Tales of a ParliaMentor

It’s not every day that I find myself sitting in the House of Commons Tearoom tentatively sipping tea whilst trying to name the MP’s chatting around me, or sitting in a Committee Room questioning Sadiq Khan MP, an Under-Secretary of State about the real benefits of faith schools. These are just a couple of the many fantastic opportunities that UP has presented me with. The main focus of the programme is for each group to work together on a project of their choice.

Under the guidance of our mentor, Dawn Butler MP; Deqa Abdallah, Cecile Patillet and I decided to organise an Interfaith week across our campuses – the LSE and Royal Holloway. The Interfaith Weeks were to be a series of events focusing on creating a dialogue and exploring common cultures through various different medium including speakers, musicians and exhibitions.

After months of talking to the religious societies and Chaplaincies, pleading for funding from the Students Unions and inviting the speakers and bands; we booked the rooms, distributed the publicity and finally the Abrahamic Interfaith Week went down with huge success at the LSE last week. Events included:

Lines of Faith: Muslim-Jewish Hip Hop collective bringing a unique fusion of Islamic and Jewish words and music with jazz, blues, reggae, funk and hip hop.

It culminated in us hosting a fascinating panel discussion: Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations: changing landscapes, chaired by our mentor, Dawn Butler, with speakers The Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Labour Vice-Chair for Faith Groups and Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Dr Ed Kessler, Director of the Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths.

We are currently taking applications for this exciting programme.

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