Story & Photos:Vivien Urwodhi
The march for diversity, faith and peace took place on 25th April for the sixth time since it began.
People from Sheffield marched from Fir Vale and Burngreave to demonstrate the unbreakable harmonies amongst all faith communities and backgrounds. This march united Christians, Muslims and Hindus against those who are putting blame and pressure on their religions. It had extra significance with both the British National Party and English Defence League trying to divide their unity.
The event and celebration began at St Cuthbert’s church in Fir Vale at 2pm. Inderjit Bhogal stood up in front of the crowd and explained,
“It’s not about talking about political religion or criticising others because of their religion, but we are doing this march to symbolise unity of peace and solidarity amongst each other.”
He added some instruction of where the rally of people would walk from and where it would finish. He also announced the march would stop at every church and mosque on the road, where everyone would pray, silently, for peace. Everyone walked a long way up Barnsley Road and stopped at each of the churches and mosques situated on the road side, ending at Al-Rahman mosque on Burngreave Road.
Approximately 200 people took part. This included the presence of vicar Louise Collins of St Cuthbert’s church, the event organiser Abdool Gooljar, the president of the Islamic Society of Britain, newlyappointed Archdeacon Martin Snow, the Bishop of Hallam John Rawsthorne, City Councillors and many more.
On the march, people opened up as friends to each other as they were making conversation together. It was a really dazzling and fantastic day seeing members of each different faith gathering together as a signal of harmonies and unbreakable unity.