News

More than 3.4 million Muslims are expected to perform the annual hajj prilgrimage to Mecca this week.

The pilgrims will come from a total of 181 countries and already about 1.8 million Muslims have arrived  in the holy city for the first day of Hajj with about 1.6 million local residents expected to join them.

The pilgrimage that calls on every able-bodied Muslim to make the journey at least once in their lifetime and this year gathering is expected  to reach its highest recorded numbers.

The pilgrimage will last five days.

A blue plaque is being unveiled this week to honour former Barrister, civil rights activist and Lambeth Councillor Rudy Narayan. 

The plaque will be unveiled at the former offices where Narayan worked in the heart of Brixton, South London

Born in Guyana in 1938,(-1998) Narayan moved to Britain with his parents and sibling in 1953 and became one of the Black communities leading Barristers. He helped set up the Society of Black Lawyers and was also a leading civil rights activist.

Conservative Party MEP Syed Kamall has helped over 100 entrepreneurs in developing countries to create wealth for themselves.

The member of European Parliament set up the Conservative Party Kiva Lending Group in 2008 and the 29 members have so far made loans totalling $4,100 – equivalent to around £2,600 – to 121 men and women in countries such as Ghana, Pakistan, Ecuador, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Rwanda.

Some weeks ago I wrestled with the idea of making comments about BBC's  The Apprentice, I am in that position again over another talent show -  This time it's the ITV's The X Factor - as the question of race again comes to the fore.

What was played out on one of TV’s most popular programmes last week is probably being played out time and time again in employment situations to the detriment of Black and minority ethnic individuals.

As protesting students took to the streets this week Marc Wadsworth remembers the many community uprisings and asks can Black people benefit from being more rebellious?

It seems Kayne West apologised for calling George Bush a racist and Bush replied saying that ‘he appreciates it, and ‘he doesn’t hate him’

The men appeared on NBC's Today Show, speaking separately to the host.

During a telethon in 2005, West expressed his views about the Hurricane Katrina devastation saying that Bush "doesn't care about black people".

An innovative governement  appoach to supplier diversity for growing and supporting small black businesses is required now writes Ade Sawyerr

Yesterday OBV and the EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Commission) held a historic reception and photo shoot of the UK's BME Parliamentarians.

Community campaigners and aspiring MPs from the OBV shadowing scheme all came out to celebrate at the gathering in the House of Commons.

Business owner Sonia Brown and leading specialists will host a Let’s Talk Business: Procure 2012 seminar to help local business skill-up for Olympic contracts. Here she explains the day and invites applications for the free event.

In the furore and uncertainty that followed the General Election result on May 5th one very important, even historic fact was sorely overlooked.

Parliament had nearly doubled the number of Black and minority ethnic MPs.

Not only was it the largest intake of new BME MPs ever - 13 -  but their numbers swelled from 14 to 27 literally overnight.

Today, with the support of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) we celebrate their success.