Recently in Diversity Category

I recognise that by posting on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which came before parliament yesterday, I am dealing with a sensitive topic that divides opinion. I want to share my thoughts on the decision to remove from doctors the need to consider 'the need for a father' which will now be amended to read 'supportive parenting' where provision IVF treatment is concerned.

Depending on which newspaper you select today, with yesterday's vote the government either made fathers redundant, or struck a great stride forward in the pursuit of social equality. It seems there is a great divide between two quite opposing camps concerning whether women wanting IVF treatment, and those providing it should be required by legislature to consider the need for males to be part of the process.

This is unfortunately a somewhat belated blog on events that unfolded before the high court last Thursday. Unfortunately I have only just had time to turn my attention to the scandalous conduct of our local West Midlands police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that ultimately came to full light last week concerning the Dispatches programme 'undercover mosque'. On Thursday both groups issued a high court apology and agree to pay six-figure libel damages to company makers Hardcash and Channel 4 who first aired the programme in January 2007.

I know Roshan Doug has already written on the topic, but my focus is slightly different. I wanted to examine not the media, but the abysmal conduct of criminal justice bodies involved.

I watched the programme and found it gripping and shocking investigative journalism. To set the scene for anyone who did not see Dispatches (there is a link in here) had investigated a number of mosques run by high profile national organisations, almost exclusively all where adherents to Saudi influenced Wahabism - a variety of Islam that externally claimed to be dedicated to moderation and dialogue with other faiths, but behind closed doors preached something quite different. It was that which was the film highlighted, showing footage taken from covert filming. The footage demonstrated the most extreme forms of intolerance, bigotry and extremism. Those who watched the programme saw how firebrand preachers filmed without their knowledge told a mainly young male audience that Allah had created the woman deficient and 'needing' to be beaten for not wearing a hijab; that homosexuals should be thrown from the mountain to their deaths; and that the 'kuffaar' or (or non-believer) amounted to little more than dirt. They condemned the idea of integration into British society, painted British democracy as un-Islamic, and praised the Taliban for killing British soldiers.

I've written before here about extremist politics and the oxygen of publicity when the BNP capitalised on the 40th anniversary of the 'Rivers of Blood' speech to put across their dubious creed. But there are worse groups than the BNP.

Earlier this week at Birmingham University, there was a bit of a kerfuffle when an officer elect for the students guild promoted an event organised by the extremist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir. (Post article here, thanks to the excellent Ministry of Truth blog where I heard about it first)

I spent this afternoon with BNP leader Nick Griffin watching a re-enactment of Enoch Powell's infamous "rivers of blood" speech. Not for fun, obviously. I'm a political enthusiast, yes, but my Sundays are more likely to be taken up by the Hollyoaks omnibus than a tricky political tract and hanging out with the BNP.

It was work of course. As expected, the 40th anniversary of the incendiary speech that killed Powell's career and has tainted race relations ever since brought out the political people, from both right and left. And the Birmingham Post was right there to cover it.

Wonderful stuff.

Today, I read that a new organisation called UK Statistics Authority has been set up. The unique thing about it is that it's totally independent of our government whose figures, let's face it, no one believes. And they've only just put up the website this morning.

And, coincidentally, whilst I was digesting this piece of news, I also heard on the radio that an economic and welfare select committee from the House of Lords has produced a damning report about our government's policy and figures on immigration.

Last week we learnt that the white working class in this country feel it's a forgotten majority - a group who feels its cultural heritage is under a threat amidst the growing immigration to this country. Now without giving credence to this perspective, I can almost understand its concern - you only have to look at the density of immigration in certain areas in this country to sense what the white working class means.

Take, for instance, an area like Sparkhill.

It's a bustling working class area within two miles east of the city centre of Birmingham. It's the Balti capital with a dense Muslim community originally from Mirpur in Pakistan that settled here during the late fifties and early sixties because employment was available in factories but, which sadly have long since disappeared. Today factory work is sparse. And in addition to contending with unemployment, the local Muslim community has a history of social problems including, lack of education and language skills which make it difficult for the older generation to interact with their white - essentially working class - neighbours.

There's no doubt that cultural diversity in education is the core component of today's curriculum planning and therefore a central consideration for senior management. It certainly seems that - together with inclusiveness and widening participation - incorporation of such lexicon has become the integral to good education.

Now that's all very well in theory but in actual practise it can be a different kettle of fish.
Recently, for instance, I tried a daring approach to creative writing - an obligatory feature on the AS English Language and Literature (Welsh Board) that assesses students' ability to write in a particular form, style and tone.

Having done similar activities a countless number of times and, frankly, a wee bit bored with the predictability of students' work and perspective, I decided to give my class the opportunity to write on any subject they wanted.

Hello everybody, and welcome to my blog!

Firstly, introductions: I'm Roshan Doug - a columnist on The Birmingham Post. For a number of years, as a freelancer, I've been writing feature articles - mainly on arts and politics - for this and a few other publications both here and abroad. Recently - and sporadically - I have also written and presented a handful of documentary features for BBC Radio 4.

I am delighted to announce that as from today, I'm going to be writing my posts regularly - once a day at least - on various topical issues. I hope that the style and perspective of these will entice you to take part in some of the discussions on this platform. In regard to topics, well, they'll be determined by whatever happens to be in the news - regionally, nationally and internationally.

As for my point of view, generally speaking - I'm not partisan to party politics. I'm very much apolitical. But, of course, that's not to say I'm not political. I am - deeply. It's just that my own politics is made up - not by any specific ideological leaning - but by a concern to keep things within reason.

So let's see how we get on...

Now I don't know about you but I was interested to learn last week that the government's proposing to tighten up immigration laws relating to citizenship, visas and, the introduction of English language testing. It reminded me of an experience a close friend of mine had a couple of years ago.