Interfaith Work
Diversity Dialogues
Usman is the owner of Sultan of Lancaster, a restaurant and food hall in the centre of Lancaster and his business is unique in at least one, and possibly two ways. Firstly, it is the only in the UK restaurant which incorporates an art gallery displaying works of art inspired by Islam. Secondly, the restaurant is the venue for Diversity Dialogues, opportunities for a wide variety of people to come together to talk and find out about each other.
Usman firmly believes that dialogue should be part of everyday life and something that happens spontaneously when people meet together.
Read the Full Report Here or Read the Press Release Here
Lancaster District’s Public Dialogue on Terrorism.
At a time when daily news reports of terrorist incidents are causing increasing fear in the public at large, a packed house listened as a panel of local people shared their views and experiences in a public dialogue, hosted jointly by NCBI (Lancashire) and The Sultan Art Gallery and Food Court on an unusually sultry September evening.Funded by the Commission for Racial Equality the Dialogues are an opportunity to hear different perspectives and to create a safe space to debate and dialogue about contentious issues.
Redefining Families
Are traditional family values breaking down? Does every child need a mother and father? Do we need to be more creative in defining family? These were some of the questions posed at NCBI’s 2nd Diversity Dialogue – Re-defining Family hosted during Lancaster’s Pride Week. Fifty people heard Cat’s Chorus’ rendition of Chumbawumba’s song Homophobia. Excerpts from a play written by Lizzie Hare called Beginning Solitude were performed and the audience were moved by experiences of family shared by panel members Lenny St Jean, Kameedea Brown, County Councillor Chris Coates, Luke Kershaw and Yehudit Keshet.