WRITTEN ON December 11th, 2008 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?

I read with interest of the good interfaith work being done in the Deanery of Lutonwork

The Luton Review Group has spoken to the Mr Ranjit Singh of the Luton Council of Faiths. He has been employed by the LCOF for just over a year now. Luton Council of Faiths (LCOF) is already well established and has gained the trust and confidence of the different faith communities which enables it to tackle sensitive issues.

The Review Group believes that the importance of inter-faith ministry and work cannot be over-emphasised. It believes that inter-faith relationships in Luton should be a priority for the Diocese and for the Deanery as a whole. It also believes that particular support should be given to those parishes with substantial populations of other faiths.

Interfaith work of this sort is surely the best possible investment in the security of this country, given the role of religious strife in the roots of conflict. ANd Luton is a vulnerable place, as the Review goes on to explain:

There is evidence that the radical group al-Muhajiroun often carries out recruitment drives in Luton. Mr Rehman of the Council of Mosques comments, “It’s inevitable that places like Luton will be targeted by the extremists.

But whoops! Would that be the same Mr Ranjit Singh of Luton whose fingerprints are the wrong shape, and who is the first unfortunate to be deported under the Benighted Scheme?

Indian-born Ranjit Singh applied to stay in the country on the basis of a common law relationship with a Briton, meaning that under the new rules he was forced to give his fingerprints to the UK Border Agency at an ID centre in Sohlihull on Monday – the first day such fingerprinting took place.

Well, if it is, he wont be doing any more of that interfaith stuff now, will he? so we’ll be needing a load more CCTV cameras and armed police. That’ll keep us nice and safe. Lame hurrah for law and order.