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Whistlestop post – first wi-fi since arriving, and it’s a whirlwind of a trip. The subject of yesterday’s conference in Multan was the rehabilitation and education of people who have served time for terrorism offences, but the conversations we’ve been having here inevitably range wider than this.
Flying over Afghanistan at dawn
My own presentation (on multifaith activity in London, particularly initiatives relating to violent extremism) suffered from a lack of Plan B when slides failed to appear on the screen, but everyone else’s were pretty sharp. I fared better the previous evening on a live tv current affairs programme. Press coverage in Multan was positive, in spite of frequent and passionate questions at our press conference on the shortcomings of UK and US foreign policy.
I’ll add some photos now and post some reflections later.
Mehboob Sada, Director of the Christian Study Centre in Rawalpindi, where we were welcomed for our first night, with Toaha Qureshi (presenting Multan treats) and Arif Malik, supporting an interfaith moment, behind.
View from the conference table at Bahauddin Zakariya University: 46% of the students are women. Presentations included papers from Lahore and Peshawar.
Control room at the tv studio: Toaha being interviewed (top centre)
Meeting the gentlemen of the press in Multan
The beautiful Bahauddin Zakariya University (the "Green University") which is opening a new Environmental Sciences faculty. I wondered aloud whether Caroline Lucas MP might be interested - turns out she would be very welcome.
Our friendly armed escort while in Multan - security is high.
With Tahir Qureshi in front of the beautiful and much loved shrine to Sheikh Rukn-i Alam, who is famous here for his support for the rights of women and girls. Tahir is rarely off the 'phone. But he does find time for friends on the other side of the world: he is sending my son a cricket bat (we visited together in 2007) - a fabulous gift for a keen sportsman and one which will rekindle very happy memories of Multan for him.
Lahore was a dust cloud when we flew in this afternoon. It was clear by the evening - we walked through the streets to our dinner destination with a near full moon high in the sky.
Multan's blue and turquoise pottery (from www.destoop.com)
Multan is known in Pakistan as the City of the Sufis and that’s where I’ll be next week, speaking at a conference arranged by my old friend and colleague Toaha Qureshi.
I visited Multan three years ago with my son and we had a wonderful time meeting the Qureshi family and visiting the mausoleum of Sheikh Rukn -i Alam, a widely loved C14th scholar. That was during the winter; at this time of year it is the archetypal heat and dust city (anyone remember that Julie Christie film?).
I hadn’t realised that Multan had such a multifaith history: Alexander the Great is believed to have captured it in 324 BCE and the Chinese traveller Hsuan Tsang visited in 641 CE. The Sanskrit Rig-Veda is believed to have been written in Multan and it was the first town of Punjab to be captured by Mohammed bin Qasim in 711. Under the Mughals, Multan was renowned for its architecture, music, ceramics and artistry. Before the British stormed the citadel in 1848-9, the Sikhs were in charge. Quite a history!
This time I’ll be travelling with four colleagues from London and Germany and the focus will be on education and on the exellent work which Toaha and his colleagues are involved with in the UK. We will be calling in on Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore and the programme is tightly packed with meetings from breakfast to dinner each day. We will be meeting senior academics at the University of Lahore and senior church leaders who are involved in interfaith work in Pakistan. I am very much looking forward to learning all about it.
Pakistan is rarely out of the news these days, so it will be good to talk to people who are not hitting the headlines and to listen to their thoughts and ideas.
Please keep in touch with comments! It was so helpful when I visited Bosnia last year – and let me know what kind of questions you would be asking if you were travelling with me.
Toaha Qureshi MBE - sporting a medal at the Faith Forum's football team's prizegiving!
Delighted to see Toaha’s name in the New Year Honours List today – very well deserved. The citation reads
Toaha Bashir Zulqarnain Qureshi. For services to Community Relations in Stockwell, South West London.
I’ve known Toaha and his family for many years. We set up Clapham & Stockwell Faith Forum together in the summer of 2001 – an all-faiths-&-none group which got local people together across religious boundaries. There were multifaith football teams, arts groups, round tables, festivals, peace-building and solidarity work.
Toaha has worked hard at Stockwell Mosque and at Stockwell Green Community Services looking after both the local Muslim population and the wider community, with a particular focus on education. After the London bombs and the shooting of Jean-Charles de Menezes at Stockwell tube station in 2005, Toaha broke off from an engagement in Birmingham to speak at the Faith Forum’s hastily organised public meeting.
He keeps close contact with family, friends and educationalists in Pakistan and does a tremendous amount to improve relations between people and institutions in Punjab and their counterparts here in the UK. My son and I had a wonderful time meeting everyone there during our visit in 2007.
Congratulations Toaha!
