Midlands City: Faiths and Philosophies Together for Palestine

Abstract

I was born in Leicester, seventy-six years ago. In those days, when my parents were young, the city was a centre of manufacturing, famous for its production of hosiery – knitted fabric and garments such as vests and socks in cotton and wool. Its factories had tall smoking chimneys. Their workers lived in surrounding narrow streets of terraced housing, built in the red brick that is characteristic of this region. The social class structure was strongly marked here. The company owners, directors and senior managers lived in more spacious detached houses in the wider streets of suburban areas and in nearby villages, encroaching on the estates of the landed gentry.

This chapter is based on information received from the following people, to whom I would like to express my warm thanks for conversations that in many cases went far beyond what might be termed an ‘interview’. Alan Hayes and Michael Gerard of the Secular Society; Canon Dr Andrew Wingate and the Rev David Clark of the Christian faith communities; Annette Wallis of Leicester Quaker Peace Group; Anna Cheetham and Richard Johnson, at that time co-chairs of Leicester Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Asaf Hussain, lecturer in Islamic civilization at the University of Leicester and director of the Public Diplomacy Research Organization; Avtar Sadiq, Vice-President of the Indian Workers’ Association; Chris Goodwin of Leicester Campaign to Stop the War; Claire Wintram of Just Peace; Ismail Patel, director of Friends of Al-Aqsa; Jane Foxworthy of Leicester Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Jenny Pickerill of the Department of Sociology, City University, London; Liz Brandow and Lorraine Mirham, of a quiescent Leicester branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; Manzoor Moghal of the Muslim Forum; Minou Cortazzi Rowshan, Jan Macdonald and Avramesh Mahboubi of the Bahá’í community; Suleman Nagdi, MBE, DL, Public Relations Officer of the Federation of Muslim Organizations Leicestershire; Parvin Ali, director of Fatima, the Forum for Advocacy, Training and Information in a Multi-cultural Arena; Peter Flack of the National Union of Teachers and Leicester Social Forum; Zina Zelter of ARROW and Women in Black in Leicester.