The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Faith and Society, chaired by Stephen Timms MP, including Jim Dobbin MP, Sir Peter Bottomley MP, Baroness Kathleen Richardson and Lord Sheikh visited Birmingham to explore how faith based initiatives are promoting wellbeing and providing services in the City.

The delegation visited local faith centres including Birmingham Central Mosque, Central Synagogue and Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (GNNSJ) Gurudwara (Handsworth) meeting with faith leaders and City Council members to discuss the impact of faith on the City and the City’s growing number of faith initiatives.

The visit to GNNSJ and the Nishkam campus included a tour of the ‘Nishkam Centres of Excellence’, that began with a humble presentation of bouquets by the guests to Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the eternal Guru and scripture of the Sikhs. This was followed by a visit to the Guru’s Kitchen, where over one million free vegetarian meals are prepared and served every year to visitors by volunteers. The esteemed guests toured the faith inspired community cooperative for economic development (Marg Sat Santokh Ltd) before visiting the renowned new free school, Nishkam Primary School and then made a final stop at the Nishkam Centre to meet representatives from faith-based organisations, to explore their experiences and innovative contributions across the City.

The meeting included a discussion for organisations to identify barriers they face, whilst reflecting on the progress Faith Based Organisations (FBO) had made in creating interfaith harmony and community cohesion.

Stephen Timms MP said: “We were looking for ideas today and we found some good inspiration for our work in the next few months. I was very impressed by the Nishkam Primary School, I thought that was beautiful. The emphasis on teaching values to young children at the beginning of their school life is very valuable and impressive.

“This is the first time the APPG has met outside Westminster and we are very pleased that Birmingham has been the venue and the Nishkam Centre has been so hospitable to us, we are very grateful.”

Lord Sheikh went on to comment: “I was most impressed by how work is being done on the ground level amongst the community, which is appreciated. The Nishkam Centre is a role model and perhaps, others can follow what has been done here.

“We cannot be complacent and we must ensure that this cohesive work continues to be undertaken.”

Baroness Kathleen Richardson said: “The friendships that we have between as people of faith, the outcome of that must be a strengthening of society and the common good because that’s what we have in common.”

Bhai Sahib Dr Mohinder Singh reminded all about the significance of partnership working and a unified faith inspired approach. He said: “We have to restore the dignity and honour of religion back again in the 21^st century, you cannot park religion away. 75% of the 7 billion people across the world are directly or indirectly involved in religion or in faith. If you have faith, it means you have trust. If you have trust, you have hope.

“We also need to consider personal exposure as we humans are a function of our exposure. If people are further exposed to faith communities, people will see that faith is an agent of goodness. The UN Millennium Development Goals compel us to work together on serving humanity; we must form partnerships on common grounds between faith based organisation, Governments, local agencies, civic bodies and society.”

Birmingham City Council Cabinet Member for Social Cohesion and Equalities, Cllr John Cotton said: “The Council is working ever more closely with faith communities as part of our drive to deal with inequality and disadvantage and I look forward to showcasing that work. The very fact that the All Party Parliamentary Group is visiting Birmingham reflects the incredible work already being carried out by our faith communities.”

Daniel Singleton, National Executive Director of FaithAction, the secretariat for the APPG said: ‘We are delighted to support the APPG, we hope that though this group we can raise awareness of the fantastic work of faith based organisations that we at FaithAction witness on a daily basis. The whole event today was superb and the Nishkam team role modelled for us all what faith in action is all about’.

To view images from the day please click here

To view videos from the day click here

ENDS

Released by: Nishkam Centre

Telephone: 0121 515 4229

Email: amrick.ubhi@ncauk.org

Notes to Editor

1. The Nishkam Civic Association, more fondly known as the Nishkam Centre is one of the five Centres for Excellence created by the faith-based charity, Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha.

The Nishkam Centre is at the forefront of advancing community and economic wellbeing; promoting interfaith, intercultural, intercommunity dialogue; and championing social justice and inclusion. To deliver its mission, it has embedded and promotes active volunteering and selfless service for the benefit of humanity in all aspects of its work

Chaired by Bhai Sahib Dr Mohinder Singh, who holds two honorary degrees from the city’s universities, it aims to serve and uplift society through the practice of core values – nishkamta, or the spirit of selflessness, being one of them.  Inspired by spirituality, the organisation has generated a flourishing culture of volunteering, which has contributed immensely to transform its visionary projects into a reality.

For more information, please visit www.ncauk.org

2. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society was established in 2012 to explore the practical contribution that faith makes to society through the work of faith based organisations, identify best practice and promote understanding of the groups providing innovative solutions around the country. It aims to draw attention to the way faith-based initiatives are working effectively to serve the most vulnerable members of their communities.

A growing movement of faith based social activism is making itself felt in the UK in a huge range of projects – youth work, employment support, food banks, debt counselling – and overseas with fair trade, banks for the un-bankable and health initiatives on a large scale.

For more information on FaithAction please email hannah.walker@faithaction.net

Leading experts from around the UK converged at the Nishkam Centre, at the end of October, to share their understanding of and efforts towards dealing with Race and Hate crimes. Addressing the Coalition Government’s “Challenge it, Report it, Stop it” action plan, the conference shed light on many underlying factors that needed to be considered.

The day recognised the need for academia, public, private and voluntary sectors to stand together and address these issues from the local level upwards in order to create a changed nation. The entire conference showed that interracial harmony could only come about when individuals are content in their own identity and compassionate towards those that appear different from them.

The agenda was decidedly a personal one, with speakers highlighting the need to reconsider the way identity and culture is taught perhaps by creating a transient identity ideal for the global village; recognising the individual motivations that produce hate crime, much of which is due to fear; empowering “victims” by referring to them as a “client”, and dealing with hate crimes by using the tried and tested domestic violence model.

Event Speakers included:

• Prof Ted Cantle from Institute of Community Cohesion.
• J Boora from All Nations Consultancy.
• Dr Collin Webster of LeedsUniversity and Author of ‘Understanding Race & Crime’.
• Dr Paul Iganski of University of Lancaster and Co-ordinator of Hate Crime Research.
• Dr Mashuq Ally, Assistant Director of Equalities and Human Resources at Birmingham City Council.
• Police Superintendent Paul Giannasi, UK Ministry of Justice.
• Emile Peltier, Senior Practitioner Calerdale Youth Offending Team.

Director of the Nishkam Centre and opening speaker, Amrick Singh Ubhi said, “The theme of today is “moving towards harmony” – this implies we – individually and collectively – must task ourselves and give ourselves permission to do something different. As individuals we are the weakest and strongest links in the human chain we must strengthen that chain by empowering ourselves and others with the right values and so the chain becomes stronger”.

He went on, “ Nishkam means selfless service – going beyond yourself without any reward or expectation – today we need to apply that – we need to go away from the conference to be the change we want to see in others. My dharam (faith / duty) through our tenth Sikh Guru – Guru Gobind Singh, states: ‘Recognise the human race as one’ – the whole of humanity is one mega-race and one big family. Community says “No to Race and Hate Crime”

The importance of community cohesion cannot be underestimated. Cohesion creates stability, and allows a gain in confidence to all. We need to ensure adequate protection and safeguards of fundamental rights and provide equal opportunities, within both secular and spiritual fields – also imparting education / knowledge and important values within diversity”.

Amrick concluded with “Every human act has its origin in the mind. The human mind is a powerful tool with the capacity to be either one’s best friend or one’s worst enemy – I invite all delegates and those reading later, to be the change, participate and make a difference”.

Mr Cantle, who was on his way to launching his latest book ‘Interculturalism: the new era of Cohesion and Diversity’ spoke eloquently about the changing landscape and how multiculturalism and super-diversity policy were no longer relevant. He went on to clarify why multiculturalism policy had failed and that the era of interculturalism which was appropriate for a world defined by globalisation an superdiversity.

Mr Mashuq Ally commended Handsworth, the area in which the conference was held, for the community’s ability to unite against hate crimes in order to transform it into a safer neighbourhood. He went on to explain how Birmingham City Council was dealing with diversity and cohesion matters.

Moving forward, the conference provided examples of best practice that others could learn from and apply themselves. The consensus was a profound difference for years to come could be made by uniting, sharing our knowledge and teaching respect for all.

Whilst there is always more work that can be done, the conference gave hope by reminding everyone that great steps had already been taken towards harmony.

ENDS

Released by: Nishkam Centre

Telephone: 0121 515 4229

Email: info@ncauk.org

For further information:

Nishkam Civic Association,

The Nishkam Centre,

6 Soho Road, Handsworth,

Birmingham, B21 9BH.

Tel: 0121 525 4229

email: info@ncauk.org

http://www.ncauk.org

The following statement has been agreed by the non-Sikh members of the Birmingham Faith Leaders’ Group as their message of condolence to Sikh brothers and sisters who have been affected by the recent shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

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