Tim Farron has been writing at the Black History Month website about what the event means to him:
As a Liberal Democrat, one of my most deeply held beliefs is that everyone should have the opportunity to achieve their ambitions and become anything they want to be.
So many of the people who we will remember this Black History Month embody this ideal.
People like Winifred Atwell, the first black artist to have a number one single in the UK or John Kent the first black police officer. People like Mary Seacole, the pioneering nurse who overcame prejudice in order to go and treat sick and wounded soldiers in the Crimean war.
To me, part of the importance of Black History Month is that it reminds us of the invaluable work of so many black and minority ethnic men and women, who have fought discrimination and injustice to secure freedoms and opportunities for future generations.
You can read his whole post here.
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2 Comments
Although it is recent history, and whatever one’s views on our intervention in Afghanistan, I hope that as well as remembering those brave soldiers from our former Empire who fought in the first and second world war, British Muslim soldiers who risked and gave their lives for their country , in recent conflicts are also remembered.
I am thinking of the late Jabron Hashmi, the first Muslim soldier to be killed in Afghanistan. His mother will still be living with the sadness of the loss of her son, just as after the loss of one son, she also had to live with her fear for her other son who was also a British serving soldier.
I hope that prominence will also be given to the words of Private Shehab El-Din Ahmed Al- Miniawi who also fought, as a member of the `parachute regiment in Afghanistan and quoted in the Independent. ( Have more British Muslims really j joined ISIS than the British Army)
‘My home is the UK, that is the place that I would happily die and kill for.
If you narrow it down, we are not just fighting Muslims, we are fighting extremists, every culture, every faith…. has an extremist background in it.
That’s something that I personally feel should be eradicated, so that is why I am here to fight this war really”
Of course we should celebrate black and ethnic minorities that have contributed and fought injustice but we should also decry any person or country of any colour, race or creed who does not and not be frightened of doing so.