BIG RISE IN CASES OF FORCED MARRIAGE, LEICESTERSHIRE POLICE REVEAL

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Big rise in cases of forced marriage, Leicestershire police reveal

Police are dealing with more than twice as many cases involving forced marriages as they were last year.

Officers in Leicestershire say the rise shows awareness of the issue has increased, and people have more confidence in coming forward.

The force currently has 84 cases on its system, compared to 38 this time last year.

The figures were revealed yesterday as Leicester hosted a major national conference on forced marriages and honour violence to mark the first anniversary of the introduction of Forced Marriage Protection Orders.

The law enables courts to stop forced marriages, to order people to hand over passports and reveal the whereabouts of a person thought to be at risk, and prevent someone being taken abroad.

It has been used twice by Leicestershire police since it came into force.

Detective Inspector Pete Williams said: "It is a very valuable tool for us to have. It does not involve a criminal case but it can achieve the same ends as that. It can keep someone safe and with their family.

"Not everyone wants their family to face criminal prosecution. They just don't want the marriage."

Justice Minister Bridget Prentice told the conference, at police headquarters in Enderby, how the orders had worked and what still needed to be done.

A total of 86 have been handed out nationally since November last year. The predicted number was "about 50" said the minister.

"That shows just how much this legislation was needed, and how much of a reason there was to have it," she added.

Lost in Loughborough

To Loughborough, to conduct an “Equality and Diversity Good Practice Healthcheck” with Voluntary Action Charnwood. This is one of the responsibilities I have as part of my duties in REDP’s “Mainstreaming Equality” project: to have written this healthcheck document, visit the different “voluntary action” bureaux etc in Leicestershire and Rutland to go through the questionnaire. The questionnaire would seem rather daunting in size (at some 56 pages) but it’s been designed in such a way that when participants answer a section on one of the equality strands –age (young people and old people have their own sections), disability, gender (and gender identity), race, religion or belief, sexual orientation – those answers can be taken as good for the other sections. Of course, each one of these strands has its own particular questions that don’t necessarily relate to the others (e.g. about physical access for disability issues, translation of materials in the race section). But for the most part, the questions are such that what works for one equality strand works for all. When I first went out to conduct this healthcheck, it took more than two hours. Now I’ve got it down to about 45 minutes. Just as well, really, as I mange to get lost in Loughborough and am late for my appointment at John Storer House with Neil Lambert, CEO of Voluntary Action Charnwood. When I get off the train, I decide to save time and effort by getting on the link bus that should take me to the town centre. But I don’t recognise the town centre (it’s smaller and passes by quicker than I expected) and stay on the bus all the way out to Loughborough University – and back again. Thankfully, Neil is an affable and sympathetic fellow who gives me a warm and good-humoured welcome.

IT'S IN THE GENES

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

It's in the genes

Looking at religion with, possibly, a more practical slant than the recent inter-faith week my impression is that:

Societies where a majority have a personal religious belief tend to prosper. Societies where organised religions are in charge tend to ossify. Societies where religious belief is largely absent tend to decay in an excess of personal self-indulgence.

It is said that the majority of people are "hard-wired" to believe in a deity. If so, then Darwin's theory of the "survival of the fittest genes" suggests that we should not discourage such belief. In terms of evolution, it is the most successful adaptation and the most highly evolved.

Russ Ball, Leicester

LEICESTERSHIRE & RUTLAND PROBATION TRUST: DIVERSITY RECEPTION

This evening, to the Peepul Centre for the Diversity Reception of Leicestershire and Rutland Probation Trust. This is the third year I've attended this event and I'm intrigued by a radical change in format. It's in a different room (the main public performance area) the catering is minimal compared to what we've been treated to before but, most significantly, rather than the standard PowerPoint presentation of facts and figures, outputs and outcomes, we're treated to a drama, "The Journey of an Offender Through the Criminal Justice System". This is done by The Facilitator Agency: one woman on stage acting out the story of "Amanda", who is involved in a violent incident in a pub, then finds herself going through the system - arrested, bailed, tried, sentenced, imprisoned, released, rehabilitated. At various points along this path, the story stops momentarily, so that representatives of all the agencies she would encounter, sitting as a panel at the side of the stage, comment on what would be happening to her. This is a really unusual and stimulating format, which allows a feeling of involvement and participation for just about everyone in the room.

SICK NOTE

Today I should have been attending a meeting of the Regional Infrastructure Consortium (RIC) in Oakham this morning with Laura Horton, on behalf of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). I should also have been delivering an afternoon's training on Religion or Belief to CCP in Leicester. But Gracie has swine flu and has to stay off school. Her mum, stepdad, her nan and I have divvied up the week among us and there's no one else can have her today but me, so she's been dropped off at my house. She was pretty rough two days ago when I last saw her, but she got the anti-virals quickly and she's quite a bit better today. REDP has arranged for the afternoon's training to be delivered by Manny Barot, who has worked for the Beth-Shalom Holocaust Centre in Newark. I've sent my own PowerPoint presentation to Manny and passed on to him the leaflets, postcards, bookmarks etc that I'd normally use on such an occasion. We talk on the phone for half an hour or so this morning so there's a high level of agreement on the format and purpose of the presentation. I'm happy that he's the one who has been asked to do this in my stead.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: IT'S ALL OVER NOW

Here we are on Sunday 22 November, a day of hard-won ease and reflection (which is the decorous way of saying it's been a day of flaking out). Nevertheless, today offers me the chance to present a few interesting facts and figures to round off our exhibition in Highcross for National Inter Faith Week 2009 and to offer a well-deserved thanks to all those people who played their part in making this event a success.

There were 99 individual slots on the rota; we had volunteers for 98 of those slots before the week started - though that one last elusive slot (between 4 and 6 on Wednesday afternoon) seemed determined to remain unfilled.

We gave out freebies (leaflets, bookmark, keyring, sticker) only to people who stopped (or slowed down) long enough to show their interest in the display; by the end of the week, we'd given away around 900 leaflets to such people.

We had a total of 57 different people volunteering on the stall across the week (59 if you count my children helping put it up on the first day, but I volunteered them!) This, in itself, was a testimony to the unity and diversity in action, right in front of the people of Leicester.

Highcross management told us to expect up to 400,000 "footfalls" over the course of the week; there was no way to count this, but I'm willing to to take their word for it!

So, thanks to all those who helped put up the exhibition, helped take it down and helped keep it going at all times in between: Ros Adam, Imran Ali, Dana Bagshaw, Grace Ballentyne, Harry Ballentyne, Irshad Baqui, Michelle Benn, Denise Bergman, Sumaya Budkovska, Raheema Caratella, Clare Carr, Rohini Corfield, Minou Cortazzi, Judith Devons, Amanda Fitton, Hannah Fitton, Monica Glover, Zee Zee Heine, Derek Hood, Doreen Hood, Laura Horton, David Hurwich, Farida Ijaz, Humeyra Seylan Izhar, Angela Jagger, Penny Jones, Kirti Joshi, Susthama Kim, Gwyneth Little, Jan Macdonald, Scott Macdonald, Lizzie Maitland, Sheila Markham, Ramesh Mashru, Stephanie Maud, Barry Naylor, Tony Nelson, Jai Parmar, Surinder Sandhu, Maureen Sier, Noel Singh, Ian Snaith, Manjula Sood, Chris Starbuck, Sudana, Gursharan Thandi, Kaspalita Thompson, Narendra Waghela, Abdul Waheed, Elizabeth Wayne, Simon Williams, Liz Wilson, Arthur Winner, Barbara Winner, Teresa Wright. If I have missed anyone out, my apologies - I'll keep updating this until everyone who should be included is included. Thanks to the management people at Highcross (Michael Holland, Suzie Wood and Steve Farmer) who were generous and helpful beyond all expectation. Thanks to Mukesh Barot and Melanie Wright at East Midlands Ambulance Service for organising their contribution toward the cost of the display; to the Faiths Forum for the East Midlands for their financial contribution too; Jason King, Alistair Bell and their team at printing.com in Charles Street for speedy, efficient, sympathetic and creative service in getting the display and website ready on time; to Gloria Jean's Coffee, for providing a safe haven (even that one day when I managed to tip half a regular latte all over my hand!) Their iced Bakewell tart saved my day more than once. And last but not least, an enormous vote of thanks to Julie-Ann Heath. If it weren't for Julie-Ann and her powers of gentle persuasion - which she worked on me as much as on anyone else - none of this would have happened.

I thought of doing this blog, just to cover this week. Should I continue? I think I will, for a while at least ...

INTER FAITH WEEK 2009: DAY 7

Final day of our exhibition in Highcross. Well, if I thought I'd lost track of the days, there really couldn't be any doubt that this is Saturday! Highcross is much busier, which shows itself in one unexpected way: while no one has bumped into the exhibition all this week (well, none that I saw anyway) today it felt like it had a bullseye painted on it! In one 20-minute period, four or five people collide with it, including one boy who almost runs right through the banners into the space in the middle and a young mum with a buggy, who hits one of the banners so hard, it spins right round 90 degrees!

Having got on the phone to the Leicester Mercury yesterday evening, a photographer from the paper arrives today. He seems only to want to shoot with the Christian stall in the background. When I ask him why he's doing this, he replies, "Well that's the religion bit, isn't it?" I persuade him at least to pull back a bit, so at least he gets the Buddhist and Hindu banners on either side of the Christian one. He takes some photos of me and Raheyma as if we're chatting and looking at some of the literature. In the end, however, the Mercury ends up printing neither the pictures nor the article I had sent in the day before.

An interesting visitor to the stall this afternoon: one Bhasker Solanki, a cameraman / Senior Producer for the BBC, who lives in Leicester. He's co-founder of the Rushey Mead Foundation, through which the school of that name in Leicester sponsors a school in Gujarat. Bhasker phoned me a couple of weeks ago when he'd heard about the upcoming exhibition, offering some material for it. We couldn't make use of it on this occasion but hopefully we'll be able to arrange for some way to use it at another time. We had a very interesting chat, which promises some good things for the future.

The very last visitor to the stall (when most of the banners had already been taken down and put away) was a woman carrying a wet umbrella, who stood right up against the wrap-around poster on the drum stand and got it all wet. This results in a great big splodge where the ink has run! Thankfully, we've been using these wrap-round posters as stop-gaps as they're the wrong size. We've just been using them for this week, and they'll be replaced by proper ones shortly. We'll have to be careful, though, when lending these items out to anyone - will have to give clear instructions that they should not be allowed to get wet!

The exhibition ends at seven o’clock. Two of us are able to dismantle the exhibition, pack it away and get it all back to the Welcome Centre by eight. It's raining cats and dogs all the while and just before we quit Highcross, staff are positioning big yellow buckets near the spot we've just left.

Here are some comments from the reflective journal, by some of those who helped out with the exhibition on this final day:

“I’m very happy that Council of Faiths organised such an event and brought faiths to public eyes. The place (Highcross) is the best place to promote community cohesion as so many people pass by with no interest or with an interest but look around and realise so many different faiths can live together happily.”

“This is the first time that something so visible for members of the public has been organised. I feel strongly people should learn about each faith and discover how they are connected to each other as they all come from the same source. Hope this is the start of many other events for members of the public.”

“First comment: people (the visitors) to Highcross are aiming at shopping and slightly less interested in stopping. However they do glance at the exhibition when walking. Secondly there were some visitors who were not tolerant to the exposure of LCOF during this week.”

“Much busier today, and more people stopping to chat.... One child, a boy aged about eight years, stopped and read each banner intently. Children this age seem to be hungry for knowledge wherever they find it.”

As well as this reflective journal which has been used by those volunteering on the exhibition, we've kept a visitors book in which members of the public could leave their comments. There are 17 pages filled with these. Some follow similar lines, with many examples of "Brilliant!", "Well done!", "Very good!", "Lovely!", "Fabulous!"and so on - welcome as they are. Some run a bit longer: "Beautiful info, people and display", ""Great idea to understand others and bring people together"; "It's great to see the multi faith. Religion is great - we can all be friends"; "Fantastic, an exemplary display of oneness, community cohesion and respect. Bravo"; "Great concept - I hope it flourishes!"; "Really good to see religions coming together!". Two visitors from London commented, "Good discussion. Should not be funded by taxpayers" (it wasn't, but they didn't leave contact details so we could tell them that). Some comments were left by teachers who happened to be passing by ("Good positive posters. I would love to have A4 sized copies for my citizenship teaching please"). We were visited by a number of schools, the biggest group being from the Leicester Community Islamic School on the Tuesday. Lots of young people wrote in the visitors book during the week. My personal favourite, from one of them, simply says "Thanks babes!"

National Inter Faith Week: day 6

The end is in sight. This morning I feel tired enough to be looking forward to our exhibition being over, but am also dreading it at the same time. I've really enjoyed this week. There are one or two things that I would wish had turned out differently, but only one or two (and I'm not prepared to share them publicly - anyone interested will have to figure them out for themselves!)

Tony Nelson has written the "First Person" column in today's Leicester Mercury, the sixth article the paper has published to mark National Inter Faith Week. Tony is a former President of the Leicester Hebrew Congregation and is currently Vice Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths. His piece is entitled "Learning about other faiths can curb prejudice" which is a nicely practical angle on one of the reasons for this special week.

Here are some of the thoughts of some of the volunteers, from today's reflective journal:

“Very nice encounters with several people including a group of Muslim young men who were very warm and supportive of interfaith work. Thank you – lots of smiles.”

“A sign of hope for everybody seeing the faiths working together. A privilege to be part of it.”

“It’s been a very interesting experience – watching people’s reaction to the exhibition. Some just glance as they go by, others stop and read and a few stop and talk. People seem to be walking with a purpose this Friday evening. Perhaps they have less inclination to stop compared with other times of day.”

“Very interesting experience – positive reaction from passers-by. More should be done like this throughout the year at different venues.”

LEICESTER MOSQUE SERVES UP A TREAT FOR HOMELESS

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Leicester mosque serves up a treat for homeless

About 70 homeless people, refugees and asylum seekers were provided with support, advice and a hot meal at Leicester Central Mosque.

The Conduit Street building held an open day this week as part of national Islam Awareness Week.

The annual campaign aims to raise awareness of issues in the community which affect people of any religion.

In previous years it has included climate change and childcare.

On Monday people seeking shelter were invited into the mosque for free guidance by charities including City of Sanctuary and Refugee Action.

Hot meals were dished up by the Pakistan Youth And Community Association.

Visitors were also provided with bags of fresh fruit and vegetables and toiletries to take away.

Islam Awareness Week is run by the Islamic Society of Britain and coordinated in Leicester by volunteer Sughra Ahmed.

She said: "It has been about people of faith and non-faith collaborating to provide a service for those in need."

Other events taking place have included a ladies' fundraising meal for Rainbows.

National Inter Faith Week: day 5

I spend an hour on our stall in Highcross between 0900 and 1000. Suzie Wood (Highcross’s Commercialisation Co-ordinator) is there, taking a few photographs for their own records. She tells me that she’s impressed by how organised and professional we’ve been. I’m glad that’s the sort of impression we’ve made.

Here are some of the things we’ve had on the stall as giveaways: a sticker (kids love stickers!), blue, credit card size, with our name, our logo and the motto, “We have faith in Leicester!”; a plastic keyring, plum coloured, with our logo on one side and “We have faith in Leicester!” on the other; a bookmark which is virtually a scaled-down version of the Council of Faiths banner, with our website address on one side. If we’d been able to get a little more funding for this week, I’d have loved to have done this for all the faiths banners. That’s something for the future.

I phone Noel Singh to ask if we can do anything more to get decent coverage for the week’s events in the Leicester Mercury. So far, they have only mentioned the upcoming football match at Judgemeadow Community College. We agree a plan of action between the two of us.

Today’s “First Person” column in the Leicester Mercury is by Resham Singh Sandhu, offering the Sikh perspective. It’s as forthright and focused as Resham himself with some insightful things to say about the present and some challenging things to say about the future.

This is the first day I’m away from the display. It's mostly been "hands on" all week so far, but not today. We expect a visit from the newly-formed Students Council for RE at 1215. Must find out how that goes!

The Council of Faiths is holding a social event this evening in the Welcome Centre as part of its programme for National Inter Faith Week. I can’t be there as I have a work engagement. I’ve made a game for this evening though, a quiz of 20 questions that require everyone to get up and move around, talk to each other and interact if they’re going to answer the questions. I email this to Julie-Ann Heath and Gursharan Thandi, who are in charge of the event. Must find out how that goes too!

Here are a few notes from today's reflective journal, written by some of those volunteering on the exhibition:

“I have enjoyed participating in this initiative and having the opportunity to engage with people and discuss multifaith issues. Both of the periods I covered were in the morning and fairly quiet, people generally sharing little direct interest, although those that have, on the whole spent some time and asking questions and sharing their thoughts. This, it seems to me, is a necessary part of faith work and I am impressed with the exhibition and the other inter-faith activities that have been organised.”

“This has been a really good experience, speaking to the public and promoting the importance of inter-faith understanding and awareness.”

“A wonderful event to be involved in. An opportunity for the community of Leicester to see what religion has to offer and that it isn’t about ‘conversion’ and ‘preaching’. I personally, on the two occasions that I was able to help out, had very interesting conversations with individuals, covering many of the diverse communities of Leicester. Some very soft, nice conversations and some a little more diehard and aggressive. However, no one I spoke to can deny the benefits of the faith communities working together to promote the opportunities for community cohesion in the city.”

On checking before bedtime, the Council of Faiths has 48 fans on Facebook.