Links between faiths

The British Chapter of the IARF, the World Congress of Faiths, Leicester Council of Faiths and Leicester City Council were co-sponsors of a three day conference at Leicester University entitled, "Multi-Ethnic Britain: What Future?" from 5-7 August. Participants came from a wide range of faiths and ethnic groups. They debated how an inclusive multi-ethnic society can be actively developed in Britain. Workshops were led by representatives of the main faith communities in Leicester and time was spent in their places of worship.

Dilwar Hussain, from the Leicestershire Islamic Foundation, commented, "If people lead completely separate lives and don’t have experience of other faiths, that can lead to prejudice. The conference is helping to address this problem by creating better links between different faith groups and putting the issue on the national agenda." Charanjit Ajit Singh, a trustee of the International Interfaith Centre in Oxford added that "we need to make sure that groups promoting interfaith understanding and those working for race equality are working well together and are helping each other."

The organiser of the conference, Rev Alan Race, said that "we have to be clearer about the possible roots of conflict between different ethnic groups and within ethnic groups." Rev Race agreed to go back to Leicester City Council and Leicester Council of Faiths and ask them to continue to work on the issues raised.

The report "The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain" written by Professor Parekh, an expert on multi-culturalism, would be of interest to IARF readers. Contact IARF Secretariat, Oxford for further details.