Club Meeting - Semper Eadem or always changing? Leicester as a multi-faith city -

Riaz worked with the Diocese of Leicester prior to his role with St Philips Centre and suggested that his work now is the most difficult following local and international events. The local situation is not easy and after the disorder in Leicester in 2022, official (led by Lord Austin) and unofficial enquiries (hosted by the School of African and Oriental Studies, London) are underway.

Riaz showed us a slide of symbols of religion and belief, asking us to guess their belonging. They included Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Jain, Sikh, Judaism and Scientology, for example.

St Philips Centre is located on Stoughton Drive North and is near to the St Philips Church on Evington Road, in the vicinity of the Masjid Umar Mosque; Christian and Muslim religious buildings across the road from one another….. St Philips Centre is a charity and is situated in the Parish of St Philip, in the Diocese of Leicester and is part of heritage Christianity. The centre would not exist if other faiths did not exist - Christians at ease with other faiths and no faith. It offers hospitality and friendship to all with around 12000 people engaged - mostly children.

The centre provides training to public bodies e.g. police, county council, schools, colleges, fire service and NHS. It hosts/is involved with interfaith groups, faith leaders forum, community events (including Come Dine with Me (Hindu-Muslim Friendship Meals), Safeguarding, Mitzvah Day)), international connections with Belgium, Lebanon, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway and USA, working with PREVENT and raising public awareness. A recent safeguarding report was damning for faith settings, stomach churning in Riaz’s words. Media platforms contribute to the issues, particularly when only one side of a tale is portrayed.

The strap line for the centre is Living Well Together. The charity has four values underpinning the work - Encounter, Trust, Understand, Co-operation. We looked at the the Equality Act 2010 and the protected characteristics relating to religion and belief. The act protects in law believers and non-believers.

A brief history of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland followed from Roman times, the invasions by Saxons, Danes and Normans to present day. During the 20^th and 21^st centuries we saw the arrival of Jews, Germans and Irish peoples and, post WW2, folks from the Caribbean. In the 1960s the population was boosted by people from South Asia and the sub-continent, central and eastern Europe. In the early 1970s East African Asians came to the UK and, more recently, an influx of peoples from places like Iraq and Somalia due to global conflict.

Leicester has long been lauded as a multi-cultural city where people of all faiths live together in harmony. The history behind this is based on twice migrants e.g. the Asian peoples who came here from East Africa, having begun their lives in India/Pakistan. Therefore, there was an advantage in things like language which bound folks together, whereas now those coming in are new generation migrants. This together with the newer generations of UK Asians and other cultures has resulted in a different culture/view of life in relation to integration and religion. Riaz showed us some comparison pie charts detailing the breakdown of the different faith and no faith groups from 2011 and 2021. The challenges and issues have changed over time with  happenings many miles away having an impact - both religion and non religion related.

Nationally, Leicester is the most plural city with Birmingham in second place. Newham Borough is the most diverse  borough with Oadby and Wigston in the top ten with the numbers of Sikh and Hindu residents. We looked at the many places of worship and religions in the city. The oldest church is the Church of St Nicholas, Leicester Secular Hall (the oldest in the world), the Jain Temple and Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara on East Park Road (has many facilities within e.g. library, museum and community centre). The Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (Hindu temple), the Masjid Umar Mosque (with golden dome), the Leicester Hebrew Congregation (a purpose-built synagogue on Highfield St., protected by English Heritage) has been in existence for 120 years and one of it’s Presidents, Israel Hart, was Lord Mayor of Leicester. Riaz challenged us to guess the faith of a number of celebrities - some obvious but the quiz demonstrated it was difficult to tell the faith of someone by looks or perception…..

Riaz went on to talk in more depth about the 2022 East Leicester Disorder. He asked what we thought had caused the unrest. Suggestions from members included: a cricket match, patches of unrest, people from out of the city causing mischief and politics of India and Pakistan. All of these are likely true but it was the cricket match that sparked the visible public disorder. Social media was also a big influence, skewing and amplifying events. The cricket match was the Gulf Cup which, in itself, was meaningless as a match. Individuals out of Leicester were stirred by the match but they were invited into the city by parties in the city. Politics in South Asia were relevant but this had happened over a period of time, seeds planted decades ago.

Originally, camaraderie and cultural ties, shared heritages bonded folks together. Cultural identities have become weaker over time with religious and politicised views  becoming stronger. The increase in faith schools, particularly in the city, mean children do not mix with more diverse groups as they would have done originally in mixed schools. Riaz talked to us about a group of 16-19 year old students he was addressing. He noted they sat in their ‘own’ groups so he gave them all numbers and asked them to group with those of the same number i.e. number 1s together etc. It is important to foster the mixing and to have an appreciation of others to prevent the unrest seen abroad, potentially tearing us apart. Resilience is weakening, exacerbated by seeing events elsewhere in real time by video, but seeing only one side of an issue and believing this to be the only view. Todays world fosters a free and easy way of life - do what you want to, when you want to and where you want to. Lack of confidence in dealing with issues by the police (for example) fearing actions may fuel more serious reaction is part of the challenging environment we find ourselves in. Riaz suggested issues are generational and we have ‘been asleep at the wheel’ believing, and being comfortable with, Leicester being the model of a multi-cultural city. He talked about ‘dining out’ on the cohesion of the city, but the build up of tension could be seen but there has been a reluctance to believe the narrative. We were introduced to votebank politics (groups of people in a single community who consistently vote for the same person/same party) dividing communities.

The work of organisations like the St Philips Centre is becoming harder and harder. Riaz feels the future is to work not only with faith organisations but with schools and colleges - an holistic approach with multiple partners. Splitting of groups in schools and colleges promotes learning of other faiths/cultures and an environment of give and take. Working below the radar and being selective with publication is more likely to achieve results than the direct approach. The issues are more with social media than with the media giants (e.g. television) - social media doesn’t generally show both sides of an issue whereas main stream media offers the opportunity to question. Riaz remarked the 2001 northern town riots arose out of undercurrents which we are now seeing locally. Most of the work done by the centre is with primary schools but, sadly and worryingly, the take up in the city is far less than the county; complacency by schools in the city thinking they ‘have it all sorted’. Approaches to offer services are made to schools but most of the invites come from word of mouth contact. We were introduced to the Religious Belief Roadshow - 10 faiths represented on one bus acting under the umbrella of a Christian name e.g. St Philips visits schools in the city and county. The centre fixes visits from schools to 3 different places of worship. However, some parents (all backgrounds) will not allow their children to attend other faith centres - Riaz told us they have the right to refuse but countered with they should be challenged for their reasoning - the parents should be spoken with to understand their fears in the hope of allaying them.