To be presented by SACRE’s professional advisor.
Minutes:
Mrs Diamond-Conway introduced this subject by reminding members that SACRE needed to be open and transparent about its membership. Its purpose was to provide advice to the Local Authority. Its terms of reference (ToR) should contain its structure and the composition of the groups and members were invited to discuss, in small groups, some different ToR specimens. A member observed that the ToR needed to be flexible and reflect changes in demography over time. Members considered that the National Census could be a useful tool in determining what the current membership of SACRE ought to be as changes to the population could bring about the rise of new identities (for example: the rise of people describing themselves as “Jedi” now outnumbered several other long-established religions in Havering).
After the discussion, members expressed their desire for any ToR to be flexible so that a broad base of knowledge could be made available. Mr Siddiqui then stated that there were 72 groups in Islam. Of these, only one Group was true and the others were not acceptable. He wished his views to be minuted and stated that the Ahmadiyya were not Muslim. They could be described as “Ahmadiyya” but not “Muslim”. He added that his mosque – built up by him and stretching back to 1996 was the true Muslim representative within Havering and that it was wrong for other groups to be part of SACRE.
Mrs Diamond-Conway replied that it was appropriate for SACRE to acknowledge what Mr Siddiqui’s group had achieved for the local Muslim population over time but it was not possible to say who should or should not be a member of SACRE – that was the sole responsibility of the LA. Mrs Weston drew Mr Siddiqui’s attention to the provisions of the 2010 Equality Act where is stated that a person (or group) must not be discriminated against because:
· They were (or were not) of a particular religion.
· They held (or did not hold) a particular philosophical belief.
· Someone thinks they were of a particular religion or held a particular belief.
- This was known as discrimination by perception.
· They were connected to someone who had a religion or belief.
- This was known as discrimination by association.
She stressed that if the local authority were to follow his recommendation not to accept a religious group on the basis that he did not accept their beliefs they risk breaching the Equality Act. The Local authority could not refuse a place on SACRE to an individual simply because someone did not like or approve of their religious beliefs. Mr Siddiqui was of the opinion that there was no discrimination at all – it was simply a matter of SACRE inappropriately inviting other groups when the religion was adequately represented.
This led to a consideration about whether the current terms of reference were adequate and members made a number of suggestions about what they would like to see forming part of any updating of them. Mrs Diamond-Conway said that these would be typed up and distributed ahead of the next meeting so that they could be considered and amended or adopted if appropriate and incorporated at the March meeting and any decision recommended to the LA for approval.