Monday 23rd November
7pm
Committee Room 9
Houses of Parliament
London SW1A 0AA

Entrance is through the main entrance to the Houses of Parliament, through the Cromwell Green Entrance.

Rt. Hon Sadiq Khan MP — Minister for Transport
Ken Livingstone
Susan Kramer MP
Emily Thornberry MP
Jenny Jones — London Assembly Member
Dr Abdul Bari — Muslim Council of Britain
Rabbi Lee Wax — Jewish Council for Racial Equality
Bruce Kent — Vice-President, Pax Christi
Dabinderjit Singh OBE — Spokesman for Sikh Secretariat
Anas Altikriti — British Muslim Initiative
Billy Hayes — General Secretary, Communication Workers Union
Keith Sonnet — Deputy General Secretary UNISON
Diana Holland — Assistant General Secretary UNITE
Faisal Hanjra — President Federation of Student Islamic Societies
Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy — NUS Black Students’ Officer
Sabby Dhalu — Unite Against Fascism

Our most fundamental human rights include the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and cultural expression. It took hundreds of years of struggles, including international and civil wars, to establish the freedoms of religious and cultural expression and these must be vigorously upheld subject only to the proportionate protection of the human rights and freedoms of others.These universal rights must be defended for all groups in society.

In recent months, we have seen increasing instances of discrimination against Muslims, Sikhs, Jews and Christians, ranging from discouragement of simply wearing symbols of religious faith or cultural identity to the extreme actions like the demonstration in September outside a place of worship, Harrow Mosque. This occurs against the backdrop of June’s European elections where the racist, extreme right won seats in national elections for the first time in British history.

It is necessary for democrats, of all faiths and none, to come together to defend these fundamental freedoms, which are the cornerstones of liberal and democratic society.