the City of Leicester: virtue in action

A much overdue dedication to the local authorities and residents of my hometown, the city of Leicester, for their stance against the EDL. As many of you know, they came to demonstrate in our city 2 weekends ago using the four Somali girls who had beaten a local English girl as an excuse to incite hatred amongst the locals. But instead of countering their vile actions with similar demonstrations and eruption of violence, which is synonymous with EDL protests, the local community put together a well-organised awareness raising campaign shown through the local and independent media about the Somali people in Leicester. Somalis also took active part in working closely with all the other communities to achieve this.
This was enhanced by the local authorities declaring a free library day on Saturday allowing youngsters to borrow and read books, dvd's and cd's for free and if they owed fines to the libraries, it was written off. Furthermore all the local leisure centres declared an open day where everyone could use the facilities for free.
This not only helped to keep people off the streets to avoid any potential clashes but it also brought people together from all ethnicities and neighbourhoods, symbolising the truly multicultural unity of Leicester. People also came together to work alongside the police to patrol locally owned businesses and generally maintained a happy-spirited sense of solidarity. The rare occasion when good truly repelled evil!

The week before last saw me wrapping up the second half term break session mentoring the Somali youth of Leicester, this time they learned about communication and presentation skills through making videos but they also engaged in workshops where they were familiarised with conflict resolution and engaging with the politics of the country. One learns much from the free-spiritedness of children and their sense of being inquisitive, an art-form we unfortunately shed as we grow into adulthood. Our children really are a beacon of intellect and my only hope for prosperity coming back to Somalia really lies with them, passionately.

Speaking of Somalia, the London conference overshadowed much of whatever else that was happening in the world on Thursday. As usual many senior figures were present and much was promised. Whether those promises will come into fruition is the million dollar question..

power of literature in bringing social change

A few days ago, I facilitated a social event that explored the issues of FGM within the African societies back in the continent as well as those here in the Diaspora. The issues were brought forward through a theatre play followed by a panel discussion. What was particularly a breath of fresh air for me was that the panel discussion included male Muslim scholars that were not only able to voice the teachings of Islam on circumcision but also speak out and advocate against the barbaric traditions that are often interwoven with religion when it comes to FGM.

Some of the interesting dimensions that I picked up on from the event were how vocal the youth of the African Diaspora were, particularly the Somali youth,in expressing their dislike towards this practice with many of them detailing their preference to the contrary.

It has been a long struggle if one reflects on the fight against FGM in the Somali as well as the African context but much has been achieved, many are enlightened and on the whole much of today's society is fortunately equipped with enough education to stop practicing this tradition. However the fact remains that it is not an eradicated practice and if we take heed from what some of the attendees of the event have related to us, FGM is rampant in many parts of the motherland and its practice is sacredly being passed on to the new generations.
Thus, as always, the fight must continue...