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Unity but not much peace at ExCeLI managed to get to Global Peace and Unity 2008 this year, for the first time since 2006 (and that, like this time, was because I managed to blag a free ticket off another attendee; I couldn’t spare £20 for one afternoon). GPU, for anyone who has never had the pleasure, is a big Muslim gathering, with an exhibition for Muslim business and charity, some talks and nasheeds, and this year a skateboarding display (?!), in a big exhibition venue. This venue was ExCeL in east London, which I found not to be satisfactory. In fact, I had forgotten what an awful venue ExCeL was (it’s irritating even to type, let’s face it). However, I did manage to make a few connections, which could lead to some media opportunities for me, so I shouldn’t complain too much, especially when the sister who gave me a free ticket is probably reading this, but there were a few problems that really need airing if these events are to be a success in future. (More: iMuslim, Suspect Paki [1], [2].) First, when I got there, I noticed that the Muslims coming in were having their bags searched, while the (mostly white) people going into another exhibition were not. I went through their side, and was redirected through the “Muslim channel” only when I told management which exhibition I was there for (i.e. they were not going to search me because I am white). Not only did they scan my bag, they insisted on scanning my umbrella as well! I complained to one of the security staff on the way out, and was told that the reason was because there had been a stabbing at the event on Saturday, and that is why the management had insisted on searching everyone. However, since that incident really was a one-off, and stabbings (particularly fatal ones) involving Muslims in London are really not that common, was it really necessary to scan everyone, rather than scan bags randomly? After all, any racist nut could have brought a bag in the other lane and left it in the exhibition. I intend to write to the management, insha Allah. Next complaint is that there was almost no food available at the event, other than the standard contract catering establishments in the concourse, most of which were not halaal. The excuse was that, last year, these same establishments had complained that the in-hall catering had deprived them of business. Worse, a search of the GPU website has only four hits for “food”, none of which is a warning that there would be almost no halaal catering at the event. People do not go to an all-day event and not expect there not to be any food available. If they could not provide it, they should have given directions to where the nearest facilities were; if there were none nearby (and I suspect that was the case), they should have found another venue. Third, the exhibition hall was noisy beyond belief. I really struggled to hold conversations with some of the people I met, and talking above the general noise and that caused by the nasheed concert and skateboarding spectators really made my throat hurt. This and the catering situation should make the organisers seriously consider finding a more civilised venue for next year’s GPU, even if it has to be smaller. I suggest Olympia, which is in the middle of town and not way out in east London (on a day when most of the north-south rail links across east London were closed for engineering, and only the Docklands was open) and there are halaal restaurants within easy reach (i.e. in Shepherds’ Bush, and there are Persian restaurants nearby; not sure how halal they are). Fourth, the timekeeping was abysmal. The one talk I really wanted to get to was by ENGAGE, the new media monitoring group, and that was originally scheduled for 3pm, but had to be put back, supposedly because the end of British Summer Time had thrown everything out of kilter. Sorry, but the move from BST to GMT adds an extra hour to Sunday, rather than removing it as is the case in the Spring. How could they justify everything being an hour late because an extra hour had been added to the night? And if there had been problems, they should have put out a revised timetable. As an aside, the Policy Exchange (the Tory think-tank based around the clique David Cameron belongs to) circulated a dossier (Word document) encouraging people not to speak at the event, which included among its evidence material sourced from David Gaubatz of the “Society of Americans for National Existence”, which made a lame attempt to penetrate Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia, USA, which was documented by Tariq Nelson (hat tip: Islamophobia Watch, although the story traces to Politics Home. This same organisation calls for “adherence to Shari’a” to be punishable by 20 years in prison, and for the US Congress to declare war on the Muslim Umma; their definition of “adherence to Shari’a” is:
So, Policy Exchange, an organisation close to the leadership of the Tory party, circulated a dossier citing “evidence” source from a bunch of discredited Muslim-hating cranks in the USA. They should really be exposed and humiliated for this. However, one of the speakers attacked in that dossier is the rabbi from Neturei Karta, and I do not see why that organisation seems to be represented at one Muslim event after another when they are thoroughly unrepresentative of their own community. Can people not see that Jews, including those with pro-Palestinian sympathies (like Independent Jewish Voices), would have no more sympathy for a Jewish rabbi who participates in an Iranian Holocaust denial conference than we would have for the likes of Massimo “Abdul-Hadi” Palazzi? Who do they think they are fooling? Anyway, why do Muslim events have to have speeches from priests and rabbis? I can understand the utility of having a couple of politicians making a few blandishments, but how often do our imams get to address conferences of other religions? Anyway, I really do hope that attending these events does not become a tiresome necessity if you want to work in the Muslim media, because they are noisy and, unless you like the person giving the particular talk or nasheed concert that’s on at any given moment, somewhat tedious. The event should be scaled down, there should be food readily available, there should be keynote talks from noted scholars or imams of various persuasions rather than a lengthy list of quarter-hour slots, and it should be in a less noisy and more accessible venue than ExCeL. However, I am glad I went, I made some worthwhile connections and saw some old friends I hadn’t seen in a while, but I really do not know if I would pay money to go to another if I could not get a free ticket and the circumstances of the event were the same as yesterday. Possibly Related Posts:
11 comments to Unity but not much peace at ExCeL |
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Copyright © 2009 Matthew J Smith - All Rights Reserved |
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It was the first time I attended the GPU. I had several free tickets, but only managed to bring my little sister, and only so on the Sunday.
I can’t comment on the talks, since 12 year olds get bored quite easily, so I never had the opportunity to listen to the speeches given. Plus I had arrived quite early, and most of the notable speeches were in the afternoon - not earlier.
I was primarily there for my sister’s sake, she’s young, and at a prime time to help inculcate a love of Islam. But all we could really do was sit in the childrens nasheed show (which mashAllah was sweet and well done), walk around the hall, keep on spending my money at the archery and look at the scriptures/coins exhibition.
I can’t complain, but after a while there was little to do. Arrived at 11:30 left at 2:30. I’m going to pass on the suggestions to some of the producers of the GPU who I know. I don’t think I can change their speaker choices (political decision making). But to suggest more interactive options for Muslim youth/teens. There were so many running around the main exhibition hall, such an opportunity would be wasted, if more thought is not applied.
“especially when the sister who gave me a free ticket is probably reading this”
Haha…
Asalamu alaikum. My heart goes out to the organisers of the GPU, who have the difficult task of trying to please all the Muslims and appeal to the non-Muslims. May Allah reward them for their courage and hard work! Here in Germany, we hardly have any Muslim events - our children are still laughing about the comments one of the ‘Allah Made Me Funny’ brothers made about the lack of Eid celebrations for kids (“Get in the car! Stop Crying!”). So I’ll start with a huge pat on the back and a masha’Allah for getting the GPU off the ground. I’ve decided to voice a few criticisms, in the hope that it may be useful for future GPUs (like your post) insha’Allah.
I can only comment from the perspective of a TV viewer. I’d assumed from the delay in the TV coverage of the main stage that something had gone wrong with the timing. Not knowing what was happening was frustrating because our kids didn’t want to go to bed until Native Deen and Zain Bhikha had been on.
When it comes to the speakers and performers, I’d prefer the organisers to give precedence to quality over quantity. I understand that for some of the younger people, the chance to see so many nasheed artists is the main motivation for attending the event. However - and I pray Allah forgives me if I’m being too harsh - some of the nasheed artists, especially on the second stage, were painful to listen to. I think it would be better to let the ones who can sing in tune, have a longer slot. I’m on the fence when it comes to the issue of music, but we know that it alienates a lot of the brothers and sisters, so why do this for the sake of including some very superfluous bursts of music?
It’s a similar thing with the speakers. It’s a real shame Sheikh Haytham wasn’t given longer to speak about Islamic finance, especially as it’s so topical. On Sunday I’d been looking forward to listening to more of the scholars speak, but again we had the delay in broadcasting. We gave up on the GPU at some point late in the early evening when they started broadcasting the artists on the second stage performing the same nasheeds they’d performed on Saturday. It’s not clear from the Islam Channel website if and when it will be possible to catch up on the things we missed.
I hope that the organisers of the GPU aren’t too disheartened by negative feedback (including my own), because these events take years of hard work and critical evaluation to get right.
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
Thanks for the comment sister Heather. I avoided the nasheed artists generally, as I almost always find them painful to listen to.
I attended another event in the excel centre on the sunday and was stopped and had my bags searched , and I am white , so also did 5 of my friends who I was there with.
I’m not religous nor do I believe in racism. Everyone has their own beliefs and should respect another person’s culture. But I just wanted to respectfully mention that bag searches were not just confined to the colour of a person’s skin.
You may be interested in the comments left in this thread: http://www.mcmexpogroup.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=195&t=9677
It sounds like the conference was a disaster for global peace and unity. Many of the kids attending the parallel MCM Expo are at a very impressionable age. The harassment and general rudeness exhibited by many Peace and Unity attendees can only have damaged the image of muslims in the eyes of the kids attending the MCM Expo.
There was surely rudeness on both sides of the coin though - I believe that this is down to individuals though and certainly not the differing cultures as a whole. I hope the culture clash has not left bad impressions on people. There were good points and bad points of the day, and I can only hope that the organisers at ExCel take the copious amounts of feedback they will have received by now in order to improve the events in future! I also pray that the stabbing scenario will not happen again…how dreadful!
You can view the ENGAGE presentation here if you missed it on the day:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8222868454007028039&hl=en
wa salaam.
Assalam-alaikam, I had to avoid the GPU despite being offered free tickets too. The first year I attended I absolutely loved it - the vibe, the excellent talks from statesmen and scholars and the bazaar, the only problem was there was no food. The following two years it lost its appeal despite tons of food stalls - the bazaar was expensive due to the extortionate amounts stallholders had to pay, there were too many nasheed acts and not enough quality speakers and the awards bit both annoyed and bored me to tears (imagine spending over an hour giving yourself awards when people just want to see Zain Bhika and go home). The use of music also put me and my husband off. If I want to hear music I’ll go to a concert, the whole point of the GPU for me is a guilt-free family day which is good for meeting other Muslims and perhaps learning something.
The other thing that got me was the mess - I was in the bazaar hall at packing up time and the mountains of rubbish were unbelievable.
All of that said, I do agree Islam Channel do have a tough job, as it’s one thing to say that you cannot please everyone all of the time, but its another trying to please even a fraction of Muslims at any one time.
I have nothing but words of criticism for the organisers of this event. I do not think it is fair to say something like “congrats for trying” and “its a difficult task”. Yes it is difficult - but when you organise an event with so many people going it has to be spot on - safety being the main issue.
I went to the earlier events a few years back and was badly dissapointed by the organisation and content.
The next year I got in touch with the organisers about volunteering at the event and boy was I in for a shock! They couldn’t even adequately (and safely) organise briefings for a few hundered volunteers! I felt that if they couldn’t do that they definately weren’t fit to organise an event and BE TRUSTED with the responsibility of thousands of people. I could actually see why things went badly - and I didn’t want to be responsible for something that could be so wrong.
Training/briefing for the volunteers was poor. In earlier years the volunteers seemed to be there for a free ride (many people just wanted to volunteer with the VIP’s) and the the volunteers who did want to help weren’t equipped to deal with situations that could arise.
Before I get ticked off for critising - when you are involved in organising an event on this scale - it has to be done right or not at all. The potential for something going wrong is immense. I think that its only luck that nothing worse has happened!
I would actually not go back - and actively advise others to not bother (I do not think islamic knowledge gained or peace enhanced by this event). I actually feel its my responsibility to stop people going.
As someone at the MCMexpo commented it is more like a funfair.
The fact that the organisers didn’t consider the implications of a clash with another event makes me cringe.
My advice to all is don’t go and to the organisers do it properly or don’t bother. There are many events organised throughout the Uk which are larger and much more organised - the organisers should employe a professinal events management company!
(ps as a side note when I attended the Islam Channel offices for the briefinh I saw boxes of credit card details (from online donations) lying around without security - any of the volunteers could have grabbed them. They were not moved until I asked staff there to take them away).
All in all less amateaur
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