Tony Blair Faith Foundation

  Since September 2011, I have been part of a team, in Sierra Leone that is engaging Christian and Muslim faith leaders to disseminate malaria prevention messages through sermons, community activities and house hold visits.  Prior to the project, the National Malaria Control Programme had conducted a national campaign to distribute insecticide treated bed nets but some families were either not using the nets to sleep under but were using the nets for fishing, washing and making wedding gowns, etc.  I am now back in Sierra Leone continuing with the Faith Acts project

Tomorrow, February 1st is the beginning of the second annual World Interfaith Harmony Week as proclaimed in the Autumn of 2010 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The week has a simple mandate to be a time of interfaith activities that recognize the diversity of our human family of spirituality and to bring us together in fellowship and community.

  Almost a year after the Dubai Conference, 23 Face to Faith coordinators from a total of 17 countries congregated in London in time for the Coordinators' Conference on the evening of 29 January. I didn't know what to expect when Leila invited me to join last year's conference. I had barely begun my involvement in The Tony Blair Faith Foundation. We had just conducted an informational meeting with school heads in Manila, courtesy of Ian and Simmi, but we had no teacher training workshop as of yet. In other words, I had no first hand experience of the modules or the VCs.

Being asked to speak at Birmingham’s Holocaust Memorial Day 2012 event at the Town Hall, on behalf of the Sikh community was an honour and privilege. I spent a few minutes reflecting on the experience of the Sikh widow following the mass atrocities that hit Delhi and other parts of India in 1984.

Last Thursday, I was invited to give a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations on religion, extremism and foreign policy. We discussed the connections between religion, policy, diplomacy, conflict resolution, and the all-important and urgent issues of religion’s place in societies and democracies.

I better declare an interest.  I introduced Alex Perry to Michael Dwyer of Hurst Publications because he obviously had a great story to tell and, more power to his arm, Michael published his manuscript.  It even headed his list last year. Not bad for a book on malaria largely in Africa. Like any good journalist Perry can tell a rattling good tale in decent sized sentences.  As Time magazine’s Africa specialist, he had got malaria into a double spread on one occasion.

If you ask most Americans about Martin Luther King Jr., we will highlight him as one of the finest Americans in the history of our country, remembering him as a man who stood courageously for racial equality and social justice.  He overcame hardship, struggling in the way of what he believed to be right, doing everything he could to encourage and move his community and nation towards a better, more just future.  One of our favorite qualities of this inspirational leader is not simply his ability to see a wrong and devote himself to correcting it, but his dedication to buildi

The Tony Blair Faith Film Contest, Faith Shorts was full of adventures! It varied from last minute changes in the program to enjoying our daily breakfasts while looking over downtown London from the hotel. The process of recording and filming took one full weekend. On the Saturday morning, Blair, Shayan, Sahba and myself, along with some other youth, got together. We started with some brain exercises and a workshop on the power of art. The next stage was to choose a backing track and write the lyrics to the song.