MEND Welcomes the Leicester Council of Faiths’ “Unity Declaration”

Categories: Past Event Articles
Wednesday March 18 2020
Mend, Muslim Engagement and Development, welcomes the wide ranging Leicester Council of Faiths (LCOF) “Unity declaration,” to which we are proud signatories.
Over 80 Leicester faith and civic organisations, councillors and individuals have signed this declaration to ensure a clear message is sent to ALL that the united community of Leicester will not stand for hate and isolation against any of our diverse communities.
It was launched by Fayyaz Suleman, chair of LCOF on 4 March. He articulated the reasons behind this outstanding action and advised that if no action were taken then division and hate will continue to rise. Fayyaz pointed out a number of incidents which included an Islamphobic incident where a muslim man was thrown out of a hairdresser. He concluded that Leicester is an amazing city with communities from all over the world that stand united against hate which is something that Leicester has done before and will always do.
Further speeches were made from all faith groups as well as councillors and the police force, all echoing the need to ensure the spreading of hate must be stopped for our communities to grow and prosper.
A young member, Dev Sharma also very eloquently pointed out that the declaration to fight all forms of hate is required to protect our future generation having to suffer this type of discrimination.
Shockat Adam Patel, chair of MEND Leicester, and a signatory to the declaration, said:
“I am proud that, through this statement, Leicester is living up to its history as a proud anti-racist City.”
Mend would urge the community to stand firmly together to ensure we take the next steps necessary to implement this noble declaration.
LCOF’s full statement can be found below.
LEICESTER COUNCIL OF FAITHS UNITY DECLARATION
DECLARATION OF “ONE UNITED LEICESTERSHIRE
“Recently we experienced messages and actions of individuals and groups that used faith and ethnicity and political views of people as tools to sow seeds of division which impacts ordinary people, including children in schools. We also live in a world that has a lot of turmoil, hatred, racism and oppression against minorities, which sometimes cause tensions and anxiety among the diverse communities in Leicester and Leicestershire.
We the undersigned as faith representatives, organisations, community centres, elected representatives, institutions and groups make this declaration as members of the Leicester and Leicestershire family.
We oppose all forms of action that aims to promote division and pit one community against the other.
We stand united in opposition to all forms of hatred and discrimination. We oppose any statements or action that claims an area is exclusive to any one faith or ethnic or class of communities.
We respect the democratic will of people and acknowledge that whilst people have differences in political opinions we should remain united in our commitment to work and live alongside each other in harmony.
We support basic human rights for all and oppose the action and words of people in positions of power or influence here and abroad that denigrate, discriminate and oppress minorities.
We will build and support the building of friendships with diverse people.
We will double our efforts to work and live alongside each other in peace and harmony and support organisations, including educational institutions and individuals that actively work to do this.
All of us, be it individuals, families, leaders and representatives of faith centres and non-faith institutions and leaders of civic and public bodies have common human values that bond us together as one human family.
In supporting this declaration of unity we are taking collective responsibility and are committed to make Leicester and Leicestershire a more united and stronger family of diverse communities, a ‘ONE UNITED LEICESTERSHIRE’.
NAME ORGANISATION/FAITH/INTEREST
• Lord Willy Bach Police & Crime Commissioner, Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland
• Rt Hon Jon Ashworth MP Leicester South MP
• Rt Hon Liz Kendall MP Leicester West MP
• Rt Hon Claudia Webbe MP Leicester East MP
• Simon Cole Chief Constable, Leicestershire Police
• Dev Sharma Leicestershire Youth MP (Member of Youth Parliament)
• Fayyaz Suleman Chairman, Leicester Council of Faiths
• Resham Singh Sandhu Life Member LCOF & Co-Chair of Leicestershire Interfaith Forum
• Dr Atualla Siddiqui Life Member of LCOF
• Suleman Nagdi Life Member of LCOF
• Father John Lally Vice Chairman – LCOF & Sacred Heart (Roman Catholic) Parish & Our Lady of Good Counsel Church
• Narendra Waghela Treasurer LCOF & BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir Member
• Minou Courtazzi Assist, Sec LCOF & The Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of Leicester
• Father Paskal Clement Leicester Anglican Diocese Representative
• Cllr Ashiedu Joel The Redeemed Christian Church of God Representative
• Manjula Sood Member of the Hindu Faith Community
• Harminder Singh Jagdev Ramgharia Sikh Gurdwara Representative
• Leon Charikar Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation Representative
• Yasmin Surti Federation of Muslim Organisations Leicestershire Representative
• Sulakhan Singh Dard Sikh Faith Chaplain & Member of Sikh Faith Community
• Ramanbhai Barber Member of Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir
• Smita Shah The Jain Centre Representative
• Harsharan Kaur Mann Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara Representative
• Julia Harrald Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints Representative
• Ian Vernon The Pagan Federation – East Midlands Representative
• Nikunj Bhai Shah Oshwal (Jain) Association of the UK Leicester Representative
• Tony Nelson Leicester Hebrew Congregation Representative
• Sunil Budheou Shree Jalaram Mandir Representative
• Rabbi Shmuli Pink Member of the Jewish Faith Community
• Cllr Rashimkant Joshi Member of the Hindu Faith Community
• Reverend Levy Gono Member of the Christian Faith Community
• Ramesh Bellur Member of the Buddhist Faith Community
• Janette Macdonald Member of the Bahai Faith Community
• Gajendra Chhatrisha Member of the Jain Centre
• Ramesh Mashru Member of the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir
• Angela Jagger Member of the LCOF (Anglican Faith)
• David Young Member of the LCOF (Roman Catholic Faith)
• Marcus Solanki Member of the LCOF (Anglican Faith)
• Rosemarie Fitton Member of the LCOF (Multi-faith Harmony Interest)
• Elizabeth Wayne Member of the LCOF (Anglican Faith)
• Gurpreet Parmar Member of the LCOF (Sikh Faith)
• Pradip Gajjar Member of the LCOF (Hindu Faith)
• Abdul Karim Gheewala Chair, Federation of Muslim Organisations Leicestershire & Chair of Masjid Al Falah
• Rt Rev Joachim Kreusel Moravian Church
• Yusuf Seedat Indian Muslim Association Leicester
• Zuber Hassam Oadby Wigston Muslim Association,
• Kartar Singh Bring Chair, UK Sikh Healthcare Chaplaincy Group,
• Mohammed Fozdar Secretary Usmani Mosque,
• Sanjiv Patel Head of Outreach BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir,
• Faruk Murad Islamic Foundation,
• Dr Manazir Hasan Markfield Institute
• Monsignor John Hadley Dean (Roman Catholic) for Leicester and surrounding parishes
• Shockat Adam Patel MEND (Muslim Engagement & Development)
• Cllr Vijay Ryatt LCC Councillor
• Cllr Sue Waddington LCC Councillor
• Cllr Mohammed Dawood LCC Councillor
• Mussa Saleh Dedza Welfare Trust & Chasa Muslim Welfare Society of UK
• Vibhooti Acharya President – Shree Sanatan Mandir
• Jaffer Kapasi Dawoodi Bohra Jamat
• Bernard Glick Member of the Jewish Faith
• Razak Ghumran Chairperson Muslim Khatri Association
• Cllr Ross Willmot LCC Councillor & Labour Police Crime Commissioner Candidate
• Molana Abdurrahim Diwan Lajpuri Founder – Community Radio Seerah 1575AM/MW
• Reverend David Clarke Member of the Christian Faith
• Cllr Lindsay Broadwell LCC Councillor & Member of the Quaker Community
• Lesley Vann Chair – Beltane Spring Fayre Group
• Tony Modinos Secretary – Beltane Spring Fayre Group
• Ushaben Rajnibhai Mehta President – The Jain Centre
Cllr Deepak Bajaj LCC Councillor
Cllr Mustafa Malik LCC Councillor
Sylvia Thomas Member of Brahma Kumaris Leicester
Ali Master Masjid Al-Hussain – MKSI Leicester
Other organisations & individuals to be added before launch.
For any enquiries, please email [email protected] or [email protected].