three and a half years to get to this point. I wonder how long it will take to double this number - and what have to do that I'm not already doing, to make sure that happens as quickly as possible?

LEARNING FOR LIFE: HOW ISLAM IS TAUGHT TO CHILDREN IN A MULTI-FAITH SOCIETY

 

At Madani High School and Community Centre, Evington Valley Road, this evening, for a meeting of the Christian-Muslim Dialogue Group. The topic is "Learning for Life: How Islam is taught to children in a multi-faith society".

 

There are 11 attendees. Fliers were produced six weeks ago which said that it was intended that at this meeting, "Members of Leicester's SACRE (Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education") join us for a discussion on the theme". However, when SACRE met last week at Quaker Meeting House, it turned out that no invitation to this meeting had been received. I forwarded the flier with details of the meeting at Madani to SACRE's officers, and it was circulated to members on Friday morning.

 

Allan Hayes and I are here, both Co-opted Members of SACRE without voting rights (there's no place in the structure of SACRE for full representatives of Secular Humanism or any inter faith organisation). Later on, Stephen Thompson (Methodist representative on SACRE) joins us. We three found out about this meeting through independent channels, not at the SACRE meeting last week or through the last-minute mailing by SACRE. I'm sure that we can report to the next SACRE meeting, say what a good opportunity this evening presented for addressing such an important topic and that if the chance arises to cover this topic again, it would be hoped that SACRE members would support in numbers. I should say that the non-communication about this meeting was not the fault of anyone here this evening or any member of the Dialogue Group.

Revd Pete Hobson (Joint Co-ordinator of the Christian-Muslim Dialogue Group), Sheikh Shafi Chowdhury, Daud Sameja (Joint Co-ordinator of the Christian-Muslim Dialogue Group)

Apparently this is the first meeting of this group outside St Philip's Centre (although the April meeting, co-hosted with Leicester Council of Faiths, at which Bruce Kent spoke, took place in St Philip's Church Hall - though that would be splitting hairs). There was a short discussion about whether this evening's venue might have put off potential attendees, but I hope that's not true. This is the middle of Christian Aid Week, which might have drawn away some interested people, compounding the problems of lack of promotion.

The speaker this evening is Sheikh Shafi Chowdhury. He is an Imam, a qualified and experienced teacher, currently working in a multi-faith prison chaplaincy. He speaks for 20 minutes or so with compassion, humility, humour, knowledge and reflection. His talk is peppered with authoritative references to the Qur’án, Hadith and incidents from the life of the Prophet, his companions and early followers of Islam. He mixes personal experience with a historical overview of the meaning and role of education for the Muslim community (worldwide, in England and in Leicester), set within the broad sweep of the historical development of Islam in general.

Key to an understanding of this topic is the inescapable fact that Islam does not differentiate between the "sacred" and the "profane", nor does it categorise experience or phenomena as "spiritual" and "material" in terms of being complementary or oppositional. Such differentiation could be said to be central to the western idea of humanist, liberal, secular education. In classical terms, this meant that those figures whom we might identify as religious scholars in the Muslim world were also scholars of "natural philosophy", leading to innovation in the arts, humanities and sciences alongside insights in matters of faith, belief and religious practice. Of course there are many examples of the same thing happening within other faith communities, but it could be said that this was such a distinctive quality of Islam that when it became the exception rather than the rule, some 300 years ago, it exemplified  a radical change in the expansive and inclusive nature of Islam that had driven its success up till then.

Our speaker says many things that are worth mulling over beyond this meeting. Here are just two of them (quoted here with his permission):

"The curse of superficiality of faith is to be challenged by everything and to be frightened of everything. We cannot be fully Muslim unless we reach out and engage with our neighbours."

"Today all our communities are brought up with a heightened awareness of difference, of consciousness of the Other."

This is the first time I've attended a meeting of the Christian-Muslim Dialogue Group proper. I'm sure it won't be the last. I found it a stimulating, thought-provoking occasion in which a variety of view were welcome. With better promotion, I'm sure more people would enjoy these meetings and contribute to this important ongoing conversation.

IF I'M SENT BACK TO KABUL I WILL BE KILLED

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

If I'm sent back to Kabul I will be killed

by Tim Healy

Campaigners are calling for a 23-year-old failed Afghani asylum-seeker to be allowed to remain in Leicester, saying he will be killed if he is deported.

Abdul Ghafar Rajabali's parents and family were murdered when he was a baby, and he entered Britain illegally as a traumatised 16-year-old in August 2006 after fleeing.

He applied for asylum but was turned down and started living rough.

He was later found destitute by the Red Cross.

Because he has extreme post-traumatic stress syndrome and a medical condition which, say campaigners, could not be treated in Afghanistan, Mr Rajabali was allowed to stay in the UK while his medical case was reviewed.

However, that permission ended last week and when he attended a routine reporting session with the immigration authorities in Loughborough on Friday, he was detained by UK Border Agency staff.

Mr Rajabali, who has converted to Christianity, was taken to Morton Hall Detention Centre, in Lincolnshire, and faces being put on a flight to Kabul at midnight on Tuesday.

The Leicester City of Sanctuary group, which has been working with Mr Rajabali, has launched an e-petition calling on Home Secretary Teresa May to stop his deportation.

It has so far been backed by more than 1,100 people.

The group said he was wrongly treated as an adult when he arrived in the UK, and was put at a disadvantage because the translator used by the UK Border Agency did not understand the dialect he spoke.

He also inadvertently missed an asylum hearing and, fearing he would be deported as a result, went under the radar of the authorities which resulted in him living on the streets.

The group said Mr Rajabali was preparing a claim for asylum "based on new evidence" when he was detained, and wants him released so the application can be heard.

Speaking from the detention centre, Mr Rajabali said: "I am scared. I cannot go back to Afghanistan, I will be killed because I am now a Christian.

"Not only will the Taliban kill me, but other religious groups too. I love England and I love Leicester. The police are very good here. They do not hit you if you ask a question."

Pam Inder, chairman of Leicester City of Sanctuary, said Mr Rajabali had "touched the hearts of everyone who knows him" in Leicester.

She said: "Abdul is an illegal immigrant, but he is a very special person. He is intelligent and kind and would be a very good addition to our society."

She said Mr Rajabali would be killed if he went back to Afghanistan, a country where he has no family does not know anyone who could help him.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Every asylum application is carefully considered on a case by case basis.

"The UK only returns individuals if both the Home Office and the courts are satisfied they do not need our protection and have no legal basis to remain in the country.

"Mr Rajabali's case has been considered and rejected by the courts and he failed to attend an appeal hearing before an independent judge."

LEICESTER CITY OF SANCTUARY AGM

Hotfoot from the Faith Awareness Summer Visit to the Jain Centre, I head for the Annual General Meeting of Leicester City of Sanctuary in St Andrew's Church Hall, Jarrom Street, hardly ten minutes' walk away. Except when I get there, there's a different event entirely going on. Once I get someone to open the door to me, I discover that unintentional double booking; seems I missed an email about the change of venue. An apologetic Canon Barry Naylor first invites me into the warmth and offers food and drink, but I demur (even though it's bloomin' freezing out and I haven't had my tea). He points me in the direction of St Margaret's Church Hall where I'll find the City of Sanctuary AGM. That's a little more than ten minutes' walk but I feel committed now, so off I go.

Just a few hours ago I was asked (via Facebook) to sign an electronic petition through Change.org ("the world's petition platform") to release Abdul Ghafar Rajabali and halt his deportation. I did so and shared it with my Facebook friends. By the time I reach St Margaret's Church Hall, I see that 20 of them have also signed - and I imagine that some of them will have shared the petition with their own friends.

Even though I arrive at the venue just as the meeting is breaking up, I hope it's still worth showing my face. I want to express support not only for City of Sanctuary as an organisation and for what they are doing about Abdul's plight, but also lend personal support to a few friends who have been leading the campaign for Abdul's release.

Photos by Ambrose Musiyiwa, publishing as Civic Leicester. Reproduced by permission. More of Ambrose's photos from this meeting may be seen online.

FAITH AWARENESS SUMMER VISITS: JAIN CENTRE

The Faith Awareness series of summer visits to places of worship and other faith-related sites in Leicester begins this evening at the Jain Centre, Oxford Street. As well being contracted to work 20 hours a week for Leicester Council of Faiths, I now do a day and a half a week with Faith Awareness, the inter-faith programme of Christians Aware.

I must have visited the Jain Centre more than a dozen times. I think I first came here in 1988, in the first year that the Jain Centre was open and within a year of my moving to this part of the world from Dumbarton. I was entranced by it then and still am now. On each visit I see something new and learn something new. I don't know how anyone can say, "Oh yes, I've seen the Jain temple" and just tick it off their list. This place seems to change, develop, evolve in ways - and at a rate - that set it apart from most other faith sites in Leicester. I hope it's not too fanciful to believe that my own changes, development and evolution may be keeping pace with it in some way.

Our small group is taken on a guided tour of the Centre by Dr Ramesh Mehta and Pradip Mehta. As well as giving us an overview of the history and teachings of Jainism, they describe the history of the Centre itself and discuss the community's plans for celebrating the 25th anniversary of its foundation this summer. Many of the occasions associated with this anniversary are taking place in London, because it's central for the many participants coming from overseas and because Jains in Leicester don't have access to venues here large enough to be able to hold the number of people taking part. The Centre has a flag flying above it, which is renewed annually on 14 July, the date of the founding of the Centre. The flag which will be raised there on 14 July this year (precisely at 12:39), marking the silver jubilee of the Centre, is currently being taken on a circuit of Jain community centres, homes and places of worship around the country. At each stop, it becomes a focal point for practices of devotion, meditation and purification. Dr Mehta said we could think of it as being like the Jain community's version of the Olympic Torch relay. Dr Mehta helped me write the Council of Faiths leaflet on Jains, which was one of my first tasks in this post. Now that it's time to prepare a new edition of that leaflet, I hope to call on his help again.

Carved pillars of Jaisalmer yellow sandstone in the worship area of the Jain Centre 

When I was first looking for information about Jains and Jainism for my work, nigh on six years ago, I could find little that was accessible or reliable online. That has changed recently with the appearance of professional sits created by Jain organisations such as the Institute of Jainology, Jainworld.com, the Jainpedia Project, a comprehensive section on the BBC Religions website, thorough representation on Wikipedia and on more specialist sites such as the New World Encyclopedia. Even Kew Gardens Plant Cultures website has a section on Jainism.


The hand represents fearlessness and symbolizes the attitude of ahimsa (non-violence) to all living creatures



Dr Mehta tells us that if we want to understand the Jain way of life in a nutshell, we should remember the three "A"s:

• ahimsa: non-violence
• aparigraha: non-acquisitiveness
• anekäntaväda: multiplicity of views

He also gives us a mnemonic by which we can remember the principles of this ancient religion with a message for the modern world:

• "J" is for justice
• "A" is for amity
• "I" is for introspection
• "N" is for nobility

Two of my favourite Jain Centre facts: the building accommodates several sects of Jainism, each with their distinctive interpretations, identities and practices. The different sects have their own spot set aside in the Centre for their use.

  

My other favourite Jain Centre fact: it's the only Jain place of worship in the world with stained glass windows. Rather than brick up, cover or replace with ordinary glass the stained glass windows from of the original Congregational Church, the local Jain community decided to create a series of windows of their own, telling the story of Mahavira (599-527 BCE), 24th and latest in the line of Tirthankaras. A contemporary of Gautama the Buddha, Mahavira is credited with establishing Jainism in the form we know today.

Detail from one of the stained glass windows in the Jain Centre, illustrating episodes form the life of Mahavira

I love that word: Tirthankara. The best translation into English is "ford-maker". Think of this life as a fast-flowing river which can only be crossed by means of the ford made by the Tirthankara. To ignore the ford that the Tirthankara has made and try to cross otherwise means being caught up in the currents and risking being swept to your doom!

This is the first of six Faith Awareness visits planned for Monday evenings in May and June. The others are as follows:

• All Saints Church, Kerrysdale Avenue (Monday 20 May)
• BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Gipsy Lane (Monday 3 June)
• Islam Information Centre, Highfield Street (Monday 10 June)
• Neve Shalom Progressive Synagogue, Avenue Road (Monday 17 June)
• Guru Amar Das Gurdwara, Clarendon Park Road (24 June)

I may not be ale to attend every visit personally, but I hope to arrange for a blog post on each of them. Watch this space!

FAITH FESTIVALS & FOOD: PETERBOROUGH INTER-FAITH COUNCIL

A short road trip with Rosemarie Fitton today, to take part in Peterborough Inter-Faith Council's annual "Faith Festivals & Food" event.

Rosemarie and I hosted a visit to Leicester by Peterborough Inter-Faith Council on behalf of Leicester Council of Faiths in September 2012. We said then that we'd be happy to join in any activities on their home ground, should the occasion arise. So here we are, in Peterborough Town Hall!

First item of business today is the Annual General Meeting, which is done and dusted in 15 minutes - including approval of accounts, appointment of new officers and all necessary vote of thanks! Then it's on to the presentations - ten of them in all, each of us having ten minutes each to speak. Rosemarie, being keynote speaker, gets five minutes extra. The theme is how form and function are related in places of worship of the different faiths. Speakers and topics are shown below, just as they're listed in the programme.

Welcome and Introduction Dr Jaspal Singh, Chair of Peterborough Interfaith Council

Keynote Speech- Religious places of worship and how their structure is related to function Rosemarie Fitton, Programme Leader Interior Design, De Monfort University

Bahá'í places of worship George M Ballentyne, Equality & Diversity Officer, Leicester Council of Faiths

Buddhist Temples and how they operate Dr Hung, Drolma Kadampa Buddhist Centre Peterborough (unfortunately, Dr Hung was unable to attend)

Christian Churches; how their structure is related to function Dr Clive Morton, Civil Engineer, Churches Together Peterborough

Hindu Temple and their diverse structure Dr G.L. Bhan, MBCHB, FRCS, Chair of World Council of Hindu Temples, Vice chair of Interfaith Network for UK

Jewish Places of Worship (Rev. Malcolm Weisman, OBE, QC, Minister for Jewish Memorial Council) 

Sikh Gurdwara; Their Structure and Operation Dr Daljit Singh Virk, Prof of Agricultural Genetics Bangor University, TV Presenter

Muslim Mosque; Their Structure and Function Dr Musharraf Hussain, CEO, Chief Imam

Local Places of Worship, Past & Present Gillian Beasley, LLB OBE, Chief Executive of Peterborough City Council

Multi faith Skyline of Peterborough Mayor of Peterborough Cllr George Simons, Mayoress Sylvia Simons

Thanks, presentations & buffet Lunch

Jaspal Singh, Chair of Peterborough Inter-Faith Council, ends the formal part of the meeting by quoting Harbhajan Singh Yogi: "If you can't see God in all, you can't see God at all." How very fitting.

At the close of proceedings, each of us is given a small commemorative cup in thanks for our contribution today. I haven't received anything like this since I was Dux of Bankhead Primary at age 11 in 1971. I feel inordinately pleased.

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (2,102)

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

1. United Kingdom 625
2. United States 520
3. Russia 293
4. France 266
5. Germany 106
6. Ukraine 84
7. India 58
8. Italy 23
9. Turkey 19
10. Poland 18

This week's total: 2,012 (last week: 2,150). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's analytics doesn't show the numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country and they don’t show the cumulative total including those additional countries, which is undoubtedly larger than the number shown above.

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 that map for "now" (i.e. in the last two hours), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time". They're updated each time I look at them.

SUMMER BONANZA AS CITY TO BE TAKEN OVER

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Summer bonanza as city to be taken over

by Adrian Troughton

A party programme to make this year's August bank holiday weekend the most spectacular the city has ever seen has been unveiled.

The bumper bank holiday bonanza, which will include the Sky Ride and the Mela, is to be the grand finale to an action-packed summer of fun.

The Summer in the City programme starts in July, with centenary celebrations at De Montfort Hall.

Culture vultures can enjoy a season of events with a Richard III theme, the chance to discover Leicester's art treasures in the newly-renovated Victorian Gallery at New Walk Museum and lots of opportunities to enjoy an event in Belgrave Hall.

The Mela, Sky Ride and the Sports Fest will form part of the City Festival – a weekend of events which also features an Old Town Festival and lots of children's activities in Orton Square.

The events – on Sunday and Monday, August 25 and 26 – will help make it the busiest bank holiday the city centre has known.

City mayor Peter Soulsby said: "This year is an opportunity for us to try out some ideas for a major new event which we hope will become an annual highlight.

"There will be sporting activities, free events for children, and plenty of opportunities to find out more about Leicester's heritage and culture."

On Sunday, August 25, Sky Ride will return on a traffic-free route through the city, with Sports Fest turning Humberstone Gate West into a sporting arena for the day.

Local community and voluntary organisations will be involved, too, with an event called "Our Leicester Day" taking place in the market.

The popular Mela takes over the city centre on Monday, August 26, with live music and dance, a bazaar in the Market Place and stalls in Gallowtree Gate.

A new festival which celebrates Leicester's heritage will bring the old town to life on bank holiday Monday, too, with activities taking place in Magazine Square and the Castle area.

On both days, there will be live music and dance on the Humberstone Gate West stage and plenty of activities for children.

But before the City Festival gets under way, there is a programme of events to commemorate the centenary of De Montfort Hall.

These events include a tea dance with Strictly Come Dancing's Len Goodman on June 16, an outdoor comedy day on July 6, live theatre in the gardens – with Babe The Sheep Pig on July 13 and The Mikado on July 14 – and a concert of popular classics followed by a fireworks display on July 20.

The best of Leicester's music scene will then be celebrated in a two-day event called Simon Says at the hall on July 27 and 28.

Events with a Richard III theme will take place all summer.

A stunning reconstruction of the face and head of the king will form the centrepiece of the Guildhall exhibition, from May 18 until June 9.Details of all the events happening in Leicester this summer can be found at: www.visitleicester.info/ summerinthecity

HALAL BURGERS OFF MENU AT 19 SCHOOLS AFTER PORK FIND

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Halal burgers off menu at 19 schools after pork find

by Fiona Dryden & Jonathan Pott-Negrine

Halal lamb burgers have been removed from 19 city schools after tests revealed pork content in a sample burger.

Halal products are used in 24 city schools, but only 19 of these are affected because the lamb burger was served there.

The burgers have been on Leicester school menus since January this year and are the only product supplied to the city council by the firm.

Councillor Vi Dempster, assistant city mayor for schools, said she was “appalled by the situation.”

Coun Dempster said: “The council took immediate action when it was discovered and the product was withdrawn from school menus immediately ahead of further tests being carried out. We will not be using this company again.

“It’s disgraceful that none of us can have confidence in the food we eat. We regret any distress this will cause families and staff, and would like to reassure them that robust action is being taken to address this serious matter.”

Regular tests have been carried out on behalf of the council since the horse meat scandal in February when traces were found in beef products across the country.

The council was informed of the results on April 18 and says it withdrew the product the following day to await further tests.

All other Halal products used in the council’s kitchens are supplied by another company, The Punjab Kitchen Ltd, based in Tyneside.

Tests have shown that they are Halal compliant.

Education bosses have sent out 6,000 letters to parents and head teachers at the affected schools this week to tell them about the situation.

Trevor Pringle, the city council’s director of young people’s services, said: “We will not be purchasing any further products from this supplier and we have made it clear to all our suppliers that this is totally unacceptable. We are taking urgent legal advice about the next steps.”

The Food Standards Agency has been notified of the contamination, along with local authority bosses in Doncaster.

Taylor Road Primary, in St Matthews, Leicester, is among the schools which received the lamb burger.

However, head teacher Chris Hassall, said that it had not been served in school since March.

He said: “The horse meat scandal made me very cautious about the food we were serving in school and regardless of its halal content, we did not consider it to be the healthiest option - therefore it was removed from our menu.

“I eat school dinners myself everyday and I want to be assured that children are receiving nutritious food that is what it says it is.

“I’m pleased that we took our own precautionary measures and that Leicester City Council has been pro-active enough to carry out tests since this scandal immerged. [sic]

“Muslim parents need to have confidence in school food and the council has been absolutely transparent about its findings.”

The council has been working with the Federation of Muslim Organisations (FMO) as part of its investigations.

Suleman Nagdi from the FMO said: “This is a shocking and unacceptable development. As Muslims, we cherish our strict dietary needs, which are well known and have been developed for well over a thousand years. The consumption of pork and alcohol is prohibited for all Muslims.

“This recent event will raise an issue of confidence in our community as to the measures and processes that are put in place that gives assurance of Halal meals. All due diligence procedures should be thoroughly reviewed and bolstered where necessary and should include intermittent and random sample testing which should encompass DNA testing.

“It’s hoped that this will not occur again and the community are now looking to the city council and our elected councillors for this assurance and to rebuild the confidence that has clearly been shaken.”

The federation has also urged the council to take legal action against the company concerned.

Mr Nagdi added: “We feel that such a prosecution would be in the public interest and would send a clear message to all businesses in this sector that contamination will not be tolerated.

These are the schools:

• Coleman Primary, Crown Hills.
• Crown Hills Community College, Crown Hills.
• Hazel Primary, in the Filbert Street area
• Humberstone Infants school,in Humberstone
• Humberstone Junior school, in Humberstone
• Linden Primary, in Evington
• Medway Primary, in Highfields
• Northfield House Primary, in Northfields
• Oaklands Special School, in Evington
• Shenton Primary, in Spinney Hills
• Slater Primary, near Frog Island
• Sparkenhoe Primary, in Highfields
• Spinney Hill Primary, in Spinney Hills
• St Barnabus CofE Primary, in Evington
• St Paul’s School, in Evington
• Taylor Road Primary, in St Matthews
• Uplands Infant School,in Highfields
• Uplans Junior school, in Highfields
• Whitehall Primary, in Evington