Crime and Courts Bill [HL]

Lord Hussain Excerpts

Wednesday 4th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Basildon]

If the noble Lord reads Hansard and looks at my previous comments and at what I have just said, he will find that I acknowledge that sometimes a wrong decision is made because the right information is not supplied. Indeed, I quoted the chief inspector as saying that in 16% of the cases reviewed, applications had been refused on the basis of a failure to provide information, but the applicant was not aware of what information was required. I acknowledge that important point. If the Minister were to take that back to the UK Borders Agency and act on it, that would be an extremely positive step, so that all applicants are made fully aware at the time of application what information is required.

[Lord Hussain]

My Lords, may I raise one question? I live in a community where a lot of migration takes place and I can quote examples. However, I need some clarification from the Minister. On more than one occasion, applications from family visitors, who have visited Britain more than once, have been refused even though they have complied with the law and have done nothing against the law. They say, “Yes, we accept that the applicant has been to Britain in the past and that they have not broken any law, but things have changed and, on the balance of probabilities, we believe that they will not go back”. I wonder what sort of new information they will supply if they resubmit their application. The only answer I can see is a right of appeal, so that they can prove that they can fulfil all the requirements and guarantees needed to show that they will go back, as they have done in the past.

Minority Ethnic and Religious Communities: Cultural and Economic Contribution

Lord Hussain Excerpts

Thursday 24th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hussain]

My Lords, I apologise for being slightly late because of transport problems and for not being here at the beginning of the debate. I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, for securing it.

Britain owes its place in the world to the contributions of many people, of all races, colours and creeds, who have settled in the United Kingdom from various parts of the world. They have contributed to the economic growth and well-being of the nation. I work with many of them.

Owing to the limited time for today’s debate, I shall focus on the Muslim community, many of whose members migrated from the Indian subcontinent for economic reasons. Most of them were invited to work in our manufacturing industries in the 1950s and 1960s. They arrived almost empty handed. According to the Guardian of 28 January 2011, the Muslim population in the UK is now more than 2.8 million. Over the years, these communities not only carried out some of the tedious and physically demanding jobs that were hard to fill but contributed enormously in many sectors.

I will quote a few examples. According to the Muslim Council of Britain, Dr Mahmood Adil, the Deputy Regional Director of Public Health for NHS North West, has made a substantial contribution through his clinical, public health, academic and senior Civil Service roles, notably the development of the Diabetes National Service Framework and the preparation of the Department of Health’s toolkit to support good practice in international humanitarian and health work.

Professor Waqar Ahmed is deputy vice-chancellor of research and enterprise at Middlesex University. His previous academic career was at the University of Leeds as a professor and director of the Centre for Research in Primary Care, and at the Universities of Bradford and York. For three years, he was the chief social scientist in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, where he launched the ODPM/ESRC Fellowship and Studentship Scheme and the ODPM research networks.

According to the London Chambers of Commerce report of December 2001, one in 10 businesses in London is owned by people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin. A good example of entrepreneurship is Sir Anwar Pervez, who came to Britain aged 21 and became a bus conductor in Bradford, before opening a corner shop in London in 1962. He launched the Bestway cash and carry firm in 1976. According to the Female Entrepreneur Association in September 2011, the company is now worth over £500 million, employing 5,000 people in the UK and many more abroad.

The online newspaper Muslim View wrote on 23 May 2012 that Britain has more than 10,000 Muslim millionaires, including 53 billionaires. According to the Salaam Portal website, there are 100 charities in the UK run by Muslims. The list of Muslim contributions to contemporary Britain goes on. If the time allowed, I could have given similar examples of contributions made to our society by the Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and other communities.

Finally, I ask the coalition Government, when they are assessing immigration policy, to learn from history in order to implement policies that will benefit everyone in all communities in Britain.

Multiculturalism: Interfaith Dialogue

Lord Hussain Excerpts

Thursday 8th September 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hussain]

My Lords, I apologise for being a couple of minutes late to this debate. The Government have a clear responsibility to support greater interfaith dialogue in Britain today. It has never been as critical as it is now to recognise and value the importance of the diversity and richness of a whole variety of cultures which now make up the wonderful tapestry of modern-day Britain.

However, the Government are not the only body to have such responsibilities. Many local authorities are doing splendid work in promoting interfaith dialogue and supporting community-based projects that promote diversity, harmony and mutual respect. Those local authorities need to be encouraged to continue their support for such projects.

However, the Government should pay particular attention to those local authorities which are not doing enough in this regard. We must be careful not to use this debate to place the burden of dialogue solely on faiths associated with settled communities, such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism et cetera. This can lead to stigmatism and isolation within what should essentially be an inclusive debate. It is therefore just as important to get Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Methodist and other Christian denominations talking to each other as it is to get Sunni, Shia, Wahhabi and other Muslim groups communicating and promoting understanding.

My home town of Luton often gets headlines for the wrong reasons and ends up getting more than its fair share of negative publicity. At times, it gets branded as a stronghold of the BNP and the English Defence League; at others, as a hot bed of Islamic extremists. These images exist only in the media and are far from reality. I can proudly say that Luton is a shining example of multiculturalism and is able to display some excellent examples of multifaith dialogue and co-operation.

Luton has many multifaith projects which are run by the Luton Council of Faiths. It successfully organises an annual peace walk, where representatives from a variety of faiths walk together from one place of worship to another. It enables people of different faiths to observe the Holocaust memorials together. It holds open days in mosques, churches, Hindu temples and other places of worship so that believers of other faiths can visit and gain knowledge and understanding of each other's faiths. It holds evenings of learning, sacred music events and diversity weeks.

The incredibly hard work of Luton Council of Faiths has been fostered and encouraged in Luton by both Labour and Liberal Democrat administrations in the town hall for the past 20 years. These projects help to promote the whole process of bringing people together from different faiths and cultures and allowing them to appreciate the value of what each other has to offer. Luton Borough Council has also launched the Luton in Harmony initiative, which is a unique campaign to draw diverse communities together to work in partnership and challenge extremism. It is precisely because of the success of this hard work that extremist organisations such as the English Defence League and the British National Party, and Muslim extremist groups such as Al-Muhajiroun, enjoy very little support in the town.

Improving cultural awareness should also be higher up the agenda in schools. Education regarding faith and culture should comprise visits by faith representatives to share their beliefs and practices. In addition, pupils should undertake faith tours, comprising visits to key places of worship.

All initiatives should most definitely be community led and remain completely independent of local and central government control. Anything other than this approach is likely to damage the credibility of faith bodies and will most definitely hinder the great work already being carried out in numerous places across the land.